If You’re Marketing to Everyone, You’re Marketing to No One

Imagine if Sephora targeted a 35-year-old father with two sons in its latest campaign… Or if a local beach-house-themed furniture store tried to reach a mountain cabin owner in Utah. How likely would these brands be to succeed? Probably not very. That’s exactly why defining the right buyer persona plays such a critical role for brands.

A buyer persona is essentially your ideal customer profile. For example, if you owned a local beach-house-themed furniture store, would you really target homeowners in Utah? Probably not. At this point, buyer personas help define the right audience that actually fits your brand and increases the likelihood of success. When you reach the right audience with the right message, you not only boost customer loyalty but also strengthen brand awareness.

This approach reminds me of a quote:

“If you’re marketing to everyone, you’re marketing to no one.”

How We Build Buyer Persona

To identify your ideal customer, there are some key dimensions to consider:

• Demographics: Age, gender, location, income..
• Psychographics: Interests, values, goals..
• Professional Information: Occupation, industry..
• Behavioral Data: Goals, perspectives, buying behavior..

Some powerful questions to guide persona development include:

• Who are we speaking to?
• What motivates them?
• How can we engage them meaningfully?

With accurate questions and personas, brands can:

• Build meaningful relationships, increasing customer loyalty.
• Avoid wasted marketing efforts.
• Create measurable marketing impact.
• Reach higher conversion rate.

Real-World Applications

According to HubSpot, buyer personas help you tailor your product’s messaging to its target audience. Marketers who offer customers a personalized experience are 215% more likely to say their marketing strategies are effective than those who don’t.

• Sephora’s loyalty program, Beauty Insider, segments customers into personalized groups. It identifies who is passionate about skincare and who is more focused on makeup, then delivers tailored offers accordingly. According to McKinsey, in 2020, the loyalty program had around 25 million members.
  
  
• Netflix shows people hyper-personalized content recommendations. According to Wired, more than 80% of the TV shows people watch on Netflix are discovered through the platform’s recommendation system. Brand generates lists based on views, watch history, and ratings. The way they approach the subscribers keeps them #1 in the streaming app.

Final Thoughts

Buyer personas are powerful tools to boost brand awareness and customer loyalty. As seen on Netflix and Sephora cases, the right message to the right audience creates a leverage effect. 

Buyer personas enable brands to:

• Craft personalized messages to the right customer segment.
• Build long-term relationships through trust.
• Drive measurable outcomes.

Sources

• HubSpot (2024). HubSpot Blog Marketing Industry Trends Report.
• McKinsey & Company (2020). Personalizing the customer experience: Driving differentiation in retail.
• Wired (2024). How Do Netflix’s Algorithms Work? Machine Learning Helps to Predict What Viewers Will Like.

Dilanur Pekgil