Understanding your target audience and your buyer personas is critical. In fact, the most important piece of any content is the reader.

Even in fiction, readers and what they bring to the table help shape every piece of writing. When a person sits down to read a novel or short story or even a blog post about foodservice equipment, the experiences that person has had will inevitably affect how that piece of content is received. It’s human nature, and it can’t be changed. But if we’re smart in our marketing and content creation methods, we can personalize our messaging and actually use this fact to our advantage.

There are three main steps to the personalization process – identifying your audience, recognizing its pain points, and then doing something about it. And you’d be surprised to learn how many businesses can’t seem to follow these two simples steps, from billion-dollar Fortune 500 companies to your local mom and pop. 

Let’s look at a few examples:

One would think that a company like Continental Airlines would use world-class marketing strategies, so I find it hard to believe that nobody recognized the little mistake I encountered a few nights ago when I called to book a flight.

As I was waiting for a service rep, I noticed that the hold message touted over and over again how Continental just installed 180-degree flat bed seats in their BusinessFirst cabins.

Now this isn’t a catastrophic blunder, but it is certainly a missed opportunity that can be chalked up to not knowing your target audience. You see, business executives are the ones that fill the 180-degree flat bed seats, not the ones who spend hours on hold to reserve those seats.

Instead, Continental could have directed their pitch at administrative assistants by giving them the chance to:

Earn points. Not just for free flights, but with your company’s executives. Make sure they arrive rested by booking their next international flight in one of our luxurious 180-degree flat bed seats…

…or something to that effect.

And while you might be missing an opportunity if you don’t correctly identify your buyer personas, it seems like a bigger mistake if you do know who your target audience is but fail to give them what they’re asking for. Let me explain…

About two years ago, a local copy and printing store put a sign in their window that says NO FAX MACHINE, and the sign has been there ever since. There were obviously enough people walking in and asking to send a fax that it became a nuisance, so they put up the sign. 

But wouldn’t it have been a better idea to just buy a fax machine? You can get a basic device for cheap. How much business did they turn away the last two years because of that sign when they could have increased store traffic and profit?

It’s one thing to recognize who your target audience is, but any successful business will also give that audience what it is asking for. It will identify buyer personas, recognize pain points, devise plans for communicating solutions, and then execute the plan.

First class marketing campaigns are based on these principles. Everything else is like riding in coach.

Want to learn more about buyer personas and how to develop them?