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To make all of your advertising dollars count and market to your target audience, you first have to research two to four key consumer types. Once you have established who your general audience is, then you can determine what types of consumers you want to target. To create a user persona, develop a fictional character with a visual focus on who he or she is, provide a picture, age, occupation, and a description about their personal lives and daily habits. Once completed, tape your user personas up at your desk and begin figuring out the strategy to market to that particular type of person(s).

Creating user personas is helpful when deciding the most effective way to communicate with your consumer. For all elderly personas, you may choose newspaper and/or other forms of mailed material. When you get into the early 30s-or middle 20s, you may choose a more interactive approach to gain millennial-type attention. High school and pre-college age adults (Generation Z) are less active on social media because it hinders their trust – consequently, leading them to pay more attention to traditional forms of media.

As the recent subject of a user persona, let me give you a little insight into my daily habits. My user persona includes: female, late 20s, full-time employee and mother. With that being said, I’m a busy person and most of the information that reaches me is through Facebook or online new sources. I watch very little TV, but when I do it’s on DVR so I can fast forward through commercials. The most effective advertising to me would be a flashy direct mail piece, e-marketing, or social ads. To grab my attention, make it quick, short, and to the point. Tell me what you’re selling and my benefit of purchasing. When it comes to impulse buying for me it’s all in how well it is designed and/or packaged.

There are multitudes of ways to target your consumer. Knowing the user personas will help you reach your target effectively without wasting valuable advertising dollars.

Jessica McClure

Author Jessica McClure


Jessica is a designer specialing in web graphics, branding and printing who turns abstract ideas into stunning graphics. In her spare time, she enjoys sports and the great outdoors.

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