Every marketer knows that going after the right Target Audience is important, but we often forget Audience Persona. But wait… Aren’t they the same?

Target Audience and Audience Persona are both important concepts in marketing and communication, but some marketers aren’t focusing enough on one of them to ensure a tightly-strategized marketing plan. The forgotten child – Audience Persona. Both of them refer to different aspects of understanding and engaging with your audience. Here’s a breakdown of each term:

Target Audience

• The target audience is a broader and more general group of people who are most likely to be interested in your product, service, or content.
• It is based on demographic and basic psychographic information, such as age, gender, location, income, and interests.
• Identifying a target audience helps in defining the overall market for your offering.
• For example, if you’re selling baby products, your target audience may be parents in the 25-35 age range.

Audience Persona

• An audience persona is a more detailed and specific representation of an individual within your target audience. It’s a semi-fictional character that embodies the characteristics, behaviors, and needs of a segment of your target audience.
• Audience personas are created by delving deeper into the motivations, pain points, goals, and preferences of your audience.
• They help marketers and content creators to tailor their messaging and content to resonate with these specific personas.
• For example, within the target audience of parents, you might create audience personas like “New Mom Mary,” “Working Dad Daniel,” and “First-Time Parents Anna and John,” each with their unique traits and needs.

Successful differentiation of both increases marketing effectiveness

In summary, your target audience is the larger group you want to reach, while audience personas are the specific individuals within that group with whom you aim to connect on a more personal level. Developing audience personas can help you craft more tailored and effective marketing strategies, content, and messaging for different segments of your target audience, ultimately improving engagement and conversion rates.

Avante Strategies has developed a systematic framework to uncover who your target audience is and how to identify your audience persona. Contact us for a complimentary 45 minutes chat about how this can be carried out to elevate your brand.