Create a Pen Portrait and Better Define Your Target Audience

It’s a mistake to try and design your product or service so that it tries to appeal to everyone in your market. You just can’t do it – yet it’s a mistake I see people making all the time…

A training course which contains information suitable for newbie internet marketers just isn’t going to appeal to a marketer who has 5 years experience.

It’s absolute vital when you market a product (whether it’s your own or one you’re promoting as an affiliate) that you know exactly WHO you target market is.

I was watching a sales video the other day for an internet marketing training course and within the video were statements such as:

This is NOT for people who want a push button solution.
This is NOT for people without a list.
This is NOT for people who aren’t making money online.
This IS for people who are already making a full-time income online and want to learn how grow their business dramatically in the quickest possible time

The sales video was basically actively excluding perhaps 95% of people in the ‘make money online’ niche.

An unwise move to exclude such a large proportion of the market?

Definitely NOT! It was a fantastic sales video because what it in effect did was shout out to the remaining 5% of people “this is the product for YOU! This is the solution that you need!”

Your product or offer needs to be targeted at a very specific group of people.

You need to know who they are in order to be able to market to them effectively – and this is where I find writing a ‘pen portrait’ extremely useful.

A pen portrait is basically a description of the person who will buy your product; the person you are aiming it at.

It might be:

“David Smith. Aged 32. Has been involved with internet marketing for a couple of years. Last year however David quit his job to run his own online business selling ebooks and video information products. His business is currently earning $2,500 a month profit and he is keen to grow his business and increase his profits to $5,000 a month.”

I reckon that was roughly the pen portrait of the person the product I was looking at the other day was aimed at.

Of course your pen portrait might be completely different. Let’s say you’re trying to sell a product about “how to date more women.”

My pen portrait might be:

“Thomas Jefferson. Aged in his early 20s. Thomas has always struggled with his self confidence. He finds it difficult to talk to women in clubs or know how to strike up a conversation with strangers. He is an intelligent person but lacks self confidence. He wants to know how he can approach women and how to make them like him.”

Of course not everyone who wants to buy your product is going to fit your pen portrait exactly, but I find that writing it down really helps you to define who you are aiming this product at.

Who is going to buy your product? What are they like? What’s their background and where are they now? Where do they want to be? What are their interests? What are they good at? What are they bad at? What are their hopes and fears?

When you’re creating your sales page, you can then talk about the hopes and fears of your target audience. Carrying on the same example, your sales page might say “I used to walk up to women in clubs and practically freeze. I didn’t know what to say and I used to feel like an idiot. Then I discovered the secrets to boosting my self confidence. Now I find it easy to date women, thanks to the techniques I’m going to share with you inside my new product ‘Date More Women.’

That isn’t me btw – and I’m not suggesting your sales page would use those exact words – but hopefully you understand what I’m getting at

By being clear about your target audience and making it very specific you’ll make more sales. The 5% of the wider market whom you ARE aiming your product at will see your sales page and think “Wow – this product is for ME! It’s the one I’ve been waiting for and fits my situation perfectly. They are talking to ME!” Then of course they’ll buy it.

Define your target audience. Know who they are. It’ll help you be a more effective marketer and sell more products.

Comments welcome, as always (in fact your comments and emails are what really make my days