The One
The Power of Understanding Your Audience
Hello friends,
Today, I am going to show you how to figure out who your target audience is by using a framework that is used by businesses of all sizes. Understanding your ideal customer thoroughly can be an artist’s super power when it comes to marketing your art or creativity effectively.
This ‘super power’ is called a buyer persona, also known as an avatar.
And how will this help you? I’m glad you asked.
Buyer personas help you target people predisposed to love what you create, instead of blanketing the masses and hoping they connect with it. It also saves you money, as you can avoid wasting resources targeting the masses and focus your efforts on qualified buyers.
Some people love hard rock, others jazz.
Some art lovers admire Andy Warhol, others prefer Van Gogh or Rembrandt.
Certain readers get lost in Jane Austen, while others might like Haruki Murakami instead.
I think you get the idea.
Mastering audience understanding is critical for artists to connect deeply through their work, as business pioneer Peter Drucker, considered the most important management theorist of the 20th century, noted when he stated:
“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”
Yet many artists and creatives struggle to precisely define their ideal customer.
Benefits of Buyer Personas aka Avatars
Crafting detailed buyer personas enables you to get very specific in identifying and understanding your ideal target audience. This allows you to tailor your marketing, branding, messaging, advertising and experiences to precisely appeal to those art lovers.
Rather than generic marketing to a broad audience, many of whom may not connect with your work, avatars let you engage exactly the people predisposed to appreciate your style and subject matter. This results in work that resonates profoundly with your perfect patrons.
By developing buyer personas through demographic and psychographic research, frustration analysis, and journey mapping, you gain keen insight into your potential collectors’ desires, pain points, and motivations. This makes it much easier to craft targeted campaigns that speak directly to what matters most to them.
The outcome is the ability to turn casual fans into passionate collectors, or superfans who feel seen and understood. An intimate understanding of your audience helps foster lasting connections and loyalty. That trusting relationship is an artist’s most valuable asset.
A Little History
Marketer, Tony Zambito first came up with the idea of “buyer personas” in the early 2000s. He created them by talking to and learning from real customers, rather than just making up examples.
Zambito said buyer personas should represent the real psychology, goals, and thinking of customers. They should be like characters in a story of the customer’s real buying journey.
He did not think buyer personas should just be basic demographics or statistics about customers. Zambito believed you need deep insights directly from buyers to understand what really motivates them.
His approach focused on doing research to uncover the authentic thoughts, feelings and desires of target customers. This creates much more useful buyer personas than just making general assumptions.
Zambito’s method of developing buyer personas by researching real customers set the foundation for how they are used today. His work moved beyond surface-level profiles to capture the real person behind the purchasing decisions.
Many of the world’s most successful companies excel at defining and speaking to their target customer through developing representative profiles known as buyer personas or customer avatars.
For example, Apple maintains a very clear avatar as their ideal user — generally 18-34 years old, urban, college educated, middle to upper income, values individuality and seamless user experiences. They craft all products and messaging to perfectly match this avatar’s desires.
Nike thrives by marketing to the aspirational athlete avatar — driven, fitness-focused, wants to better themselves. Their brand taps powerfully into this motivation for achievement.
Starbucks built an empire catering to the busy white-collar professional avatar seeking convenient but premium coffee experiences. They optimize every location and offer for people wanting an elevated yet quick caffeine fix.
So how can artists borrow this buyer persona/avatar framework to better understand and speak to their own target audiences?
Defining a fictional yet accurate model of your ideal customers provides immense benefits in crafting your marketing and advertising to connect with lovers of what you create on a profound level.
Understanding Your Audience
Mastering audience understanding is critical for artists to connect deeply through their work. Yet many creatives struggle to precisely define their ideal customer. This is where embracing customer avatars can provide immense value.
A customer avatar represents your ideal buyer/patron/collector through a composite sketch synthesized from real customer insights.
When thoughtfully crafted from research, avatars enable tailoring your output and business to powerfully resonate with buyers.
In the next section, we’ll explore why avatars greatly benefit artists, how to bring your audience to life through avatars, and see other artists and creatives who excel at speaking to their superfans.
The Core Benefits of Customer Avatars
Here are some of the key advantages of developing customer avatars as an artist. Whether you are a musician, painter, photographer, writer or other type of artist, avatars provide immense value. But first an important note:
It is vital artists stay true to their creative vision, rather than producing work catering to audience preferences or what might sell.
Avatars should instead be utilized to:
Better identify marketing channels where your existing portfolio will resonate with fans. Avatars inform where to reach those who will value what you create.
Match collectors to completed works that appeal to their interests, rather than influence your work. Avatars are best leveraged after creative works are completed.
Discover publications, events and venues where your style will be appreciated, allowing you to share your art with your ideal audiences.
Buyer Persona/Avatar Examples
Many renowned artists demonstrate masterful understanding of their audience’s desires.
Let’s take a look at one such artist who exemplifies this, Taylor Swift:
Pop star Taylor Swift has cultivated an extremely loyal following of young female fans known as “Swifties” who see her as a relatable figure and grow up alongside her confessional songs about romance and empowerment. She innately understands her core Swiftie audience of teens and twenty-somethings navigating love, life transitions and finding their voice.
This super power of intimately understanding her audience through her avatar is a major factor in Swift’s meteoric success, with her current Eras Tour projected to gross as much as $4.1 billion. Swift leans into this avatar heavily through lyrics, branding, social media, and portraying a down-to-earth persona that resonates powerfully with her followers.
More examples of artists who understand their audience:
Banksy: Anonymous guerilla street artist. Avatar is progressive, anti-establishment cultural critics.
Kehinde Wiley: Painter of vibrant portraits of African Americans. Avatar is socially-conscious, educated art lovers.
Annie Leibovitz: Celebrity photographer. Avatar is fashion and culture lovers interested in intimate portraiture.
Shepard Fairey: Street artist behind Obama “Hope” poster. Avatar is young, activist urbanites who value social justice.
Christo: Creates massive public installations. Avatar is forward-thinking intellectuals who appreciate bold, disruptive art.
Ed Sheeran: A musician who has a tight connection with listeners craving vulnerability.
Wes Anderson: This director’s films perfectly capturing quirky subcultures.
Kaws: Sculptor blending pop culture and cartoons. Avatar is streetwear fans and savvy art collectors.
Ryan McGinness: Prolific pop artist and designer. Avatar is stylish optimists embracing his visual philosophy.
Neal Stephenson: Author writing for philosophically minded sci-fi fans.
This range of artists exemplifies the power of understanding your audience, and tailoring your marketing to profoundly resonate with those most passionate about your vision.
Crafting Your Artistic Avatar
Following is a process for bringing your ideal customer avatar to life.
Gather Demographic Information
Review previous sales and compile available information on current buyers regarding age, location, income range, education level and occupation. See if any patterns emerge around these attributes. Fill any gaps through market research on buyers of art in your niche.
I understand that there are quite a few steps in this framework. However, if you’re able to capture as much of this demographic information as you can, you will have greater insight into who you should market your creative output to. Every piece of information helps connect you with an audience interested in what you’re creating.
Don’t feel overwhelmed. Start with whatever details you can gather. Even basic demographics provide some direction to understanding your audience better. Build on that over time as you uncover more insights through research and engaging directly with buyers.
Paint a Picture of Their Lifestyle
Go beyond demographics to understand their goals and motivations. As Zambito emphasized, grasp what drives buyer behavior.
What does their routine look like on weekdays/weekends?
What type of area do they live in? Urban or rural?
What brands and products do they use?
What are their interests, hobbies and cultural activities?
What social causes and issues matter to them?
Uncover Their Motivations
Delve deeper into the psychographics driving their art purchases:
What are their values and principles?
What personal goals are they pursuing?
Why does collecting your art hold significance for them?
What feelings do they want your art to evoke?
Map Their Buyer’s Journey
Consider how they discover and purchase art to map the narrative of their buyer’s journey. Zambito focused on representing the story of the customer’s experience.
Where do they find new artists? Galleries? Art fairs? Amazon? Podcasts? Social media? Referrals?
What sparks their initial interest? Style? Subject matter? Reputation?
How do they evaluate and select pieces to purchase?
How often do they purchase new art, music, books?
Do they buy in large collections or individual sales?
Identify Their Pain Points
What frustrations do they have that your art can resolve? For example:
Feeling overwhelmed by options when attending art fairs
Wanting to buy original work but unsure where to start
Seeking large statement pieces but only finding small designs
Bringing Your Avatar to Life
Compile research into 1-2 page profiles defining demographic, psychographic and behavioral elements.
As Zambito highlighted, direct insights from buyers are essential rather than assumptions.
Give each avatar a name and photo.
Create multiple avatars if needed to cover your audience spectrum. Refer back when making any branding or marketing decisions.
Actionable Best Practices
Follow these 6 steps for highly effective customer avatars:
Draw inspiration from real people who embody your avatar.
Avoid stereotypes. Showcase diversity within your audience.
Be highly specific in profiling their lifestyle, motivations and creative tastes.
Speak directly with buyers and collectors who love your work.
Have multiple avatars covering spectrums within your broader audience.
Revisit your avatars continually as you gather more customer insights.
Mastering Your Audience
Defining your buyers, collectors or patrons through intimate avatars allows crafting your marketing and business precisely for their sensibilities. This fosters profound connections and devotion from your ideal audience.
So embrace buyer personas and avatars to view your creative work through the eyes of those who love it most.
Let your audience’s passion fuel the evolution of your style and brand. Deep customer understanding builds an unshakable foundation of lifelong superfans.
That’s it for this issue of The Intentional Artist.
As always, if this resonated or was of help, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Artfully yours,
Chris
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