Photo courtesy Cincinnati and Hamilton County Public Library

Terrance is a senior in high school, with a bright future ahead of him.

He’s gregarious, curious, and extroverted. He lives with his dad and two younger siblings. His dad is managing to make ends meet, but there isn’t a lot of money left over for things like vacations or extra-curricular activities.

Terrance doesn’t have a car, but he’s been using public transportation all his life. He really wants to go to college. He’d be the first in this family to go. But the application, the financial aid paperwork, interviewing, and essay writing required for admission feels overwhelming to him.

Terrance isn’t a real kid… not exactly. He was a target persona I built when I worked at a library.

Terrance was based on real teens who used our library. And when I read that description, I could clearly see Terrance in my mind. (I still can–can you?) More importantly, I could find the words I needed to say in library promotions that would reach Terrance.

Terrance helped me figure out how to create effective library promotions.

What is a target persona and why do we need them?

A target persona is a fictional profile of a person who represents one of your key target audience groups, based on the characteristics of your community members.

Target personas help us get granular about our target audience. Getting granular helps us create promotions that let our community members know that we see and hear them.

Simply put, we can use target personas to create marketing that convinces those community members to use the library. 

A target persona is not supposed to detail one specific person. It should never be based on one specific individual. It’s a composite sketch, like Terrance, that should reflect most people it is supposed to represent.

How to build target personas for your library

Your community members can be broken down into core segments, or groups, based on their wants, motivations, and the problems they need your library’s help to solve. Those are your target personas.

The number of target personas your library will need will depend entirely on your library’s strategic goals and your marketing goals. Some libraries only need 2 or 3 target personas. Some will need more.

The first thing your library will do is gather demographic information about the community or target group for which you are building a persona. You may do this by researching census data or other data available from your city or town government. Settle on a general answer to these questions:

  • Age range
  • Income
  • Education level
  • Living situation (Married, single, living with multiple generations in one house, living in an apartment, unhoused, etc.)
  • Transportation situation (Do they have their own car or do they use public transit?)
  • Current library usage

Then you want to add depth to your persona. Write down answers to these questions:

  • Their motivations.  Are they career or money-motivated? Are they family-focused?
  • Their attitudes. Can you identify their perspective on social issues like environmental welfare, human rights, or intellectual freedom?
  • Their pain points: What problems are they looking to solve?
  • Their aspirations for the future.
  • The activities they participate in, both inside and outside of the library.
  • Their religious and political affiliation.   

Using ChatGPT to create target personas

Once you have gathered as much information as you can on your target audience by answering the questions above, it’s time to create your target persona. ChatGPT can help you get started.

Let’s say you want to build a target persona for someone who might use your library’s small business center.

Put all the information you have on your target persona together in a description and feed it into ChatGPT like this:

“Pretend you are a marketer. Build me a target audience persona for a person who is in their mid-50s, who was laid off from the job they held for more than 20 years. This person has always wanted to start their own business, and they figure now is the time. But they do not have a business or marketing degree, and they have very little money. They are single and are living off savings now. They do have a bachelor’s degree in English. They have their own car. They use the library to check out books about once a month. They could use library resources to help them start their small business.”

ChatGPT generated a target persona for “John Anderson, a resilient midlife entrepreneur on a mission!” ChatGPT assigned characteristics that I hadn’t considered, like tech savviness and media consumption.

Here’s the rest of the ChatGPT-generated target persona for John Anderson.

Goals and Motivations

  • Fulfilling a lifelong dream of starting his own business.
  • Achieving financial stability and independence.
  • Creating a legacy and finding personal fulfillment through his work.

Challenges

  • Limited budget and financial resources.
  • Lack of formal education in business and marketing.
  • Navigating the challenges of entrepreneurship later in life.

 Hobbies and Interests

  • Enjoys reading, especially classic literature and business-related books.
  • Values community engagement and local events.
  • Appreciates the arts and cultural activities.

 Media Consumption

  • Relies on traditional media like newspapers and local community bulletins.
  • Limited online presence and social media usage.
  • Listens to podcasts or watches videos for learning and entertainment.

 Tech Savviness

  • Basic computer skills but may need assistance with advanced online tools.
  • Open to learning and adapting to technology for business purposes.

 Values

  • Values hard work, perseverance, and integrity.
  • Desires to make a positive impact on the local community.
  • Values practical and actionable advice.

 How the Library Can Help

  • Access to beginner-friendly business books and resources to guide him through the basics of entrepreneurship.
  • Workshops and one-on-one assistance on creating a business plan, marketing on a budget, and utilizing digital tools.
  • Free or low-cost online courses for building essential business skills.
  • Networking events to connect with local entrepreneurs and mentors.

ChatGPT also said, “Understanding John’s unique situation and tailoring library resources to cater to his specific needs will be crucial. Marketing messages should focus on the practicality, accessibility, and community support the library provides for someone like John as he takes the leap into entrepreneurship.”

If I worked at a library, I qould take this ChatGPT generated persona and add or subtract the things that apply to my community.

Are personas too generalized?

There is nothing that replaces a personal conversation with a community member. But it is physically impossible to talk to everyone who lives in your service area.

Personas allow us to find the commonalities of the different segments of our audience. This exercise will lead you to create promotional items that connect with your target audience.

Your target personas will likely change over time. They may be different for different programs or goals that your library is trying to reach. That’s okay! Your target personas should be like your library: adaptable, flexible, and able to change to meet the needs of your community.

But by having defined target personas, you are better equipped with the insights needed to build an experience that consistently and efficiently speaks to your patrons as individuals – with content that’s super relevant to them.

More advice

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