When it comes to promoting your fitness event, organisers must remember that when you target everyone, you actually target no one.
In order to personalise your communications, it’s essential that you understand exactly who you’re talking too. This is where target personas come into play.
What are personas?
Personas are fictional characters who represent your ideal event attendees. Defining these personas from the outset allows you to create more tailored content for your potential attendees.
Personas help you to better understand the needs, challenges, and aspirations of your target audience, bringing a human element to your content and overall marketing initiatives.
As a fitness event organiser, it’s likely that your event will serve many different segments or personas, but it helps to zero in on your most valuable fans – those you want to connect with most at your event.
Personas should be built upon two key components:
- Buyer profile – relevant demographic and geographic details that describe your ideal attendee
- Buyer intent – relevant psychographic and behavioural characteristics that shed light on the decision-making process of your ideal attendee
To help you get started, we’ve built out an example of a fitness event attendee (check out the typical music festival attendee and food and drink festival attendee, too). From Parks Runs to bootcamp, or open-air yoga, here’s the kind of persona you might want to target for your event.
Example Number 5
Meet Fitness Fan Fiona! Fiona is a graphic designer in a large IT company. She is happily married with a six-month-old baby and currently on maternity leave.
Before she had a baby, Fiona put a lot of time into her health and fitness – something she finds a lot harder as a new mother. Fiona values exercise, not just as a way to keep fit, but for overall wellness and happiness too. She is a big fan of yoga and pilates and loves giving back and the community aspect of local charity runs. She is determined to find a way to incorporate fitness into her new life as a parent. She would also like to use the opportunity to meet other like-minded new mothers.
Background
- 32 years old
- Married with one baby
- Lives in Dublin
- Graphic designer
Finances
- Earns approx €40K per year (joint income €100K per year)
- Currently on maternity leave
- Spends disposable income on eating well, meeting friends for coffee, fashion, and fitness
- Willing to spend a large chunk of disposable income on fitness and wellness classes and meeting other young mothers
Online Behaviour
- Fiona loves Instagram and browses twice daily
- Primarily browses on her phone
- Finds information online, through Instagram and parenting blogs
- An avid follower of influencers who blog about parenting, like Nessa Hurley and Emma Coogan
- She’s also a big fan of food bloggers and always on the lookout for new healthy recipes
- Shares regular Instagram posts of her daughter, coffees with friends, and fitness
- Fiona enjoys short-form written and image-based content
Hopes and Dreams
- Wants to be the best mother she possibly can be
- Fiona is highly social wants to meet like-minded new mothers that she can share her journey with
- She misses work but would love to find an opportunity to work remotely, so she can stay at home with her daughter
- She has always been active and wants to regain her fitness levels as quickly as possible
What influences her?
- Her family and friends
- Fellow ‘mammy’ influencers
- Parenting blogs like The Mamma Fairy and Cliona O’Connor
- Local fitness groups
Worries and Frustrations
- Worries that she’s making mistakes as a new parent
- Balancing a new baby with the healthy lifestyle that she knows and loves
- Being constantly exhausted!
- Regaining her fitness
- Going back to work
What is she looking for from a fitness event?
- Opportunities to meet other new mothers
- Events that are suitable for all levels while she works back to her former fitness levels
- A combination of fun and relaxation! After all, this is her ‘me-time’
- Events that blend fitness and wellness
- Something regular that she can work into a routine
- Opportunities for some Instagram snaps
- Sorcha loves to give back, so anything fundraising or charity related really appeals to her
What kind of events does she like to attend?
Now you’ve met Fitness Fan Fiona, go market to her! You know where she hangs out online, her biggest influences, and what she is really looking for in a fitness event.
Never under-estimate the power of personas when it comes to mapping out your marketing strategy. Your most valuable attendees are the key drivers of your event’s success. Getting to know them can help you to make your content more customer-centric and ultimately lead to greater attendance, loyalty, and killer ROI.
For more tips on creating the perfect personas for your marketing strategy, check out our cheat-sheet on The Power of Personas.
