Start with who already buys
The most reliable audience description comes from the customers you have already served. Look at the last ten enquiries you accepted. What kind of business or person were they? What triggered the enquiry? What did they ask before agreeing? Patterns in that group are worth more than a demographic profile invented from scratch.
Describe a situation, not a persona
“Women aged 25–45 in London” does not change a single sentence of your marketing. “A sole trader whose website was built three years ago and no longer matches the work they now sell” does. Situations point to messages; demographics rarely do.
Write down the objections
For each audience group, list the three things most likely to stop them buying. Price, timing, uncertainty about scope and previous poor experiences cover most cases. Anything you write that answers one of these has an obvious purpose.
Check the audience is reachable
An audience you cannot reach affordably is not a target audience. Before committing, ask where these people already spend attention and whether you can appear there consistently with the time you actually have.
Keep it to two or three groups
Most small businesses can support two or three audience groups properly. More than that and the messaging thins out until it speaks to nobody in particular.
Where to take this next
If you would like this applied to your own business rather than read in the abstract, the marketing packages cover reviews, campaign planning, content plans and full strategies as fixed-scope pieces of work.