Defining your customer personae isn’t about exclusion—it’s about focus.
I’ve been working on some segmentation strategy lately, and I get it: in the early stages of a business, casting a wide net feels safer. It seems like more opportunity, more flexibility, more potential for revenue.
But here’s the tradeoff: when your strategy is too broad, your message gets watered down. Your product positioning loses clarity. And the experiences you create feel generic—designed for everyone, but resonating with no one.
A clearly defined persona helps align your marketing, business development, and customer experience efforts around where you create the most value—and where you receive the most value in return.
That’s the Goldilocks zone of segmentation: not too broad, not too niche, just right for mutual success.
You can still say yes to opportunities outside your core personae. But your strategy shouldn’t be built around exceptions.
