Your customers are not all the same – they fit into different groups with different needs. It’s important for you to be able to connect with these different types of customers on a consistent basis in the ways that they’ll be most receptive to. In this article, we’ll discuss five reasons why you need to use buyer personas in your overall marketing strategy.
Just in case you don’t already know, buyer personas are detailed representations of fictional characters that embody the traits and characteristics that your real customers have. Personas are defined by behaviors and attitudes, not by demographic information such as age or gender. Here’s why buyer personas are an integral building block in your marketing strategy.
1) Connecting with your audience
The Internet is noisy. People are faced with distractions everywhere they look. It’s your job to know who they are, what they want, and what effects them in profound ways that create experiences that they’ll remember, and best case scenario, that touches them in some way. AT&T has known how to do this for a long time. In the past, they sold long distance phone plans with emotional appeals emphasizing the joy of reconnecting with distant loved ones because these are the exact people that they’re trying to reach. Coming forward, they’ve also tapped into insights about their audience to produce messaging that speaks to their latest cellular customer demographic (including one of my favorite commercials ever – I could easily do an entire article on this 62 second spot, but I’ve promised I won’t – it’s available below).
2) Communicate with your audience
Once you’ve connected with your audience, you have to be able to communicate with them effectively and consistently. No customer wants to feel like they’re unimportant, and no customer will buy from you if they do not understand what you can do for them. If you can communicate with your audience, then you can move them to take action, whether that action is reading an article or making a purchase decision. Apple is a great example of this. They truly understand their consumers. You can see this in all of their various ad campaigns from the iconic “Think Different” to a number of others. They’ve established that their users think of themselves as creative people that march to the beat of their own drummer.
3) Create an awesome user experience for your audience
Today, it’s all about the user experience! You should always tailor your content, products, services, and brand to your target audience. As marketers, it’s our job to create pleasant user experiences, so that our users become lifelong customers. Having clear buyer personas will help you put yourself in your customers’ shoes so that you can craft a user experience that will be beneficial for both you and your customers. The online retailer, Zappos, faces an uphill battle with consumers. Consumers could just walk into a store and try on the shoes that they’d like, but Zappos knows that customer service is vital to their target consumers. The company makes customer happiness their main priority and makes thoughtful gestures to their customers. For example, they regularly send emails wishing their customers happy birthdays and have repeatedly shown random acts of kindness. Zappos uses their insights about their consumers to create awesome experiences that overcome barriers to purchase.
4) Segment your audience
If you are utilizing email marketing to grow your business, then you can start segmenting your audience by buyer persona. This will help you deliver relevant content, products, or services to the customers on your email list. This results in happier customers and more sales. If you’re not using email in your business, then consider learning how to build an email marketing list, too. Amazon.com is very clever when it comes to segmenting their customers. They regularly send product recommendations to their customers based on their past purchases and Amazon.com browsing history.
5) Save time and money
Most of us don’t work for companies that fire money from a cannon on the roof. In fact, I don’t think that company exists (though feel free to call us if you do work for one…). Jokes aside, personas save money. They establish your starting point when crafting messages and making decisions. When companies only utilize some demographic data to create their business plan, marketing strategy, or products, and end up wasting a lot of time, money, and energy chasing the wrong people. It’s much more “pull” than it is “push” and that’s what internet marketing is all about. Use buyer personas so that you understand who your target customer really is.Clear persona vision leads companies to make wise, intelligent decisions about their messaging paths. For example, BMW refers to its cars as the ultimate driving machines because they know that their consumers are performance-focused and seeking the best experience possible. They know to start there. Every. Single. Time.
How to create buyer personas
So you now understand what buyer personas are, and you understand the importance of using them to create amazing user experiences for your audience. But now you need to actually create a buyer persona and implement them into your marketing strategy. Fear not, because we can help you.
At Marketing Torq, we regularly create buyer personas for our clients before beginning new site development. Our experience can provide you with many insights.Give us a call at 508-502-7440 and let us help you develop buyer personas, so that you may connect with your audience and improve your online marketing strategy.
