Ever hear of buyer's personas? If you want to significantly improve your overall marketing efforts, creating them is something you'll want to implement ASAP.
What is a buyer's persona?
Personas are detailed profiles of your target clients. They include a lot of details, like needs, motivations, aspirations, concerns, and goals.
Why do you need to create personas?
Once you know exactly who your target client is, you'll know what is important to them, what problems you can solve for them, and how you can best reach them. I can't emphasize how important it is to know this information, because you will be better able to speak directly to their needs and therefore convert them from prospects into customers.
How do you develop personas?
Glad you asked! It's really not that hard, but it will take a little time and a lot of thinking. It's actually a pretty fun, eye-opening exercise.
- Brainstorm who your customers are. Include industry, company size, and their needs.
- Group together personas that share a lot of the same characteristics.
- Prioritize personas.
- Add a lot of details: age, gender, work life (title, experience), home life (marital status, kids), lifestyle (hobbies, interests), how they use the web, and what they want from you.
- Name your personas-seriously! It'll make it easier for your team to remember who they are developing products and services for and trying to convert into customers. You can even use a stock image so your personas have a face.
How do you use personas?
Now that you have created a few personas, you will be able to:
- create sales pitches specifically for them
- customize blog posts, white papers, articles, brochures, newsletters, case studies, videos, podcasts, and webinars that address their concerns
- reach them, whether it's through social media (like Facebook and Twitter), email, or newsletters
- create new product features or services based on their needs
