Who are your customers? You probably have a database with their names and other identifying information, but does that tell you who they are? In some ways, yes, but in other ways, no. Not only do you need the basic and demographic information about your customers to work with them, sell to them, and develop target market information, but you also need to understand what they need and want from you based on why they are as people.
The best way to do that is to develop customer personas, so you have “people” you can target with your advertising and marketing efforts. There may be more than one target market for your goods or services. There may be segments of that market you want to reach out to specifically at different times or with different promotions. Keeping that in mind as you develop personas using collected demographic information can go a long way toward getting it right.
But why do personas really matter that much when it comes to your customers? Here are six of the top reasons that customer personas are important.
1. They Give You a Common Buyer Language
You need a common language you can use with your buyers. Otherwise you might feel like you’re all over the map, and really struggling to convey messages correctly. With that in mind, taking the time to create customer personas means you’ll know what language to use with specific groups of buyers or specific groups in your target market. Then you can develop a set number of message styles and continue to focus on those, instead of trying to adjust from one to the next to the next too often. That’ll save you a lot of time, as well as reducing your frustration.
2. They Give You Better Performance Results
You want performance? You’ll have a lot better chance of getting it when you have specific, targeted personas for your customers. If you want them to see what you can do and what you’re really offering, you’ll need to make sure you’re speaking to them in a way they respond to. Then your sales numbers will increase and you’ll have a better chance of growing and developing your business. Being able to track those performance results based on which persona you targeted helps, as well.
3. They Give You Prominent Design Thinking
There are a lot of issues that come into play when developing customer and buyer personas. One of those is making sure the design of the personas is truly complete and comprehensive. There may be key elements you miss otherwise, and that can reduce the effectiveness of the marketing strategies you’re also working to develop. When you mesh the personas with the strategies, you suddenly have a much clearer picture of who’s really buying from you and who you want to get to buy from you.
4. They Give You Sales and Marketing Strategies
Your marketing strategies and the way you reach out to people to make sales are both valuable, so don’t waste them. Take the personas you’re developing and look at how you would sell and market to each one of those particular personas. What do you need to say to them, to get them in the door or coming to your site? Once they get there, what do they need to find? You can answer those questions a lot more easily when you have personas you can focus on.
5. They Give You Stronger Globalization
Content marketing is a global business today. So is selling goods or services, for the most part. You company may have a local focus, but it also may reach out to people all over the country or all over the world. If so, you’ll need a few more customer personas. Someone who’s buying from you and lives down the street isn’t going to have the same cultural background as someone half a world away. Understanding what both of those customers – and the majority of them in between – really want will go a very long way toward making your business successful on a global level.
6. They Give You Customer and Market Strategies
When you have basic personas to work from, you can fine tune your customer and market strategies based on those personas. Making adjustments is to be expected, but you won’t be starting from scratch with every customer you encounter. Ready for a new marketing campaign? You’ll already know who to target. Moving into a new area of the country or world? You’ll understand the people who live there. Personas can help you get established faster.
Don’t underestimate the value of having several customer personas. As you develop some and use them for a while, you may see that you need to add more. There’s nothing wrong with that, and each subsequent persona will only help your business reach out more directly and connect with the people you’re trying to contact.
A Content Strategist at WriterAccess can help you develop customer personas. Contact us to learn more!
Michelle B writes web content, articles, blog posts, product descriptions, and more, and has created thousands of pieces of content for companies all over the world. She holds an associate’s degree in business management and a bachelor’s degree in legal administration.
