You Have Personas—Now What?

Buyer personas are an indispensable tool used to help internalize a company’s ideal customer. They allow us to connect with our audience on a human level and make strategic decisions with confidence. They’re created through extensive research and critical conversations, oftentimes going through multiple iterations before landing on the finished persona.

If you haven’t established target personas, or aren’t sure what a persona is, here is a quick definition:

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. When creating your buyer persona(s), consider including customer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations and goals. The more detailed you are, the better.

But once you’ve created a persona, what’s the next step? How can you best leverage personas to maximize your marketing and sales efforts?

We have outlined a few key details to keep in mind in order to use your new persona to put your best foot forward.

Web

Your website isn’t about you or your business—it’s completely about your customer! For that reason, every aspect of your website needs to cater to the individual and allow them to find the information they are looking for as quickly as possible, with the best possible experience. Here’s how:

• Utilize links that allow users to self-select who they are and what information they are interested in, which gives them the most relevant user experience possible.
• Create unique calls-to-action (CTAs) that speak directly to specific persona pain points.
• Segment your website resources based on categories, tags, products or more to allow users to explore a library of content that relates specifically to them.
• Leverage smart content to show contacts personalized content that speaks directly to their needs—especially when they willingly give you this information.
• Determine the ideal persona journey on your site and make sure that path is as clear as possible.

Social

Social networks are one of the most personal platforms we have to reach our audience. Because of that, it’s no surprise that the way in which personas interact will vary across each platform.

• Create platform-specific strategies. Know which personas spend their time on what platforms and focus your energy on content that will resonate.
• Understand why a persona is spending their time on a specific platform. Your personas probably don’t go to Instagram to read a whitepaper (but maybe they do—do your research!).
• Utilize audience targeting ads and optimize, optimize, optimize.

Content

The way in which personas choose to consume their information varies greatly, from the medium they prefer to the level of detail they’re looking for. Identifying what persona you’re creating a piece of content for first will allow you to create content that truly resonates.

• Create deep-dive content that speaks directly to a specific persona pain point.
• Create 40,000-foot-view content for personas that just need the general gist—not the nitty-gritty detail.
• Repurpose content into a variety of mediums, allowing users to choose the way they want to consume the information:
• Blogs
• Video
• Whitepapers
• Infographics
• Promote persona-specific content on platforms where you know these personas are!
• Leverage visuals throughout your content that will deeply resonate with personas.

Search

When developing an SEO strategy, it’s important to think of each persona separately and, if possible, create persona specific game plans. What one persona searches for on Google could be drastically different than what another persona would search for, even though they’re in search of the same information.

• Consider asking yourself these questions:
• In what language (i.e. verbiage, wording, dialogue) would this persona search for a problem that my company can solve?
• What topics are important to this persona?

Once you’ve established these answers, you’ll want to create content that leverages those topics and uses the right language so you can increase your visibility to your prospects.

A strong marketing strategy uses both organic traffic and paid search to get found online. Take the following steps to ensure you make the right choice:

• Research keywords and topics and see where you rank.
• Determine which would be more plausible to rank for organically versus topics that would be more difficult.
• Utilize paid search for the more difficult keywords.
• When creating the messaging for your paid search ad, think of how your persona would want to be spoken to or what would make them click on your ad for more information.

Email

Email continues to be one of the most impactful platforms for targeted marketing, which means personas need to be at the forefront of your email marketing creation. The one-on-one nature of email allows marketers to make these messages incredibly personal.

• Your email campaign strategies need to be segmented by persona with unique copy, conversion points and overall goals for each campaign.
• Align your email campaigns with the buyer's journey. Well-defined personas will ensure you are bringing value to your prospects at every stage of their buying process.
• Send personalized email copy.
• Develop strong and engaging subject lines that resonate with personas.
• Messaging should be conversational and relatable.
• Ensure the content you’re sending them is relevant and aligns with their position in the buyer’s journey.
• Present them an offer they can't refuse!
• Keep what your persona values the most at the top of your mind when creating your CTA.
• Your CTA should bring them one step closer to solving their problem and choosing you as their solution provider!

Download the full infographic here!

Stay Focused

Keeping personas in mind at every marketing decision will ensure your efforts are focused on your overarching goals. If you haven’t already, invest the time and resources in creating buyer personas. We’re happy to help.