Yes, you heard it right. Persona-based marketing can help you generate better and more targeted leads.
Remember those days where traditional marketing was in trend. Let’s take an example of toothpaste. In toothpaste advertisements, marketers used to show a person having teeth problems and the dentist who recommends the usage of particular toothpaste to overcome dental issues. This is nothing but persona-based marketing. Believe it or not, persona-based marketing has always existed in the field of marketing. The only difference is earlier such approach was referred segmentation based marketing. Be it either demographic or psychographic segmentation.
However, in Persona-based marketing, the complete user profile is considered and not just one segment. Marketers develop personas based on all possible segmentations i.e. behavioural, demographic, and psychographic to map their target customers’ features.
What is persona-based marketing?
The very first question is what exactly persona-based marketing is. Here, the answer is simple. Persona-based marketing is an inbound marketing practice which keeps the buyer persona in the centre rather than the product or service.
A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your targeted customers. This takes into account their goals, behaviour, demography, interests, pain points and medium of content they consume.
How to create a marketing persona and buyer persona?
Various tools, templates, tutorials, and resources are available online to create personas. However, you need to know the basics of how to create it. The overall process of creating a persona includes the collection of research data, layering and segmentation of data and storytelling to the devised persona.
The steps include:
- Survey of online consumer buying trends and their preferences
- Interview of customers to understand their buying process
- Research on how consumers consume the content or get engaged with online content
- Collation of comprehensive demographic information of targeted consumers
- Analyse the collected data and confer with the sales team about prospects
- Consider current market trends and recent market statistics to finalise the persona
- Create a marketing pitch (story) with which your persona/prospect can relate to
Note: In persona-based marketing, the content strategy should be in line with the buyer’s journey. Three major stages of the buyer’s journey encompass:
- Awareness: Prospect becomes aware of prevalent issues and starts searching for solutions online
- Consideration: Prospect is in the process of narrowing down the best possible options available
- Decision: Prospect has reached the final stage of the decision – here, convince them why your offering is the best possible solution for them and persuade them to buy your product/service
Example of buyer persona template
Why persona-based marketing is a preferred practice?
According to Marketing Sherpa, Persona-based website saw a 210% increase in website traffic, a 97% increase in website generated leads, a 124% increase in website generated sales.
The main advantage of such marketing practice is that here you get a holistic picture of your target customer. Hence, in this case, you are better prepared and able to foresee how your customer might behave or respond to your promotional campaigns.
This insight provides you with an edge over the intense competition. Also, it helps you to beat your competitors with better promotional strategies that are bound to guarantee your success.
You can also have a negative buyer persona. Here, pen down the points that your customers don’t like or don’t want. Accordingly, your marketing pitch should exclude some words.
Example if you are selling CRM software intended for start-ups, your negative buyer persona would perhaps consist of enterprises.
How do personas influence marketing campaigns and lead generation?
The reasons why personas can have a great influence on marketing campaigns and lead generation are enlisted below:
1. Personalized promotional content
As a marketer, you can take the persona’s perspective into consideration when designing and developing advertisements or promotional content.
Example
Colgate marketers’ broad segments include patients suffering from stained teeth, gum decay, tooth decay, and sensitivity. Hence, all their advertisements are targeted on the solutions to these dental issues.
2. Targeted product descriptions
You can inline your product description with their interests and needs.
Example
The marketing message of Colgate toothpaste is: “1 shade whiter teeth in 1 week’. It indicates that they are targeting the buyer personas that have problems with the shades of teeth.
3. Enhanced Persona-based marketing creativity
Your Persona-based marketing creativity can expand wings since you know who you are going to target and what they are looking for. Based on your market research, analysis and existing trends, you can craft your marketing pitch in a creative way.
Example
This is how Colgate advertises toothpaste for the persons suffering from sensitivity.
4. Shortened sales cycle
You can generate better quality leads by utilising personas. Since you know what your personas want, like or don’t like, you can use this information in writing product descriptions. Sending the right message provide you with the excellent opportunity to generate better leads. Such leads can be effortlessly converted into sales.
Example
This is how Colgate explained to its target customers how their teeth can be whitened. It included “power of salt and lemon” as a push.
5. Targeted graphics
Not only targeted content but also you can use targeted graphics when your marketing efforts are buyer persona centric.
example cavity protection toothpaste of Colgate has graphics on its wrapper that attracts kids.
6. Timely modification
You can use forums, public groups, community platforms and social media to learn more about different groups of people. And hence, you can keep updating your buyer personas. However, don’t change it too frequently. Otherwise, you would not be able to judge the parameters that worked well or needed improvements.
SIGNING OFF…!
Persona-based marketing, since focused on buyer persona and buyer journey, help you creating better leads.
Of course, it might take some effort to create a proper persona, but it will always have a huge impact on your ability to generate high-quality leads. This is because you target your marketing efforts to the people who are looking for product/service providers like you.
Always start your marketing efforts only after creating personas. Focus on the factors that align with your ultimate business goals. While preparing your personas, use your own analytical knowledge too. Don’t just rely 100% on scripted survey forms. It is ideal to start with 2-3 persons in the initial phase. The only key to success is to create more effective content and promote your content effectively. This will drastically improve your ability to generate and nurture leads.