Do you truly know who your best customers are? Do you know what motivates them to purchase? Most times I ask my clients this there often identify every demographic because they don't want to walk away from any prospect. Let's admit it is difficult to work on your own marketing.
Running your business is more enjoyable than digging through dry facts or looking for data that is asked for by these 5 key questions.
There will be a lot of similarities, common traits for your customers. It is the unique facts we want to uncover, things that will break down your customer list into multiple personas
Every business has more than one customer persona. There isn't any defined number for each business. Some will have two and some will have more, maybe even 20. This is what you need to discover to make an impact on the effectiveness of your marketing -- and online content (website and blog).
Every business has more than one customer persona.
You may still be asking why does this matter. It's simple. A mother of an infant has different drivers than a mother of a 10 year old. A 30 year old male professional athlete has different emotional triggers than a 50 year old retired athlete. But even within the same age and gender demographic there are differences that make their buying motivators unique to each other. Digging deep to identify those provides the copy and visual direction for your marketing campaign and website, blog and social media content.
These 5 questions are the foundation for creating your personas: the profile descriptions of each of your key customers.
What is the demographic information of each persona?
This is a great place to start. Gather data to be able to each type of define each personality type. Know that you will have more than one persona. Identify the gender, age, household income, marital status and any other key traits that are unique to your business. Does he or she have kids? What industry sector do they work in -- if you’re targeting a business-to-business customer? Do they work at the executive level, management, salaried or hourly income?
What drives them through their day? What is the typical day for each of your personas?
Are they driven by work, want a balance lifestyle or a high achiever? Think about the passions, pastimes and values that can be common to many of your customers. Defining what makes them tick daily will help you understand what will excite and interest them in your products or services. Know what creates the greatest personal and professional joy. Knowing their deepest desires will help you connect with them because you can create engaging and motivating content.
Where is the information your customers need to make a decision?
Current data indicates that 60% of a customers buying decision is made before a customer interfaces with a brand owner. Internet has made it easy to be an educated consumer. So the question is, where do your prospects get the information that could lead them to you? Which websites? How are they searching and do any search old school – in magazines, newspaper sand books? We know that consumers today do a lot of research online before making purchase decisions.
What shopping experience will engage them?
Age, lifestyle, interests, and age impacts what your target audience will respond to. People purchase with their emotions. Emotions are responses to experiences or the experience they want to have. When creating your marketing tools you need to think about the how they prefer to interact with your brand. Think about the steps the user needs to take on your website to make a purchase. Some customers want to be educated, to learn as much as possible before purchasing. Another customer prefers to get in and out of the site as quickly as possible. Creating an experience that is enjoyable, engaging and fits their shopping preferences will keep them coming back.
What are their fears, pain points? What frustrates them?
Content marketing and other sources you can provide can help your prospects solve their problems. You can help solve problems, answer questions and address unmet needs through your website, product package and content marketing. It’s important that you understand what these are for each of your personas.
Answering these questions will enable you to begin persona development. Outline your customer data into personality-driven segments including demographic information and traits that lead to buying decisions. This critical information provides the details you need to craft a targeted marketing plan and create the content, ads, articles, pod casts, videos and the like — that speaks to the unique interests of each persona, increasing the likelihood that your marketing will connect, engage and push your the prospect further through your purchase funnel.
Industry research is available (paid and free) that can help in verifying your assumptions or filling in the more elusive information about your consumer segment. With an online search you can find mutiple companies that provide this service.
You can use a spreadsheet or download this free worksheet to compile your customer profiles. If you need help or have any questions just give us a call. We'll be happy to answer your questions.
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