4 Things I Love About Buyer Personas

In this day and age, there is hardly a new destination that we don’t plug into our mobile or car GPS to help guide us there. Printing out directions or using an actual map are the analog equivalent to finding your way around. Think of buyer personas as the GPS to your digital marketing efforts and focus. They guide every turn you make, leading you closer to your end goal, and your digital marketing strategy is far more effective with them. In fact, a study by HubSpot found that using marketing personas made websites 2-5 times more effective and easier to use than websites that didn’t. That’s the difference between making a wrong turn on your way to your destination or arriving there in record time.

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Still not sure what buyer personas are? They’re more than just writing down some generic facts about who you think will buy your products or use your services. They're about developing a clear understanding of who you're communicating with and what their needs and pain points are. Your buyer personas can help inform your decisions about every aspect of your business and chances are, they'll improve your customer's experience and help you achieve your goals.

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I’ve created and used a number of buyer personas, with various clients in multiple industries, and have come to value them as a true marketing necessity. Even though buyer personas can mean different things to different companies, here are the top 4 reasons why I love buyer personas:

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1) They Save You Money

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If you don't know who you're marketing to, how can you create an ad campaign or a marketing strategy to reach them? You'll inevitably end up doing what most businesses and marketers do, you take the generic benefits of your product or service, then you create generic ad copy, blog posts or web copy, and then target all the warm bodies in your service area ages 18-65. This is a recipe for wasting the majority of your ad spend. When you cast a broad net, the chances that even 15% of the people who see your ad, read your copy and go to your website will actually convert are very low. Which means that at best, you're throwing away 85% of your marketing budget.

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Now, what if you knew exactly who you’re marketing to, from their hobbies to their profession, their industry, income, age, gender, where they live, what influences their purchasing decisions and the pain points that keep them up at night? You'd be able to tailor an ad campaign or marketing strategy that speaks directly to their needs. You'd write ad copy, blogs and web copy that make your personas feel like you're speaking directly to them, you'd show them exactly how your product or service solves their issue and you'd target the websites and social media platforms they frequently spend their time on. Now you can reduce your marketing spend because you know who you're targeting, where you're able to reach them, getting more results with less money.

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2) They Increase Your Revenue

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According to MadMarketer, 71% of companies who exceed revenue and lead goals have documented personas and 47% of companies who exceed sales and revenue goals consistently maintain their personas. Another study by MarTech;"> indicates that using buyer personas in your email program increases click-thru rates on emails by 14% and conversion rates by 10% - driving 18 times more revenue than broadcast emails. The simplest reason for this amount of increased revenue is trust. When you can speak directly to someone's needs and express your understanding of their issues to them in a way that feels personal, they'll trust you more than someone just talking about generic benefits and product specs. When you've gained your audience's trust, they'll want to buy from you and they'll feel more comfortable giving you their business.  It's that simple.

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3) They Increase Your Site Traffic

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HubSpot reports that by implementing a targeted content marketing strategy, one business received a 55% increase in their organic search traffic and a 210% increase in their North American site traffic. When you deliver content that proves you can solve your customer's problems, they want to hear more from you and they'll be interested in what you have to offer. This would naturally mean that more people are going to search for your company, visit your website and explore your services.

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4) They Help You Provide Better Customer Support

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When you understand who your customers are, you can structure your customer support around their needs. So, if you find that your customers prefer chat support over phone and email support, you should prominently display the chat option on your website so that they will be more inclined to talk to you. Or, if your customers prefer getting support over the phone or on social media, you can make sure that your customer support team is monitoring and using those channels to help your customers. Who doesn't want to be catered to? Who doesn't want to feel understood? And who doesn't want customer support tailored to their needs? When you complete your buyer personas and you understand who your target audience is, you can solve issues you didn't even know you had and boost your business' performance in almost every area.

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Are you loving buyer personas yet? I’d love to chat with you more about them and how they will positively impact your business.

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