What is persona?

MadeinWeb

Every business should start with a plan and have a well-designed strategy for its success. One of the first points that must be addressed is the company’s target audience. You need to know the person who is buying your products/services in order to deliver the best possible result for them.

Whether in the production of content, designing specific campaigns or interacting on social networks, it is necessary to think about the best possible for all customers. This is where the persona (or buyer persona) comes in: this strategy aims to absorb all possible information from the target audience and turn them into potential customers in the future.

Want to know more about how to build a persona for your business and all the benefits of doing so? Read on!

What is persona?

The persona is like a representation of an ideal customer, based on real data.

A persona is nothing more than a fictitious representation of your ideal customer, based on real data about your customers’ behavior and characteristics. To create a persona, it is necessary to go deep and consider each one’s personal history, their main goals, challenges, concerns and answer how your solution can help you in each of these pains.

The more contact you have with your audience, the more accurate your persona will be. Thus, it is possible to carry out an analysis identifying characteristics that potential buyers have in common with the target audience.

If you already have a large customer base, you can start your analysis there. Look for commonalities that exist among people who already know your brand and identify with it, they can be great examples for your persona.

You can classify the persona in several different ways: gender, age, demographic region, marital status, among others. The main characteristics that must be considered are the consumption habits and personal preferences of each one.

When building your persona, don’t just consider customers who are completely satisfied with your business. It is also important to consider the dissatisfied in order to draw a more accurate profile.

What is the difference between persona and target audience?

This is one of the main doubts people have, and it is normal for the two concepts to cause confusion. Although similar, persona and target audience are not synonymous.

Target audience is a large part of the society to which you sell your products/services.

The persona is the “fictitious” representation of your ideal customer, in a humanized and personalized way according to your company’s goals. It’s like a character created to represent your ideal client.

It is important to have the persona because, strategically, it is more viable to think of a campaign aimed at “Maria” than at a wider and less narrowed target audience.

Plus, you can create as many personas as you like with the targeting that works best for that campaign. But keep one goal in mind: not too tapered, not too open. Two personas are the most common for companies.

And the ICP?

If you work with Marketing or Advertising, you have certainly heard of the PIC (Ideal Account Profile) or ICP (Ideal Customer Profile). This is a practice that defines the characteristics of your best customer, the one you want to reach all costs.

The ICP is most used in B2B Account-Based Marketing strategies and is ideal for more segmented actions so that the potential customer is engaged with your company and sees value in what you can deliver.

Why does your business need a persona?

For Digital Marketing, for the company to succeed, it needs to develop a persona.

If you are looking for a Digital Marketing strategy that leads to satisfactory results, you need a persona. Thus, it is possible to send the right message to the people you seek to reach and have a greater chance of success.

Without a properly defined persona, it is possible that you will reach the wrong people for the strategy in question.

For example, if you think of a campaign seeking to attract audience A, you need to create a persona with these characteristics. Without this properly defined, you may end up reaching audience C that will not bring good results to your business.

You must also take into account the persona to produce content, do keyword research, design different marketing strategies, define the most relevant topics, and understand digital behavior and which channels you should invest more in for the campaign in question.

As a design, it is also no different, since the colors, shapes, and the entire composition of the layout can please a persona A, but not be the ideal model for persona B, for example.

How important is a persona?

As stated above, the persona can help you at different stages of planning a specific action and to better define who you want to reach with your company. In addition, it can also help you in the following situations:

• Deepen your knowledge of the audience:

You really need to know who buys your products/services. First, you define your target audience more broadly, then you need to segment them until you reach just the right people with your strategy.

• Know how the public sees your product/service:

With the persona, you can understand your potential customer’s routine, focusing on all their uncertainties, pains, and desires. Knowing this contributes to how the public feels about your brand and why they buy your products/services.

This step can add a lot of value to keep evolving your brand more and more, generating more positive results and yielding good conversions.

• Set a more accurate tone of voice:

The tone and voice of a brand are some of the most important points of communication with the customer. For this, it is necessary to know the audience in depth so that the production of content is accurate and generates revenue. Thus, you can also define the communication channels, knowing which network to focus efforts on.

• Optimize the user experience on the website:

The UX (User Experience) is extremely important so that the lead not only gets to know your website but wants to stay on it and absorb the content. With a persona, you can analyze the user’s digital behavior and ensure that the entire purchase journey is pleasant for them.

How to create a persona?

To create a person, it is necessary to follow some steps such as conducting interviews and, if any, using an already created base

First, you need to conduct an interview with customers. If possible, use your existing base of people who buy from your brand. For this step, you need:

1. Choose active people on your social networks and blog;
2. Analyze the profile of these people, as well as their digital behavior;
3. Choose a few clients from your existing base and schedule interviews by phone or email, whichever best suits your proposal.

For the questions, it is necessary to create a script where you need to include questions related to the data of each one so that the persona is suitable for your business. The conversation should be fluid and not just made up of questions. Make the interviewee comfortable to bring up other issues.

After doing the interviews, it’s time to cross-reference and compare information to create your persona. It is a process and must be done step by step to succeed and reach potential customers.

It is not possible to describe someone based on guesswork. The only way to get to know your customers is to talk to them and really get to know them. To create the ideal persona, you need to know what your real customers think about your company.

In order to fulfill its role, the persona must be the result of research, analysis, and construction and follow the steps:

• Collect data;
• Do the interview;
• Analyze the data;
• Structure the persona;
• Create a strategy according to that persona.

How to create campaigns and strategies for the persona?

Once you’ve learned more about personas and what they can do for your business, it’s time to get your hands dirty. You must take into account the persona created from the moment of planning to the creation itself. From the definition of objectives, goals, and KPIs, the persona must be considered.

It is possible to price your products according to the persona created, think about the design of the website, the strategy used in social networks, creating campaigns both organic and paid.

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes, get to know the persona created in-depth, and learn how to do the best service possible to positively impact them.

How to use the persona in the Inbound Marketing strategy?

In Inbound Marketing there are three types of niches that should be considered: top of the funnel, middle of the funnel, and bottom of the funnel. In each of these steps, it is necessary to think of different strategies for each persona:

• funnel top

Blog posts, infographics, newsletters, social networks.

• middle of funnel

More tapered blog posts, email marketing, e-books, webinars.

• funnel bottom

Customer cases, sales webinars, product reviews, conversations with a consultant.

For each stage, it is necessary to think of specific content that, in addition to bringing information to the persona, will make them satisfied and have no doubts about hiring your services. Also, it’s a great SEO strategy to put specific, persona-defined keywords to boost your page on Google.

Did you know the importance of the persona? What did you think of this article? Leave your comment telling us your opinion!

MadeinWeb specializes in creating personas and we help you throughout the process of collecting, analyzing, and creating strategies. Contact one of our experts for more information!

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