Personas: The method to target in 3 steps

Buyer persona, who is it?

A buyer persona, an expression associating English and Latin, is the portrait of the customers you are interested in. A sort of profile of the groups of individuals you want to conquer. You will rely on this fictional character to successfully implement a content marketing strategy and establish a real dialogue with your customers!

Why use personas?

It’s obvious, customers trust more a company that offers them personalized content on the web as well as on paper!
Putting yourself in the shoes of your customers allows you to understand their needs and expectations and to respond accurately in terms of content. A little simplistic? On the web, with a well thought-out micro-functionality (at the time of the site design), a well adjusted text about the subject (and of course optimized for natural referencing), a relevant tutorial, you get better results in terms of conversion. This is a methodological tool that will inspire a different content strategy!

Personas: how to create them?

Woman, 26 years old, executive…is too generalist an approach that will have to be completed with information such as: age, gender, location, personal situation, education, profession, language, values, interests, tastes, equipment, web uses, information sources, purchasing power, decision power.

Create an identity for your persona

Imagine its history, its journey. Give it a name and a face.

You can identify several profiles, representative of your different customer profiles and their needs. For example: :

• Anyone who does not know your products, needs information or has an identified need.
• The one who knows you and has a concrete need.
• The one, already a customer, who needs services, benefits and guarantees

Collect this data by using your personal experience, by interviewing your clients (interview, questionnaire, study) or by taking an interest in thematic forums on the web.

Create a scenario that will showcase your persona

For example: you are a wedding planner in the Nice region. You have a website, and are looking for more visibility.

• Lea Mary is 26 years old. She lives in Nice with her friend Antoine.
• She works in a real estate agency.
• Lucie owns a smartphone, a tablet, a portable pimp.
• She uses the web to find advice before buying online.
• She uses the social network facebook for personal use and publishes a lot of pictures.
• Her hobbies: decoration, fashion, tourism, bio.
• Her activities: cooking, sports, cinema.
• Léa Mary is getting married in a few months with Antoine.
• Her problem: she wants to plan her wedding without wasting time and find tips, good plans, original ideas especially by searching on the internet.

Now that you know Lea Mary, it will be easy to offer her suitable content.

Example of solutions :

• Advice sheets (hairstyle, dress according to the morphology, etc.): synthetic articles visible and accessible on your site in 1 click.
  A guide: wedding organization, the guide! 10 key steps, to download for free from your website.
• Social networks: a communication relayed on Facebook with, for example, a contest, a poll, to encourage sharing.
• Call to action: a button “download the guide for free” with a form to retrieve the name, email and phone number on your site.

Spinat’s board

Channels of action are as important as messages. Adapt to convert your visitors into customers as much as possible.