Do you know who your audience is, how your customers buy and what they want?
You may well have a vague idea about these points we mentioned, but nothing will be more effective in answering them broadly than a Persona.
As a fictional character who represents your ideal client, it helps you understand and offer what the consumer needs in the way that is most attractive to him.
Since this is a more specific complement to the Segmentation content that we’ve already talked about here, let’s now find one ideal representative for your audience!
What is the persona?
Called by some as a buyer persona, she will bring info specific information such as age, location, preferences, desires and many others. That way, you’ll know what to deliver, how and when, to your customers.
Thus, the character will work as a funnel for your large audience so that it is simpler and easier to deal with your particularities. That is, think of her as a real customer who is 100 hours a day willing to answer your questions.
In practice, we use the persona as a driver of our actions, so that everything that is done within a company should always be in line with it .
It is noteworthy that a brand does not need to have only one “character”, after all, it is very difficult to unite a whole range of buyers in a single fictitious representative. Therefore, it is suggested that a company has between 2 and 5 different personas according to its needs.
Another point that we cannot fail to comment is the proto personas. We do not always have at our fingertips various information about the public, especially when we are a newcomer to the market and do not even have consumers yet.
When this happens, we use general data obtained from platforms such as Facebook Audience Insights to develop our character. Thus, because it is built with generic data, it is named proto persona.
How to build a persona?
Before starting the step-by-step construction of a persona, I need to make it clear that it is not a static tool. In other words, it needs to be constantly redone and revisited.
Just as a real person ages and changes his mind, so does the persona. So always remember to check if yours is up to date.
Know your audience
The first step to build your character is knowing who your audience is. So, try to understand who is part of your market niche and which segment of it you will serve.
In this way, you are able to gather as much information as possible from a group of people who make sense for your company.
Build a persona template
With your audience established, we need to start developing the persona ! It will bring information such as:
Name
- City where you live
Education
Position
- Lifestyle
Purchase and consumption habits
- Hobbies
Personal interests
- Media that you access frequently
Life goals (professional and personal)
The main problems (pain) in your day by day
Brands you admire
Objections regarding your company/product
For each of these points, you must find commonalities within your market segment and fill in your persona template.
Source: zmotinstitute.com
Once it’s completed, we can create a little storytelling to make your character more believable and friendly to your company.
Refine your persona
As we said, it is a tool that never stops being developed. Therefore, the last step of any good persona creation is its refinement.
Continue to research the data and information that make up your customers and make sure that your – or your – persona stays together to them.
If you chose to make a proto persona, this is the time to start collecting data from the audience to check if your character is really the ideal for your company. And don’t be scared if you don’t get it right the first time.
It’s more than common that the persona needs constant adjustments. So do it without fear of making mistakes!
Conclusion
A persona is the key to that a company really knows its customers and their interests.
Create yours right now so that you can get closer to your audience without losing the opportunities that the consumers themselves offer you!
Other interesting articles:
- Get to know your audience better with Market Segmentation
How can Netnography help to gain more customers?
Meet the Journey and Learn How to Convert the Audience