Finding the right customer on Social Media is often referred to as trying to “find a needle in a haystack”. However, by creating buyer personas for your marketing campaign, you will essentially be passing a giant magnet over said “haystack” to find your proverbial “needle”.
Social media marketing is a buzzword we are all-too familiar with; it’s become too homogeneous, and when we take a look at what it really means, we have to ask ourselves “Why do we do it?”
Social Media is so all-encompassing. There is just about every type of person or potential customer out there; CXOs, Millennials, Baby Boomers… the better question is: “How can you afford not to”? The key is to dive into your marketing strategy, and truly understand “who” it is that you want to buy your product. The old cliché “the devil is in the detail” couldn’t be more appropriate, when considering building buyer personas.
Creating buyer personas may sound like a nifty exercise to understand who should be your target market – but it is so much more than that. It should be one of the most essential steps of your marketing strategy.
From the content you create and share, to the images you use, or the colour palette choices, the ad copy, font, and cultural references you make. Here is an agency-level scope of how to make a buyer persona. This way, you can start targeting the right people, with the right content, and reap the rewards.
- Create a fictitious person on paper – Example: Sir Lancelot or Madam Huckabee
- How old do you think they are? Choose one number, not a range – for Sir Lancelot, we’ll say he’s 27 years’ old
- Are they married? Single? Do they have kids? Write it down! – Sir Lancelot is a single chap
- Education level – what have they studied? What program? Do they have a High School diploma? PHD? – Sir Lancelot has a college degree in Graphic Design
- Home ownership – Do they own property? Rent? Lease? Condo? Townhouse? – Sir Lancelot has a penthouse loft in the heart of downtown Toronto
- How do they commute? Car? Bus? Metro? Train? Limo? Airplane? Run at super speed? If they own transportation, what brand do they prefer? Sir Lancelot drives a sweet Ducati Bike in the city – from his penthouse loft to the office.
- Job Title – Are they a C-Level Executive? Sales Rep? Freelancer? Pretend you are your ideal customer; now look in the mirror, who are you? Lancelot is a freelance Graphic Designer
- How much do you expect they make on average per year? 30k? 60k? 250k? We’ll say that Lancelot makes 65k a year on average
- Where do they work? What kind of an environment? Office? Studio? Home Office? Outside? and also how big is the company they work for? Lancelot works in his own personal studio
- What tools do they use? Whether it’s software, course-training or physical items like furniture, do your best to list as many as you can. This will help you understand which brands your buyer most likely associates with. We’ll say Lancelot loves IKEA and Adobe software
- What do they wear? Vans shoes? Harry Rosen? Gucci? What does their outfit look like? – Sir Lancelot is decked out head-to-toe in Ralph Lauren gear
- What do they read? Fitness Magazines? Business Insider? Academic Sources & Journals? Lancelot enjoys his subscription to Inc. Magazine
- What do they listen to? Podcasts? Music? Dubstep? Lounge Music? Rock? Which artists? – Lancelot loves Jazz, and some good old George Benson
- Hobbies: Biking, traveling, painting, jogging, stamp-collecting? Think outside the box. What do you think their hobbies might be? – Lancelot really loves bird-watching, as he feels it inspires him to create new designs in his work.
Based on the above we have a profile of our Sir Lancelot. In minutes we’ve created a potential buyer persona that can be applied to whichever situation necessary – whether it’s designing a brand to attract this particular customer, or running Facebook ads and plugging in this information to specifically target people like Sir Lancelot.
Buyer personas help us understand not just who we’re targeting, but also the consumer psychology behind who they are as people, what they may in fact like, love or dislike; and how we can take these insights and tailor ads, imagery, colors and themed-content, to naturally attract them to your product or service.
Why do they like Brand A over Brand B, or click on something? Why do they prefer red over black? Try using this free Buyer Persona Generator to create your own profiles, and apply them to your marketing strategy. Finally, this technique will not only serve your brand well, but it will also allow you as a marketer to do justice to the people you are trying to reach, by understanding them a little bit better.
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