{"id":3012,"date":"2024-02-12T13:21:57","date_gmt":"2024-02-12T18:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getlifted.io\/?p=3012"},"modified":"2024-03-05T13:26:25","modified_gmt":"2024-03-05T18:26:25","slug":"what-are-customer-personas-learn-how-to-know-your-target-audience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getlifted.io\/what-are-customer-personas-learn-how-to-know-your-target-audience\/","title":{"rendered":"What Are Customer Personas? Learn How to Know Your Target Audience"},"content":{"rendered":"

To sell your product or service, you need to know who you\u2019re selling to.<\/p>\n

But how do you do that? By investing hours and hours and thousands of dollars on complicated market research? By going out and interviewing tons and tons of your customer base? Sure, that might help, but what if you don\u2019t have the time for all that? After all, you\u2019ve got a business to run.<\/p>\n

The good news is that there is a simple way to get to know your target customers that doesn\u2019t involve all that. You just need one thing: a customer persona.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s a customer persona? We\u2019re glad you asked.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

What Are Buyer Personas and Customer Personas<\/h2>\n

You can call it a customer persona, a buyer persona, a user persona, or an audience persona \u2013 but it all means the same thing.<\/p>\n

These terms all refer to a fictional representation of your ideal customer. You want to craft a marketing persona archetype \u2013 or several \u2013 that contains all the important demographic information about your audience segments. But it also goes a step further than just that.<\/p>\n

You want to develop psychographic information about them beyond just their job and marital status. We mean get inside their heads. What are their personalities like? What are their hopes and dreams? Their fears and frustrations?<\/p>\n

What does their customer journey look like? What social media are they more likely to use<\/a>:\u00a0 LinkedIn, TikTok, or Facebook?<\/p>\n

You want these customer personas to be fleshed out as much as possible. They should be detailed representations of your real customers and their real-life behaviors, desires, and pain points.<\/p>\n

Negative Customer Personas<\/h3>\n

In addition to designing a customer persona for your target market, you can also develop one for people who won\u2019t be interested in your products or services. We know what you\u2019re thinking. Yes, in an ideal world, everyone is interested in what you have to offer. But that isn\u2019t the world we live in. (Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.)<\/p>\n

No matter how hard you try, you can\u2019t please everyone \u2013 and if you try, you\u2019ll end up hurting yourself (and your conversion rates). To be precise in your marketing messages, you need to know the types of customers you want to sell to \u2014 and the type you don\u2019t. For example, if you\u2019re making a new energy drink, you don\u2019t want to market it to Nancy, Age 86, who has heart problems, loves her grandkids, and mostly wants to spend her nights reading mystery novels.<\/p>\n

How Personas Give Your Marketing Campaigns a Major Assist<\/h2>\n

Persona development leads to personalization, and personalization leads to increased conversions and engagement<\/a> \u2013 among other benefits.<\/p>\n

But how exactly do customer personas function? What do they provide that a quick glance at your Google Analytics dashboard doesn\u2019t? More great questions we\u2019re happy to answer!<\/p>\n

Turn Demographics Into Real People<\/h3>\n

Research is great. We love research. But until you do something with that research, it\u2019s a bunch of numbers on a screen.<\/p>\n

Developing a data-driven persona from that research helps you visualize your potential customers and imagine a story surrounding them, their wants, and their needs. Stories help create empathy and understanding<\/a>, allowing you to step into someone else\u2019s shoes.<\/p>\n

They provide deeper insights into who you are selling to than just their job title and age. Now you can design your marketing materials with an increased sense of, well, empathy and understanding \u2013 which in turn leads to better, more personalized marketing strategies.<\/p>\n

Anticipate Their Pain Points and Build More Value<\/h3>\n

When you have a clearer view of who your customers are, you have a clearer view of why they should want your product.<\/p>\n

You can clearly imagine their everyday problems and how your product can help them overcome them. You can then build more specific pain points and value propositions into your landing pages, ad copy, emails, and CTAs in a way that is personal to them and their experiences.<\/p>\n

This kind of personalization is much more likely to score you an initial conversion. Not to mention, have them coming back again and again. After all, personalization increases loyalty<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Enhance Customer Experience<\/h3>\n

When you put yourself in the shoes of your potential customers through customer personas, you can better anticipate your customers\u2019 needs. This can help direct new product development and even guide you in creating a better user experience for your website. All of which makes your customer happier \u2013 and increases their likelihood of returning again and again.<\/p>\n

Precise Market Segmentation<\/h3>\n

If we didn\u2019t make it obvious before, we\u2019ll make sure to spell it out now. You aren\u2019t limited to just one customer persona. You can \u2013 and SHOULD \u2013 create several. One for each of your target demographics (if you have multiple).<\/p>\n

Then, all you\u2019ve got to do is match your real customers up to these personas in your CRM databases. These customer segments help you send personalized, targeted marketing messages.<\/p>\n

How to Make Customer Personas<\/h2>\n

The first step is to ask questions about your potential customers (either ask them directly or involve your sales team). This includes simple demographic questions, yes, but also psychographic questions.<\/p>\n

Buyer Persona Template Questions<\/h3>\n