The personification of your ideal client. That is the best definition of a persona.
This is what you should think about before planning your sales strategies and even the type of product or service you are going to sell.
Want to know more about this concept?
Follow our article and discover 5 foolproof tips for creating yours person and not make mistakes in the approach.
You will read about:
- What is persona?
- Difference between persona and target audience
- How to create the persona?
What is persona?
A person It is the personification of your ideal customer and it is built using real data about the behavior and demographic characteristics of your customers.
To create your persona you need to know their stories, motivations, challenges, goals and concerns.
Therefore, in order for you to define your persona correctly, you need to have contact with your target audience.
This makes it possible to identify characteristics, consumption habits, pains and desires in common among potential buyers of your product or service.
Difference between persona and target audience
This is one of the most common questions for those who are starting to understand these concepts, so let's make it clear: person and target audience are not synonymous.
In a way, the target audience is a broad segment of society to whom you sell your product or service. While the persona is the representation of your ideal customer, in a humanized and personalized way.
Here's an example:
Imagine you own a furniture company and want to focus your sales on people who are buying their first home.
Your target audience would be:
Men and women over 25 years old, already graduated from college, with an average monthly income of R$3.000.
Your persona would look like this:
José Luís, 26 years old, recently graduated in engineering and has a steady job. After finishing college, he decided it was time to move out of his parents' house. So he rented an apartment close to his work.
Now, you are looking for cheap furniture because you want to save your money to start your master's degree.
However, due to his work, he has little time to research furniture and therefore uses the internet to find products and services.
Did you notice the difference?
At first glance, you may get the impression that the definition is the same.
However, it makes a big difference to think about a marketing strategy aimed at José Luís, who has difficulties and desires, and not at a large target audience.
— But I have different types of clients
That's okay, you don't have to limit your strategy to just one person. It is common for some businesses to have more than one defined persona.
However, be careful not to lose focus. By choosing too many personas, you may end up not speaking to any of them and your strategy will be in vain.
Read more about:
How to create the persona?
To create the right personas for your business, you need to answer some questions about your potential customer. That’s why you need to know your audience.
See now 5 infallible tips to create yours person:
Benchmark your competitors
If you are just starting out and don't have a client yet, you can benchmark your competitors' social networks.
What type of audience is there? Is it mostly male? Is it mostly younger? What type of content generates the most engagement among the audience?
This helps to identify the profile of people who consume this type of product or service.
Evaluate your audience
Don't sell yet, but already have a social media profile? Then you can evaluate who your audience is.
What kind of people follow your page? What kind of content do they like the most? The idea here is to try to identify a common pattern of behavior that can guide the creation of your persona.
Listen to your customers
If your business is more mature, you can use your own customers to reach your ideal customer.
For that, talk to some of them and find out their main needs. You can do this over the phone or by sending out a simple survey on Google Forms.
And most importantly, understand how your product or service solves a real problem for your customers.
You can also use these survey forms on your page or website.
Offer something of value to your audience
To encourage your audience to respond to your form, offer something of value to them. person!
How about an e-book on a subject of interest to you? person? It can be very attractive and triggers reciprocity.
Questions that cannot be missing from your forms
- What are your pains?
- What are your wishes?
- What brands do you usually use?
- What is your daily routine like?
- What are your goals?
From this, you will have an idea of what your persona wants and needs, and thus, you can offer a solution that meets their needs.
Additionally, you will discover what type of content your persona is interested in, and with that, you can think of content that talks about their problems and desires.
This way, you create a connection with your audience, as you demonstrate that you know what they go through on a daily basis. What’s more, you show that the solution to that problem is closer than they imagine.
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Use the empathy map
When it comes to defining your target audience, the empathy map is one of the most widely used tools in Digital Marketing. This tool allows you to understand each customer segment in a very visual way.
With this, you can establish clear hypotheses regarding the main needs, behaviors and personal attributes of your ideal client.
Fill out the form below and download your free empathy map:
Well, the empathy map is made up of six customer-related questions:
What do you think and feel?
In this quadrant, you should put what your product or service awakens in the minds of consumers:
- How does the persona feel about the world?
- What are your concerns?
- What are your dreams?
- What are your short-term plans?
- Difficulties you face on a daily basis
- What is a typical day like for the persona?
What do you hear?
Here, you can ask about idols and other influences that the persona receives from different media, such as communication:
- What people and ideas is she influenced by?
- Who are your idols?
- What are your favorite brands?
- What communication products do they consume?
Read more about:
What does he say and do?
This quadrant refers to the consumption of the product or service from the moment the persona decides to buy it. Therefore, it is necessary to understand their behavior:
- What does the persona talk about?
- What topics interest you?
- What are your hobbies?
- What do you do in your free time?
What do you see?
This quadrant should talk about the visual stimuli your persona receives. You can ask:
- What are your friends like?
- What do you do on a daily basis?
- What is the world like that person lives in?
What are your pains?
It corresponds to the difficulties that your audience experiences daily:
- What are you afraid of?
- What are your frustrations?
- What's stopping you from doing something you want?
What are your wishes?
This is what you will offer your persona:
- What is success for the persona?
- Where does she want to go?
- What would end your problems?
With all this data displayed in a visible way, you can draw your persona’s profile.
To enrich the construction of your persona, brainstorm with your team to collect ideas and suggestions that can characterize your persona adequately.
Don't forget to define the name, gender and age of your persona.
Now that you know how to create a persona, and with that, improve your shopping experience, know that there are other strategies in digital marketing that will boost your sales!
Meet GS2 Marketing
We are experts in mapping your ideal customer, attracting visitors and generating leads for our clients.
Our success strategy is based on designing your persona's purchasing journey.
We gather data and analyze our successful clients from different segments to come up with a methodology that will increase your sales.
We have the most strategic areas of digital marketing to make your business grow!
Want to know more about how GS2 Marketing can help you map your ideal customer and sell more?
Talk with us!
