You’ve finally done it.
Your product is clean, shiny, cost-efficient, and entirely worth the price tag.
In fact, you believed your product to be so amazing you thought is would sell itself.
Unfortunately, that’s not how the business world works.
In order to ensure the success of a product or service you must be actively looking for customers and enriching the experience of your current customers.
But what if you don’t who your customer is?
That’s when it’s time to sit down with your team and develop a customer persona (or ten) for your product or service.
What a Customer Persona is and What it Can Do For You
The customer persona is often referred to as the ‘buyer persona,’ but in digital marketing your customers aren’t just ‘buyers,’ they’re people.
Which is exactly why you should take the time to actually think about your customer.
It has nothing to do with profiling and focuses entirely on behavior.
These personas help you to accurately present your product to your target market and cater that product to your market’s needs and desires.
Furthermore, these personas work together to create a customer journey that guides you and your team through the entire process.
Define the Line:
Who is Your Customer?
Think of your customer as a character in an ever-growing storyline. Their relationship with you is a story in it’s own.
So grab your sales team and a sheet of paper and ask:
- Who is your customer?
- How do they think?
- What are they trying to accomplish or solve?
- What goals are motivating their behavior?
- Why do they decide to buy?
- Where do they buy?
Though this seems pretty forward and simple, you’ll be surprised how long it takes you and your sales team to answer these questions.
If it seems that you can’t come to a conclusion, then it’s best to take each market and develop a customer persona for it.
Typically, small businesses have anywhere between 5-20 customer personas.
And what do they do with those customer personas?
What Should My Customer Persona Look Like?
When it comes to design, everyone’s customer persona looks a little different.
No matter what outlay you decide, make sure that your sales team is able to easily navigate the persona.
What is your customer’s background?
Think about their job, their career path, and their family. These can be good indicators of how they think and how they decide to buy, as well as what motivate their behavior.
What do they look like on paper?
Think about the details.
What’s their income? Where do they live? Male or female? Age?
What does their average day look like?
How does your customer communicate with the world around them?
Do they have a certain demeanor?
This plays into how they come to purchase decisions and how they prefer to communicate.
What are their fears?
Often times, these are referred to as pain points. Though they can also be looked at as desires. They want a stress-free life, they want a solution, and so on.
Identify what your customer is looking to improve in their life.
What are their interests?
Movies, music, sports, and art all tend to be great indicators of who your customer is and what they look for in a provider.
Additionally, this can tell you a lot about the typical lifestyle of customers. There is no point in shooting if you don’t know where to aim. It’s extremely important to consider WHO you’re trying to sell your product to.
Not only will customer personas create a solid structure to market your product upon, they will also ensure you provide an optimized experience for your customers.
This is just one step in creating the best possible experience for your potential customers.
Next, find out how to use the The Customer Journey Map.
Or discover the reasons why your customers aren’t buying.
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