Everyone remembers the childhood fable Rumpelstiltskin: A magical imp is commissioned by a miller’s daughter-in-distress to turn straw into gold. Her firstborn is at stake when he gives her three chances to guess his name—upon correctly guessing “Rumpelstiltskin,” the imp perishes and the damsel is left with the power. (And, you know, her baby).
In medicine, it’s often said that patients take relief when they are able to tie their symptoms to a name–even if a disease is inoperable, understanding what it is gives them a certain sense of power over it. This is the Rumpelstiltskin Effect.
The same effect can be applied to marketing as it relates to persona building. Once we as marketers are able to put a “name” to behavior patterns across–in this case–not an individual, but a group of individuals who have similar traits and behavior patterns, we can begin to practice responsible marketing. With deft persona creation, marketing can be targeted, personalized, and useful.
Additionally, accurate personas will create a more effective workforce in general, via improved solution development across an organization’s product or service roadmap. No company wants to create features that won’t be useful to their existing or desired customer base. Once problems are solved or solutions are enhanced for those customers, they will become repeat customers, and ideally attract more like them.
The Data Deluge: Sourcing the Right Data
Modern day marketers are often faced with a conundrum: data, data everywhere but unclear if it’s drinkable. “Data-driven” is one of, if not the, biggest buzzword in marketing, and with good reason. If we make decisions backed by data, we can better service our target customer base. But there’s a lot of data out there, and in the case of persona building, what data matters?
Marketers can get a good start by utilizing CRM data, marketing automation data, and Google Analytics. Many people use traditional (tired) market research methods to capture personal information, but in a perfect world, professional and personal data should be stitched together to create a holistic view.
Creating Robust Personas
What information is imperative? When persona creation is meant to drive business objectives, here is what you need to begin to understand and authentically speak to your audience:
- What is their age, race and gender?
- Where do they live?
- What is their approximate household income?
- Are they parents?
- What are their interests?
- What are their buying behaviors?
- Who are their key influencers?
- What challenges do they face, both personally and professionally?
- What do they value?
The more information you can compile about your customer, the better persona you can create. Persona development can even get as tactical as communication preference, device choice, language and word cluster use, and platform preference.
Putting names and characteristics to your audience base via persona development will put you in the driver’s seat, allowing for your marketing to be strategic and responsible, and taking the guess work out of your content and communications strategies.
Uncover your company’s audience personas by requesting a demo of the People Pattern platform below.
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