Have you taken the time to create an effective buyer persona for your business? A great mailing campaign can only be as successful as it is targeted to the right person at the right time. Figuring out who your ideal customer is in terms of their goals, behaviors, and demographics is the best way to make sure your valuable marketing content is being mailed to somebody who might actually want to read it!
What is a Buyer Persona?
Let’s start by defining what a buyer or marketing persona is, and isn’t.
A buyer persona IS:
- A semi-fictional customer narrative
- An accurate representation of who actually buys from you
- A model created from your own customer data or market research
A persona is NOT a customer description based on wishful thinking, or your best guess as to who might be interested in buying your product or service.
Why Buyer Personas Are Important
When it comes to obtaining and retaining customers, the more you know about your ultimate client, the better.
Does Mary Massage value the convenience of your service above everything else?
Is the price of your product its most appealing feature for Carl Collector?
Being able to answer questions like these makes it easier for you to skew the content of your marketing material, AND figure out who your most promising target audience is when mailing to new prospects.
How to Create a Buyer Persona
A buyer persona usually includes information about your customer’s age, profession, income, and location, as well as more general details related to their goals, challenges, and how they shop or gather information.
Remember: a buyer persona is not something you create for each individual client – it’s a generalization about your customers as a group. Depending on the size of your business, you could have anywhere from one to twenty buyer descriptions and they might look something like this:
Mary Massage is a semi-retired, 50-year old certified accountant who works from her home in the suburbs of Big City, USA. She spends long hours at her computer, and likes to counter-balance this with regular massage therapy sessions. Because Mary Massage’s work schedule fluctuates so much, she appreciates being able to go online and book an in-home massage at the last minute.
How can compiling information like this help your mobile massage company to increase its customer base?
This profile tells you that your typical client makes a decent income but doesn’t have a regular schedule, which in turn tells you that the content you create and mail out should probably emphasize the convenience and flexibility of your service, rather than its cost. You can also see why a targeted mailing list that includes female professionals in a particular income bracket, who work from home, is a great place to start for reaching out to potential new clients.
While our persona example is pretty simple, the more data you can gather about your customers and leads, the more pointed and profitable your marketing strategy will be. Consider taking advantage of:
- customer surveys,
- client interviews,
- lead-gathering website forms, and
- buying trend analyses
Without knowing who you’re mailing to, you’re really just wasting time, energy, and your marketing budget on a direct mail campaign that’s unlikely to produce the results you want. Investing in an effective buyer persona is a great way to target your mail-out more successfully, and let today’s customers lead the way to tomorrow’s clients.