If you are an inbound marketer trying to get the attention of prospects through digital marketing, buyer personas are a must. Buyer personas help you segment and target readers, enabling you to personalize your approach and better hone in on buyers and their specific needs. There are various ways to work them into your inbound digital marketing strategy.
1. Buyer Persona Basics
If you are wondering what a buyer persona is, here is the scoop. It is essentially a profile that includes demographic details such as occupation, income, interest, hobbies, age, and geographic location. Think if it as a snap shot of your ideal customer or customers. This type of descriptor enables you to craft digital content that will appeal to these demographics, saving time and increasing leads, particularly online. Once you have crafted these personas, it is time to implement them into your marketing strategies.
2. Website That Wows
Your website should be aesthetically pleasing, but it must also attract your target prospects or it is only doing part of its job. Before you create or redesign your website think about who the site is for and who you want it to attract.
This strategy also applies to site navigation, not just appearance. HubSpot tells us that incorporating buyer personas into your site design can make it two to five times easier for users to navigate. Knowing behavior patterns can inform you of browsing habits. You can even use responsive technology to change content per persona based on a prospect’s IP address.
3. The Business of Blogging
Blogs hold so much potential in the digital marketing space and are one of the best ways to get readers to return. Thus, you should always factor in buyer personas when crafting your blog content. If you know your customers’ pain points are, you can write to their needs and concerns since you know what type of content is valuable to them. The pros over at Curata list buyer personas as one of the top three things that should be driving your content strategy.
4. Mastering Social Media
No discussion of digital marketing is valid without the inclusion of social media marketing—its importance simply cannot be ignored. In the case of SM, personas not only help you narrow your reach and guide your content, but they can also guide you to the most appropriate platforms for prospects. For example, if you are trying to reach hip twenty-somethings, Instagram and SnapChat are smart bets, but if your target client is a 50-year-old corporate exec, you will do better to stick to LinkedIn and Twitter for content delivery.
5. Discovering and Nurturing
Once your personas are established and guiding your online content, you can continue nurturing prospects and leads through other forms of digital marketing, such as email and landing pages. If you use automation in your inbound marketing, you can set up rules for tailored content for buyers in various stages of the buyer journey.
Buyer personas are vital to your digital marketing campaigns and your ROI. Use this free guide to get started on the path to success.
