Creating marketing personas can be a fun exercise. You get a chance to really dive into who makes up your target audience, and in a way, get to know them. And now that you have these marketing personas, the next step is putting them to good use, and apply these findings to create successful sales and marketing campaigns.
Not sure where to start? Here are three ways you can put your marketing personas to good use:
- Update your current content – Yes, you will want to use your personas for future marketing and sales materials, but don’t forget about the items that are already being used. A good example here is your website. I like to think of it as a living, breathing thing. Now that you are armed with insights into who you want to reach, take a thorough review of your website, and make updates as needed. This is also good practice for email templates that are used often by your sales team.
- Do some marketing segmentation – A one size-fits all approach is not going to work. Now that you know who you are talking too, make sure your marketing efforts speaks to these different personas. How? This could mean segmenting your email marketing lists, sending slightly different emails to these segments. Or creating a few different versions of a 1-sheeter, depending on the goals or challenges of each persona. Same end goals, just saying it different ways.
- Create new content – The fun stuff! Now’s the time to start those eBooks, one-sheeters and blog posts you’ve been meaning to get to. Use your marketing personas as a guide and as your inspiration. You can create different pieces to speak to the challenges and opportunities for each persona. This content is one form of personalization, according to Entrepreneur author, Danny Wong, who states that this “is a valuable strategy because such a strategy can lead to a 20 percent increase in opportunities when it’s used as part of nurturing your leads.”
These are just three of many different ways you can use your marketing personas. Looking for more? I am partial to the suggestions Erik Devaney outlines in his article, 14 Ways to Get More Use Out of Your Buyer Personas.
Not sure how to get started?
It’s natural to feel a little intimidated by marketing personas, especially if these are a first for your company or team. My recommendation is to start with a review of all your current content. This will not only show you where updates need to be made, but give you ideas and insights into what you should do next. The trick here is to stay organized, and use some strategy. Think about which pieces will be the most effective for each persona, along with the best way for them to receive these pieces (email, sales call, social media, etc.).
Don’t be afraid to ask for a little help to get you started. Here at Content Matterz, we’re always happy to brainstorm some ideas and help out with content creation.