How to Create Customer Personas that Drive Sales

An imperative part of Digital Marketing is the creation of Customer Personas.

When Customer Personas are done right, every single piece of content you create is aimed specifically at a person that is willing to buy from you.

When they are done wrong, you waste time and resources creating content that is simply not a match for the people that find it, resulting in very few sales, shares, and a poor online presence.

And, another downside, is that the people that do want your stuff are never having anything directed towards them. They just don’t feel wanted.

What is a customer persona exactly?

Customer Personas are created identities that represent who is buying from you. The more these are flushed out the better.

Once you understand a Persona, you’ll be able to create specific blog posts, ebooks, guides, landing pages, and emails for them.

Imagine if every single blog post you wrote was written specifically for the person reading it.

  • Would you have more traffic?
  • Would you have a better Click Through Rates?
  • Would you have more social media shares?
  • Would you get more sales?

Yes, yes, yes.

Because each Persona is representing a different type of person, there will be information that is applicable to one and not another. But, there are a few things that should be present in all Personas.

User Story

Each Persona must have a story. This story is why this Persona is interested in you and your company. What makes them interested in you?

User Needs

Now, what does your Persona need? What is the most important thing or things to them? Basically, what do they want from you?

For User Story and User Needs you can delve into more than just specifically why they might want you and your products.

Get into the meat of their life. Figure out other needs that they might have. You’d be amazed when you might find a constant trend throughout your Personas that could inspire a new product or pitch.

Demographics

The demographics that are important to you will fluctuate wildly depending on your business. If you sell Digital Marketing Consulting services then you probably don’t care if your customers own houses or have children. It’s just not applicable.

But if you’re selling underground pools, house ownership and children become very pertinent.

Let me give you a short list of Demographics that might be useful :

  • Urbanicity
  • Income
  • Age (range)
  • Homeownership
  • Children
  • Education Level
  • Employment Level
  • Diversity
  • Team size

Psychographics

With Psychographics we want to find the mental aspects that define them.

For most Personas just having Opinions, Interests, and Attitudes are enough to get a real good grasp on who your persona is.

You might be surprised at what matters for Psychographics.

Try to write up an exhaustive list. Things they are absolutely for and things they are absolutely against. You will probably see a ton of grouping between all your Personas that can lead you to a singular point of interest.

Likewise, sometimes you will see a scattering of opinions in your Personas. That’s fine, people are different, but it is an indicator that you should not be focusing on these subjects, as you will repel half your Personas.

How Many Personas?

Now, let’s talk about how many different Personas you should have. There is no concrete answer. Only having one is too narrow. I cannot think of a product or service that would only ever sell to one Demographic.

And have 20 Personas is probably way too many. Odds are you’re just finding small, unimportant differences and turning them into two Personas where one would do just fine. No reason to make more work for yourself or your team.

I think the sweet spot is between three and five personas. This allows you to get some diverse Personas going, without getting lost in the weeds.

Trends

As you write up your Personas, look for trends. Maybe most of your Personas tend to be hands on, Do-It-Yourself-ers.

They like doing things with their hands.

Creating an eBook full of unique DIY opportunities will be interesting to EVERY single potential customer. That’s really amazing.

You also want to find some Negative Trends. These are things that all or most of your Personas just hate. Avoid these topics like the plague, even just in passing.

It might be useful to complete your SWOT thoroughly before you begin your Personas.

Taking the time to create well researched and thorough Personas will guide all of your content, emails, and even your products.

The result?

  • Better Click through Rates
  • More sales
  • More Social Media Shares
  • More Traffic

This sounds pretty good. And, luckily, this is something you can START today.

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