When you’re in an advertising landscape full of clutter and noise, how do you cut through to get the attention of a potential customer? Innovation is what seems to be the solution — however, that’s easier said than done. If innovation came by as easily, we’d all be on our way to the Cannes Lions!
There are a few things you can do right to ensure you’re on the path to success, beginning with your audience. It’s common knowledge to segment and target your audience but often, Australian businesses tend to make the mistake of throwing all their money at a wide audience, hoping for massive payback, only to be disappointed. The Australian market is highly diverse with a different demographic to target, depending on which city or state you’re looking at.
Building user personas are an essential step prior to any marketing, sales or go-to-market strategy. Without knowing who your ideal customer is, you’re wasting precious resources like time and money. Focused target groups can result in much more sales conversions than a general push.
As a business owner or entrepreneur, here’s what you should keep in mind to grow.
What is a persona?
A persona goes beyond simple demographics — age, gender and location are your base but dig deeper to truly find out what makes your persona tick. Avoid a generic breakdown and ask yourself about what your consumer would care about. What are their aspirations? What media do they consume? On what platforms? Why? What is his/her purchasing behaviour like?
A persona should read like someone you want to know or like, not like a rough bio. For example, “Sam is 30 years old. He has kids and is divorced,” is a rough statement. It doesn’t tell you much about what he cares about beyond that. Instead, look Sam up, find some traits like, “Sam is divorced; and is looking for more stability in his life. He’s averse to change and it reflects in his purchasing patterns — he is fiercely loyal to brands that promise consistency.” Build in that layer of data, slowly but steadily. Give your persona layers!
Chalk out 2-3 profiles post market research and you’ll already be getting a better idea of what your marketing strategy should look like. If you’re struggling to imagine how or what an ideal consumer in the Australian industry would look like, give Roy Morgan’s Helix Personas a visit for an idea or two.
The importance of a persona in the digital industry
A persona can lead to important data-building through each step of the marketing chain. When it comes to an overall marketing strategy, knowing how your persona thinks or consumes media is essential. It will filter down to your marketing content strategy, further breaking down into content marketing and SEO strategy.
By enhancing this knowledge of your audience, you now know what your customer is looking for — retargeting them through content by using relevant keywords is a great way to boost organic search results. This process can be made even easier for your content team when they know what platforms they’re reaching out to these consumers on, thereby allowing for content to be tailored uniquely.
When it comes to paid marketing, choosing campaign keywords becomes a straightforward task. In certain cases, you can choose ‘negative’ keywords as well, to avoid targeting individuals that don’t fit within your profile.
Newpath Web Case Study
One of our best examples of the incorporation of Persona Development and how it helped would be for our client ‘Vets on Call’. When a gap in the market was found, building a persona helped us target consumers who would ideally fall within that gap. Using this data and market research, we reached out to consumers who fit our profile to help build Vets on Call’s customer base through targeted media and events.
This has ultimately also helped Newpath Web continue to improve on the app and build new consumer insights, consistently.
Developing a persona is a great way to ensure your business is targeting the right market — to learn more on building a tailored content strategy for your audience, reach out to us at [email protected].
