When a small business comes to your agency for marketing help, they want to see their investment in your services turn into real revenue.  So how can you make sure your clients get the most out of every dollar they spend with your agency?  

Mapping out buyer personas allows you to segment leads and create targeted campaigns that result in more conversions for your client. Here’s how:

One of Us… One of Us…

Before you can help your client drive new business through marketing, you need to know who their ideal customers are. Sit down with your client and talk to them about their best customers and use their insights to map out their “buyer personas”.

Your client may have just one, maybe two or three buyer personas to target. Interview their current customers and dig through their customer relationship management (CRM) system to find out more about the people who have spent the most with your client, are happiest with your client, or have made the most purchases with your client to learn more about the type of customers your client should be trying to attract.

Note: Unless the business’ forms ask for very detailed information, there may need to be follow-up calls/interviews with those top customers to find out all of the information you need to create the personas.

Each buyer persona should contain the following information to flesh out the business’ ideal customers:

  • Background: What is the person’s job title? How long have they been in their job?
  • Demographics: Here, you’re looking for age, gender, household income and residential area. (Suburbs? City? Farmlands?)
  • Identifiers: What is the person’s personality like? How do they prefer to hear from a company? How do they usually research a company or product? Where does that person buy groceries and close? What bands/musicians do they listen to? (Those last two questions may seem odd, but they can really help, especially when you branch into videos and Instagram posts to reach possible customers for a client, so the background music and “look” of the videos and posts will be ear- and eye-catching to the potential lead.)
  • Goals: What does the ideal customer focus on at his/her job? What is that person looking to accomplish professionally this year and next?
  • Challenges: What problems does the person encounter in the workplace?
  • How the Solution Helps: What can the product or service do to counter the challenges faced by this ideal customer?
  • Elevator Pitch: If you had this ideal customer’s ear for just 15 to 20 seconds, what would you say about the product or service that would get them interested to take action?

What’s Your Next Move?

Once you know who your client’s ideal customers are, you can create targeted messaging that speaks to them on a personal level. With more personalized marketing from the top of the funnel to the bottom, you can increase conversions and deliver better results.  Here’s how:

Go where the customers are. This seems simple, but if a buyer persona uses Quora quite a bit and your client hasn’t considered Quora for marketing, it’s time to start. If a buyer persona hangs out on Twitter, test a Twitter sponsored ad. Identify the marketing channels your client’s ideal buyers spend the most time on.

Target content. Create separate blog posts, social media posts, and online ads that speak to each one of the personas.  With more targeted content, you can attract top-of-funnel leads who better match the qualifications of the ideal customer. For instance, on the Hatchbuck blog, we have content that speaks to our two main personas – the small business owner and the marketing agency.

Optimize landing pages. Create unique landing pages with the language and descriptions that align to a particular persona. Point your client’s persona-based online ads, blog posts and email marketing campaigns to the corresponding landing page to improve landing page conversions.

Segment new leads. As your client shares targeted content in all the right places, they’re getting more leads in the door.  Make sure to segment those leads as they come in, so you can continue to reach them in a personal way through email marketing. For instance, add a drop-down question to your client’s newsletter subscription form, like,“What is the biggest challenge you face in the workforce?” Provide an answer for each of your client’s buyer personas so you can easily segment new leads in your database. Marketing automation can make database segmentation a cinch through online forms, dynamic tagging, and automated campaigns.

Create personalized email marketing campaigns. Today, personalization means more than putting a prospect’s name in the subject line of an email. Consumers expect email messaging to be timely and relevant. Segment your client’s database by personas and use marketing automation to send targeted email campaigns, driving prospects back to your client’s website until they convert.
Buyer personas and segmentation are the winning team you need to create more successful marketing campaigns for your clients. Use them together to attract the right buyer with targeted content, capture new leads with relevant landing page messaging, and convert more prospects into customers for your client through email nurturing.