We’ve writ­ten about how you cre­ate buy­er per­sonas for your busi­ness, but what about using buy­er per­sonas for your mar­ket­ing cam­paigns? It’s good to have a deep under­stand­ing of your tar­get mar­ket, but it’s even bet­ter if you know how to use that infor­ma­tion to ben­e­fit your mar­ket­ing efforts.

Buy­er per­sonas make this process eas­i­er because you don’t have to sift through large amounts of data every time you want to make a deci­sion about a cam­paign. Sure, when you first cre­ate a buy­er per­sona, you have to exam­ine your cus­tomer data care­ful­ly. But once that’s done, you have a reli­able “char­ac­ter” to help with every mar­ket­ing, sales, and adver­tis­ing cam­paign until the mar­ket changes (which could be more than ten years down the line!). So, it’s a reli­able investment.

Rather than look­ing at an end­less spread­sheet of sta­tis­tics, you can use some­thing more acces­si­ble and instant­ly recog­nis­able: the buy­er per­sona.

So, how does one gain valu­able insights from a buy­er per­sona once it’s been cre­at­ed? And how can every sin­gle mar­ket­ing cam­paign ben­e­fit from one? Let’s dive in:

How can my marketing campaign benefit from a buyer persona

Targeted messaging

Buy­er per­sonas pro­vide a clear under­stand­ing of your audi­ence’s needs, desires, and pain points. With these insights, you can craft mes­sages that res­onate deeply, ensur­ing that your mar­ket­ing com­mu­ni­ca­tions are always rel­e­vant and compelling.

Efficient resource allocation

Instead of spread­ing your bud­get thin­ly across var­i­ous chan­nels and tac­tics, buy­er per­sonas allow you to focus on what real­ly mat­ters to your audi­ence. This ensures a high­er return on invest­ment (ROI) as you’re invest­ing in strate­gies that have the high­est like­li­hood of success.

Personalised customer experience

Per­son­al­i­sa­tion is key when con­sumers are often over­whelmed by mar­ket­ing mate­ri­als. Buy­er per­sonas enable busi­ness­es to tai­lor con­tent, offers, and inter­ac­tions to spe­cif­ic audi­ence seg­ments, enhanc­ing their expe­ri­ence and increas­ing engage­ment and loyalty.

Improved product and service development

By under­stand­ing your audi­ence’s needs and chal­lenges through buy­er per­sonas, busi­ness­es can iden­ti­fy gaps in the mar­ket or areas for improve­ment in their offer­ings, lead­ing to bet­ter prod­ucts and services.

Enhanced customer loyalty

When cus­tomers feel under­stood and catered to, they’re more like­ly to stay loy­al to a brand. Buy­er per­sonas help busi­ness­es antic­i­pate and meet the evolv­ing needs of their cus­tomers, fos­ter­ing long-term relationships.

Data-driven decision making

Instead of rely­ing on gut feel­ings or broad mar­ket trends, buy­er per­sonas pro­vide con­crete data about your audi­ence. This data-dri­ven approach ensures that mar­ket­ing deci­sions are ground­ed in real­i­ty and more like­ly to succeed.

Streamlined content strategy

Know­ing your audi­ence’s pref­er­ences, from the type of con­tent they con­sume to the plat­forms they fre­quent, allows for a more focused and effec­tive con­tent strat­e­gy. Whether it’s blog posts, videos, or pod­casts, every piece of con­tent can be tai­lored to res­onate with your tar­get audience.

Incor­po­rat­ing buy­er per­sonas into your mar­ket­ing strat­e­gy is not just best prac­tice; it’s a neces­si­ty. By under­stand­ing and cater­ing to the spe­cif­ic needs and desires of your audi­ence, busi­ness­es can craft more effec­tive, impact­ful, and suc­cess­ful mar­ket­ing cam­paigns. So, how can one go about this?

How to use your buyer persona to guide your marketing campaign

When you’re com­ing up with a new mar­ket­ing cam­paign, your buy­er per­sona can help guide your ideas. The fol­low­ing are three com­mon ques­tions asked at this stage, and some exam­ple buy­er per­sonas to show how you can find the answers you seek:

Q: What content should I create for my marketing campaign?

Know­ing your audi­ence is essen­tial to cre­at­ing engag­ing and rel­e­vant con­tent that attracts cus­tomers. Our exam­ple buy­er per­sona is Adven­ture-Seek­ing Alex:

Alex is an avid trav­eller with a fond­ness for adren­a­line-pump­ing expe­ri­ences. He’s a reg­u­lar con­sumer of trav­el con­tent on YouTube, often binge-watch­ing cre­ators who show­case breath­tak­ing land­scapes, dar­ing escapades, and hid­den gems around the world. He’s drawn to the authen­tic­i­ty of these cre­ators, their first-hand expe­ri­ences, and the visu­al sto­ry­telling that YouTube videos offer. With Alex in mind, your con­tent approach becomes crys­tal clear. Col­lab­o­rat­ing with pop­u­lar trav­el YouTu­bers could be a gold­mine. You could spon­sor a series where a cre­ator embarks on adven­tures using your brand’s gear or ser­vices. Or per­haps host­ing a YouTube live ses­sion with a trav­el influ­encer, dis­cussing tips and tricks and answer­ing audi­ence queries in real-time. Your own brand’s con­tent could include visu­al­ly rich videos that mir­ror the style of pop­u­lar trav­el vlogs, com­plete with drone shots, point-of-view expe­ri­ences, and behind-the-scenes glimpses. And don’t for­get the pow­er of lists – curat­ing lists of favourite trav­el spots, adven­ture gear reviews, or even user-gen­er­at­ed con­tent can keep Alex and his com­mu­ni­ty engaged for hours. While long-form arti­cles and sta­t­ic images have their place, the dynam­ic and immer­sive nature of YouTube videos is most engag­ing for some­one like Alex, espe­cial­ly when those videos trans­port him to far-off places or thrilling adventures!

Dig­ging into your buy­er per­sona can reveal cru­cial details about your tar­get audi­ence and help your busi­ness cre­ate con­tent that they enjoy. Con­tent cre­ation is akin to craft­ing expe­ri­ences. It’s about weav­ing sto­ries and visu­als that res­onate, ensur­ing your brand becomes a book­marked favourite in the vast dig­i­tal library of your audi­ence’s life.

This process of under­stand­ing your tar­get mar­ket requires a healthy dose of cre­ative flair, so maybe invite your cre­ative staff to unleash their imag­i­na­tions for this one.

Q: Where should I channel my marketing campaign?

Con­sumers don’t all fre­quent the same online spaces, and buy­er per­sonas don’t either. Fig­ur­ing out where your per­sona “hangs out” online can guide your strat­e­gy. So, con­sid­er our buy­er per­sona, Eco-Friend­ly Eric.

Eric is a pas­sion­ate envi­ron­men­tal­ist who spends his time read­ing blogs about sus­tain­able liv­ing, par­tic­i­pat­ing in online eco-com­mu­ni­ties, and watch­ing doc­u­men­taries on stream­ing plat­forms. He’s less active on main­stream social media but is an active mem­ber of niche forums and dis­cus­sion groups ded­i­cat­ed to green ini­tia­tives. With Eric in mind, it becomes clear where your mar­ket­ing efforts should be con­cen­trat­ed. Instead of invest­ing heav­i­ly in broad-reach­ing plat­forms like Face­book or Insta­gram, you’d find more suc­cess tar­get­ing niche forums, eco-blogs, and per­haps even col­lab­o­rat­ing with stream­ing plat­forms for doc­u­men­tary spon­sor­ships or ads. Email newslet­ters fea­tur­ing eco-

tips and sus­tain­able prod­uct rec­om­men­da­tions might also res­onate with Eric, giv­en his keen inter­est in the sub­ject. Fur­ther­more, under­stand­ing Eric’s val­ues means that any con­tent cre­at­ed, be it blog posts, videos, or pod­casts, should empha­sise sus­tain­abil­i­ty, eco-friend­li­ness, and gen­uine cor­po­rate respon­si­bil­i­ty. In con­trast, chan­nels like celebri­ty-dri­ven plat­forms or those that empha­sise con­sumerism might not align with Eric’s val­ues and could be less effec­tive or even counterproductive.

This exam­ple shows how, by tru­ly under­stand­ing and read­ing your buy­er per­sona, you can select the chan­nels that not only reach your audi­ence but res­onate with their val­ues, inter­ests, and habits. Think­ing more about your buy­er per­sona in this way will ensure your mar­ket­ing mes­sages lead to mean­ing­ful engage­ment from the right consumers.

Q: How much should I spend on my marketing campaign?

Imag­ine a buy­er per­sona; let’s call her Tech-Savvy Tina.

Tina is a young pro­fes­sion­al who relies heav­i­ly on social media for her dai­ly news and enter­tain­ment. She’s also an avid pod­cast lis­ten­er dur­ing her com­mute and uses search engines to research prod­ucts before mak­ing a pur­chase. Giv­en this infor­ma­tion, it would be wise to allo­cate a sig­nif­i­cant por­tion of your bud­get towards social media adver­tis­ing, espe­cial­ly on plat­forms Tina fre­quents. Invest­ing in pod­cast adver­tise­ments or spon­sor­ships could also yield a high ROI, giv­en Tina’s lis­ten­ing habits. Last­ly, ensur­ing a robust SEO strat­e­gy and pos­si­bly some search engine mar­ket­ing would cater to Tina’s research-dri­ven pur­chas­ing behav­iour. On the oth­er hand, tra­di­tion­al adver­tis­ing meth­ods like bill­boards or radio ads might not be as effec­tive for reach­ing Tina.

By under­stand­ing and read­ing into your buy­er per­sona, you can make more informed deci­sions about where your mar­ket­ing spend will have the most impact. This not only ensures a high­er ROI but also pre­vents wastage of resources on chan­nels that your tar­get per­sona might not engage with.

Understanding the buyer’s journey

The buy­er’s jour­ney, or mar­ket­ing fun­nel, has a cru­cial part to play in mar­ket­ing efforts. Depend­ing on where your tar­get audi­ence is (Aware­ness, Con­sid­er­a­tion, or Deci­sion), your cam­paign will dif­fer in its approach.

If your busi­ness’s prod­ucts are inno­v­a­tive and most­ly unknown (e.g., remem­ber the time before air fry­ers were so pop­u­lar?!), your tar­get mar­ket is unlike­ly to be in the Consideration

or Deci­sion stage. Your mis­sion will be to edu­cate and raise aware­ness, using your buy­er per­sona to fine-tune your approach.

If you sell a rel­a­tive­ly pop­u­lar prod­uct in a com­pet­i­tive mar­ket, your tar­get audi­ence is like­ly to be aware of your busi­ness or a com­peti­tor’s. This means you need to use mar­ket­ing to stand out from your com­peti­tors and show con­sumers your pro­duc­t’s unique sell­ing points.

And final­ly, if your busi­ness’s web­site is see­ing a high num­ber of vis­i­tors but also a high cart aban­don­ment rate, your efforts should be direct­ed towards final­is­ing purchases.

To explain fur­ther, here are some exam­ple buy­er per­sonas to illus­trate the dif­fer­ent stages of the buy­er’s jour­ney and cor­re­spond­ing mar­ket­ing efforts.

Research­ing Rita

Com­par­ing Carla

Deci­sive Dave

Think about the buy­er per­sona you’ve already cre­at­ed. Where does your char­ac­ter sit in the buy­er’s jour­ney? Ask your­self the fol­low­ing ques­tions to help fig­ure this out:

• Is your tar­get audi­ence aware of their problem?
• Are they aware of the solution?
• Are they look­ing for a solution?
• Is your tar­get audi­ence shared by a competitor?
• Is your com­peti­tor more pop­u­lar than your brand?
• Are your tar­get site vis­i­tors adding items to their basket?
• Are they aban­don­ing their carts?
• Or are you not see­ing many new site vis­i­tors at all?

The amount of detail you can add to your buy­er per­sona is unlim­it­ed. In fact, it’s bet­ter if it’s high­ly detailed. Ask­ing your­self ques­tions and con­sid­er­ing a range of fac­tors is key to devel­op­ing a well-round­ed and help­ful buy­er persona.

And if you want to be real­ly thor­ough, run every mar­ket­ing deci­sion by your buy­er per­sona to see if it fits. If you’re lucky, your per­sona will become as help­ful as your most trust­ed mar­ket­ing consultant!