If your core goal is to sell more to your market, doesn’t it make sense to consider how your market will respond to your story and marketing message? The sale is actually not about you; it’s about them. Your brand story must stand the test of time, but there are a dozen ways to tell a story depending on the audience. Your top sales people are probably great at figuring out the personality type and pain points of their prospects and adjusting accordingly. You should be able to act with the same precision in every part of your marketing! But that means you need to determine in advance what types of people you are speaking to with documented buyer personas.
MAKE YOUR STORYTELLING MORE COMPELLING
Dividing your market into key buyer personas is the first step in delivering highly targeted messages. In fact, more than 70% of companies that exceed revenue and lead generation goals have documented buyer personas. The reverse is also true (seven out of ten companies that miss their revenue and lead goals DON’T have documented personas).
What’s in a persona? Demographics (age, sex, education level, income, role within the company, etc.) all factor into the equation. There are also many other pieces to the puzzle, including knowing how a customer does research, who they turn to for advice, and how they ultimately reach decisions.
You must approach each audience in a different way depending on how they think and feel—and what they really want.
- Is it all about effectively communicating the big picture and getting an issue resolved as quickly as possible?
- Should you dwell more on the human element of your company so the audience can resonate with your values?
- Does the prospect crave facts and statistics that make them feel they have done their due diligence to make an informed decision?
You can only answer those questions when you get inside the minds of your customers! Here’s just one of the many reasons it’s worth the effort.
Buyer Personas Help You Get in the Door—and More
Going beyond your overall B2B brand message, buyer personas help you decide which offerings to promote to a particular sector. You might have a number of different product lines, services, or solutions.
- Which one lines up with the most common pain point for a particular customer?
- Which one makes them feel like you really get their problem?
- Are you talking about the right product or service at the right time?
Choosing the best “door opening” solution is what gives you the chance to upsell and cross sell later, greatly increasing your revenue per customer. And the same principles can be applied to long-term clients. Imagine how you can segment your existing customer list to SUPERCHARGE your next drip email campaign and get the conversion rate you really want. It’s a fact: Using personas results in a 2-5 times higher open rate for emails.
Know Who You Want and Who You Don’t
There’s another HIDDEN BENEFIT of developing key buyer personas. Once you become adept at this process, you’ll also be able to figure out which prospects you want to avoid. There is always a subset of customers who take up all your time and are never satisfied. When you identify this kind of negative buyer persona, you can craft your marketing copy to effectively discourage these “problem prospects” from taking up your valuable time!
WHERE TO BEGIN…
Download a FREE copy of our BUYER PERSONA WORKSHEET as a great first step in gaining clarity in your brand message for more effective marketing. The best part is that it’s a lot of fun to mix up your knowledge with some imagination to create your key buyer personas!
Source: https://boardview.io/blog/buyer-personas-33-mind-blowing-stats/
Interested in FREE advice that will help you propel your sales? Contact us today!
