How to create user personas for your brand
If you’ve already swotted up on creating killer content, you know that user (or indeed content) personas are the way to keep things targeted.
Targeted posts mean better engagement and better conversions. That’s from the perspective of pushing people through your site, from page to page, and actual conversions from people to paying clients. So, user personas are important. But where do you start?
How many user personas do I need?
There’s no exact number, but the best way to look at this is by groups, rather than individuals. Each group will share traits, such as interests and life stage for example.
Most importantly, the users in each group will have a common ground when it comes to pain points and goals. Discovering those is the key to creating effective content that adds value to the user.
Don’t be too generic
You can see why we say that it’s important to not be too generic with all this in mind. We’ll use that word again, targeted! That’s the aim. If you have a broad age range within one group, segment it. Create different profiles for each. Because big differences like this will impact how and what we say to people.
Remember, if it is too generic, you’ll be generating content that speaks to no one, and that is a waste of everyone’s time. If you have a large number of groups you can also split them into primary and secondary lists, giving you an order to prioritise content and brand experience projects.
The importance of research
We work with clients to create a set of different user personas which all feeds into your digital content marketing strategy. The only way we can do this effectively is through research.
We start by doing some digging to find out who your customers are, and who your prospects are. Data sources like website analytics are a great way to help build a picture here, and this can cross-reference with website-usage. This kind of information is a goldmine, but only if you understand and use it correctly.
The customer fact-find process
We also use customer fact finds to get more in-depth detail and first-hand data. Surveys are a great way to dig deeper, along with the following methods:
User persona workshops – getting the team and stakeholders together to share research and start to build the personas together. The important thing is having someone experienced to help you get the most from the experience.
In conclusion …
There are big benefits to creating well-researched user personas in terms of nailing your marketing efforts. It does require the right info and approach, and without that, there are pitfalls to watch out for.
We’re experienced in leading user personas projects here at W/Brand, from leading workshops to conducting research and building the profiles you need to boost your marketing strategy. So if you’d like to find out how we’d approach this with you, content us now and we’ll talk you through it.
