When it comes to creating a digital marketing campaign, there’s one very important step that is often overlooked by marketers.

Maybe it’s because they think it’s a waste of time, or that other market research they’ve performed should be enough.

But what many don’t realize is that creating buyer personas will actually help to focus and align your marketing strategies, thus having a greater impact on your company’s bottom line. After all, how can you drive more conversions and sales if you don’t know who you are trying to reach?

Before we get into the benefits of developing buyer personas for digital marketing, let’s take a closer look at what buyer personas are.

What exactly is a buyer persona?

A buyer persona is a profile of your customers that gives details about who they are and their motivations behind purchasing decisions.

The information in a buyer persona usually includes, but is not limited to:

  • Demographic information, including age, gender, income, and location
  • Employment information, including education level, job position and level, and experience
  • What their day-to-day looks, including habits, hobbies, and challenges they face
  • Consumer behavior, including shopping and technology behaviors
  • What pain points or problems do they experience? How does it make them feel? 

Details for creating buyer personas can be gathered internally from departments that have the most contact with your customers, like customer service, sales, and marketing. 

It’s also a great idea to go straight to the source and interview a few customers to gather firsthand information for your buyer personas. 

Once all information has been compiled, you can now create a profile of a fictional individual who personifies the characteristics of your best customer. And don’t forget to name each of your personas. Try a name that includes a characteristic of the persona or job title. For example, something as simple as “Nancy the Nurse” gives you a “person” to refer to when you’re developing content for that particular audience.

Benefits of buyer personas for digital marketing

Taking the time to create buyer personas allows you to fully optimize your digital marketing campaigns, leading to increased conversions and sales.

How exactly do buyer personas help you achieve this?

Buyer personas allow you to drive the right traffic to your website.

Not all engagement is good engagement. If someone lands on your website but they aren’t in your target audience and aren’t in the market for what you’re selling, it’s meaningless engagement. 

At WTM, we often develop user personas with clients who are launching a new website. Such information is valuable in creating user flows, site navigation, and website content. This ensures everything we do from start to finish is with the end users in mind.

For another example, if your paid ad is shown to everybody, it could certainly drive a lot of clicks and more traffic to your site. But if the people who click aren’t even in your target audience and aren’t in the market for what you’re selling, then it’s a wasted click, which equals wasted spend.

Use buyer personas as a guide to help create ad content or other marketing messaging that speaks to those who need your products or services. This will ensure that the right people engage with your brand. 

Buyer personas help narrow your marketing focus.

It’s possible that your buyer persona types could hang out on different social media platforms, or that they favor one type of content over another. Spelling these details out in each buyer  persona profile will help make sure you aren’t wasting your marketing time and resources on channels that aren’t likely to convert.

Buyer personas help create consistency in your digital marketing.

It’s important that, no matter what digital marketing strategy you are using, each of your buyer persona types are addressed and their messaging is consistent. Without a buyer persona as a guide, your messaging has a higher chance of missing the mark, which can be a waste of your marketing investment. 

Personas also help to align your internal teams, ensuring you’re all trying to reach the same buyers.

Buyer personas can be powerful tools to have in your digital marketing tool belt. The personas help remind us that digital marketing is more than just metrics, and that focusing on getting to know your customers can help you meet and even surpass your marketing and sales goals. 

Ready to utilize the user personas you’ve created across your digital marketing efforts? Our team of talented marketers is ready to learn about your personas and help you develop a comprehensive strategy to reach those consumers. Reach out to WTM for more information.