Marketing strategy and the effective use of Marketing Personas

Clients are fundamental to every business, and if you’re a professional service organisation, clients often fall into two distinct group – B2C (Business to Consumer) or B2B (Business to Business). Marketing campaigns and strategies for these client groups should be different, therefore knowing who the target client is, where to find them, and what their motivators are is key to getting your marketing right.

What is a marketing persona?

One technique that marketers adopt is creating marketing personas. A marketing persona is a fictional person, created to represent a target client group, and usually includes information such as characteristics, needs and motivators.

Understanding marketing personas help marketers create content that will resonate with your target audience, develop products and services, and make sure campaigns are placed where they are likely to be seen.

Marketing personas are created using market research and data collected through surveys, email campaigns and analytics. If your firm or organisation has created a suite of marketing personas then you’ll already appreciate how valuable they can be in shaping marketing strategies, and the importance of re-visiting them as your business evolves.

When was the last time you reviewed your marketing strategy?

If you think about the services your firm has offered over the past few years, ask yourself, have they stayed the same, or have they developed? Your answer to this question may be that, fundamentally, the type of services you offer haven’t changed, but there has been a shift in demand for a particular service because of, say, market changes or business trends. Regularly reviewing your marketing strategy helps you to maximise opportunities and ensure that your marketing campaigns reach the right people.

We recommend that firms have a 3-year strategic plan, as well as an annual one. These plans shouldn’t be regarded as static…marketing plans should always have a place on the board room agenda!

Should you update and review your marketing personas?

The answer is probably ‘yes’. Even in the most stable of businesses things change. Businesses grow, change, merge and acquire, and alongside that comes an evolving market and target audience. The personas made when your business was in its infancy are probably outdated, which means your marketing strategy probably is too.

Marketing strategies are only effective if they are built on accurate information, so updating marketing personas should be part of a regular strategy update to ensure you are creating the very best content and reaching your target every time, over time.

By creating specific personas, you can segment your clients into categories and create campaigns specifically for them, meaning you’re getting the most from your campaigns and your marketing budget.

Reasons to update your marketing personas:

• Have you got too little or too many?

This can be a minefield for anyone trying to create a targeted marketing campaign. If you have too many, you are going to struggle to create targeted campaigns without confusing your target audiences.

If you do not have enough, you are possibly missing a huge chunk of your target audience with your marketing efforts.

If you think it is time you expanded your target audience, look at who you already market to and think about those you are hoping to reach. It may be that you can streamline your existing target audience, segment it further, or add new potential clients.

• A new product or service.

If your company is about to launch a new product or service, a key consideration for your marketing efforts is targeting the right audience. By expanding your services, you expand your audience and need to consider their different needs, motivators, likes and dislikes.

For example, if you are a law firm looking to grow your business law work, but historically have focused on private client work then it’s going to take a well-considered marketing strategy…and time…to reach your new target audience. You may also need to consider the location of clients if your offering has grown from local, to national, or even international.

Likewise, if your company is streamlining its services or products, revisit your original bank of personas and consider streamlining them too and aligning them to your new products or service areas.

• Website traffic has declined.

If you have started to notice a decline in your website traffic, its possibly because your content is no longer resonating with your target audience. Look at the type of content you are sharing, if no-one is reading it, there is a possibility that your content is no longer relevant or is targeting the wrong people.

As the marketing landscape changes, you may also need to review the platforms you are using. Is there a new channel that your target audience are using, or a niche one that they prefer?

Keep an eye on what other people in your sector are doing, you never know, it may be time to dip your toe into video marketing or launch a podcast series after all.

• Merger or acquisition.

When companies merge, two different sets of strategies and ideas collide. And in most cases, the businesses gain new services, products, expertise, and target clients. Review the personas of each business and establish which are still relevant and which no longer work.

By combining and updating personas, identifying the platforms that work and the content that resonates, future marketing campaigns will successful.

• Rebrand.

As with a merger, a rebrand will need a new or at the very least, updated, marketing strategy. Identify which of your personas are still relevant to the new direction of the business and disregard those that are not.

By aligning your marketing personas with the new direction of the business, you can target them with your new strategy, keeping your existing and loyal clients happy and abreast of developments whilst also targeting new, potential clients.

Do I need to create marketing personas?

By creating a set of personas, you are arming yourself with the tools needed to create successful, targeted marketing campaigns, that meet the needs of your target audience.

Marketing personas help:

• Content Creation
• Social Media Marketing
• Ad Campaigns
• Product/Service Development
• Problem Solving

Do not get bogged down with creating hundreds, instead think of the services you really want to market and focus on those. It is important when creating campaigns to focus your efforts (and marketing budget) on the people you want to your services.

Flooding social media platforms is not only annoying, but also a complete waste of time. Always remember-quality over quantity.

For support with marketing strategy, contact office@scala.uk.com | 0114 407 0159.