Persona’s? Why?

An example..

ask yourself this:

In all of your communications,

WHO are you actually talking to?

?

WHO is your audience?

Do you even know?

Is he?

are they?

or are they?

or these guys?

or is she?

?

Or do you think..

Maybe if you scream loud enough

And often enough..

Your audience will notice you?

?

hmmm..

Of course you’re reaching a (large) part of your audience in your communications..

For sure..

But is this really the most efficient way to communicate?

Does your message really hit its target??

This is where personas can help,

They can help you targeting the right audience, with the right message, at the right time..

Some background..

What is a persona?

A persona is

a fictional person (an archetype) who represents a user group

JAMES

“By designing for personas—whose goals and behavior patterns are well understood—you can satisfy the broader group of people represented by that persona.” Cooper

This will allow you to appeal strongly to the target audience these personas are based upon

By using personas,

A company can concentrate on designing for a manageable set of personas, knowing that they represent their target audience.

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Users' goals and needs will become a common point of focus throughout all

(customer facing) activities.

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A company can avoid the trap of ‘making’ what they would use or like themselves (or the (few) customers they know.)

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This makes sense..

Now back to you..

In your communications..

wouldn’t it be

If you knew,

REALLY knew

Who you are talking to?

Not just their age, company size, SIC code and location..

But their thoughts, worries, believes and ideas?

His?

His?Hers?

His?Hers?or his?

Knowing this,

will make it so much easier,

to create a really focused, targeted message towards your audience.

Creating and using personas,

will help align messaging throughout all your campaigns and other marketing activities,

1

It will make sure you really know who you are targeting,

2

which will allow you to create much better,

‘on the spot’ messaging,

3

It can help you to decide on HOW to communicate to your audience:

4

Do my personas prefer e-mail, twitter, postal mail, a phone call ?

What will trigger my personas? What message will attract their attention?

What are the allergies of my personas? & what do they like?

Who do they listen to? Who influences your personas?

What tone of voice to use? & how to best address them?

Do my personas prefer use of images ? Or maybe just text?

Loads of questions that can be answered so much more easily

once you really ‘know’ your personas.

To sum up

Every company designs products or services for their target market.

Personas are a ‘tool’ to get a better feel for this target market

This will help you to better know

- your customers and market- how and where to reach them- what they challenges and needs are - how to really attract their attention

Which will result in

- more and better focus on customers- products that better suit your market - better targeted communications- more aligned communications

So why waste time?

ENJOY!

Kim ten Brink