THE ULTIMATE CUSTOMER PERSONA TEMPLATE

Transcription

1 THE ULTIMATE CUSTOMER PERSONA TEMPLATE 1 BlueSteeleSolutions.com 1 BlueSteeleSolutions.com

2 CONTENTS The Ultimate Customer Persona Template 3 Effective Marketing Is Tailored to a Specific Segment of Your Audience 4 Customer Personas Help You Reach Specific Segments of Your Audience (...) 5 Create Multiple Customer Personas 6 Involve Your Decision Makers and Anyone Who Is Customer Facing 7 An Example of How Successes Combine to Make Segments of Your Audience 8 Finding Successes and Segmenting Your Audience 11 Overlapping Successes Describe Specific Audience Segments 15 Question for Each Segment 17 About You and Your Brand 18 About your Customer If Business to Business (B2B) 21 About your Customer for Everyone 23 Customers Needs, Problems, and Location in Their Buyer s Journey 26 Communication 32 Add a Picture and Call It Done 37 2

3 THE ULTIMATE CUSTOMER PERSONA TEMPLATE A Guide to Reaching Your Most Profitable Customers Your customers are your lifeblood they re the people who make the gears of your business whir smoothly day to day, week to week, and month to month. Reaching new customers can be much harder than it looks. As a consumer, you ve noticed the proliferation of advertising and marketing that constantly competes for your attention. Look at your own experience, how effective is that marketing, really? In most cases, it doesn t do much of anything. But, every now and then, you find something that seems almost tailor made for you, something that plays your heartstrings like a fine-tuned violin Something that you desire. Something that seems like just the perfect fit for you, where you re at in life, your needs and values. But this is rare, the holy grail of marketing. To achieve this, you have to craft a message that reaches someone in ways that nothing else will.

4 EFFECTIVE MARKETING IS TAILORED TO A SPECIFIC SEGMENT OF YOUR AUDIENCE Your audience is a segment of the population, a large group of people (yes, even if you re B2B) for whom you can solve problems. But that group can be very large indeed, and the problems you solve can not only be very different from each other, but the way in which you solve the problems can vary greatly from one customer to the next. For each individual customer, success looks different, but overall success can often be broken down into many different individual successes. Your customers may come to you with many different problems each problem you solve can result in a success. Those successes are critical, because each segment of your audience has a different set of problems. That set of problems, the place where a series of potential successes come together, defines that segment of your audience. In your entire audience (remember, the pool of people for whom you can solve problems), successes tend to overlap. When you create a message that s meant for one of these personas, it is infinitely more effective. These overlaps create groups (or segments), and these segments can be represented by a single, made-up personality (called a persona) that represents one of the groups you wish to reach. When you create a message that s meant for one of these personas, it is infinitely more effective than a message created for anyone who falls into the gigantic pool that makes up your audience. A message that s made for everyone can never really resonate with anyone. But a message that s made specifically for your persona (that is, for the real members of that segment of your audience who your persona represents), that message absolutely has the capacity to achieve an effect. 4

5 CUSTOMER PERSONAS HELP YOU REACH SPECIFIC SEGMENTS OF YOUR AUDIENCE MORE EFFECTIVELY This is why we create customer personas. If you create a message that s meant to reach any human with money in their pocket, your message will be so broad and general that it will mean almost nothing to most people. However. If you can create marketing that speaks clearly, powerfully, and meaningfully to a very specific segment of your audience, then that piece of marketing is going to be infinitely more effective than something broad and generalized. You need to know what success means for them, you need to know what they re struggling with, what s causing them pain, and you need to know how to highlight that pain and how to relieve it. But to do that, you need to know what success means for them, you need to know what they re struggling with, what s causing them pain, and you need to know how to highlight that pain (and how you relieve it). 5

6 CREATE MULTIPLE CUSTOMER PERSONAS Targeting is the name of the game a customer persona is how you start. By creating multiple customer personas for all the different types of customers who are a perfect fit for you, your business, and your product or service, you set yourself up to craft infinitely-more-targeted marketing than you would have created otherwise. I suggest you print out 4 or 5 or 10 copies of the lower portions of this document (everything from Questions for Each Segment and beyond) Once you ve looked at your audience as a whole, defined the different types of successes for all your customers, and then combined those successes into groups, then you can say This group can be represented by a persona, and I can answer specific questions about this persona to help me determine how best to speak to that persona. You can see some examples of what successes look like on page 8. 6

7 INVOLVE YOUR DECISION MAKERS AND ANYONE WHO IS CUSTOMER FACING Before you begin, make sure you get all the decision makers in your business involved in this process. At the very least, let them know what you re doing and ask for any ideas or input. You ll also want to involve the people who are most customer-facing they re going to have valuable insights into who your actual and potential customers are. Once you have defined all the different possible successes for your customers and arranged them into groups, you can then create personas based on these groups. If you can, try to interview a customer who fits well into one of these groups and ask them the questions below. If you can t get a customer to interview or don t feel comfortable asking your clients these questions, have one of your customer-facing employees or coworkers help you brainstorm the answers. Put yourself in the shoes of your customer ask yourself this What is the answer to this question for them? You may need to make up some answers or leave some areas blank, but that s ok just try to answer each question as thoroughly and honestly as possible, and you ll walk away with a strong foundation for your marketing. Good luck marketer! 7

8 AN EXAMPLE OF HOW SUCCESSES COMBINE TO MAKE SEGMENTS OF YOUR AUDIENCE Your audience, collectively, has many different successes that could come out of the building of that website: 1. Our website makes us look professional to our customers 2. Our website starts ranking at the top of search results for a particular keyword so that we get the leads we should be getting for that keyword 3. Our website starts selling a lot of products/services and helps us increase sales company wide 4. We are able to get blog posts, videos, and other content to our customers and potential customers quickly 5. We finally have a hub for all our marketing so we can use other forms of digital marketing that we ve avoided thus far 6. People are able to find us online and leave contact information so we can follow up and start a relationship 7. We are able to stand out from our competitors online 8. We no longer have to worry about our website it is maintained and updated for us 9. We have complete control over our website and can manage it as we please 8

9 So we have many different successes here (Eight, to be precise), and not all of them overlap: For instance, for some folks, #3 might not apply to them at all (they just don t sell products/services online). For others, #6 means very little to them (they re selling products/services online and don t really need leads in the traditional sense). For still others, #7 may not apply (few competitors, lots of customers, or maybe they already dominate the space and aren t worried about competition). Even #8 and #9 are often mutually exclusive. However, many of these also overlap: Almost everyone would count #1 as a success Though many folks would count #4 and #5 as a success, not everyone is going to want to create blog posts and videos, and not everyone is going to want to pay for other forms of digital marketing (trust me on this one) #6 and #2 may overlap heavily for some people (especially if they re wanting their website to bring them traditional leads), but for someone looking to mostly sell products/services online (especially products) #2 may be extremely important, while #6 is not so important (or even detrimental, if they don t want to deal with the hassle of hundreds of inquiries through their contact form, inquiries they don t have the time or manpower to answer 9

10 And now we see several different audience segments taking shape, segments which we can use to create personas: The ecommerce business owner who is just starting out and who wants to stand out from the crowd AND start competing with the big guys AND wants to rank for several keywords AND wants complete control over their website BUT who also wants someone to maintain the website for them AND wants to have a place where other digital marketing efforts can funnel customers to the website AND who wants a contact form to speak to people interested in larger purchases. The ecommerce business owner who is well established who wants to automate as much as possible SO does not want a contact form at all or any leads because they d just be a distraction AND who wants someone to maintain the website for them BUT doesn t care about standing out (because they ve cornered the market). The business owner who just wants to look professional for clients who search for her online AND wants to stand out from the competition AND wants someone to just maintain her website for her so she doesn t have to do anything. The business owner who wants to use content marketing (blog post, videos) to market to her audience AND who wants a contact form to bring in leads AND wants to run the website entirely herself SO she does not want anyone to manage the website. 10

11 FINDING SUCCESSES AND SEGMENTING YOUR AUDIENCE What different successes are possible for your entire audience? Write them out in the spaces below. It s ok if you can t come up with successes to fill each space just come up with as many as you can. If you run out of space here, use the blank sheets at the end of the worksheet to add some more. Success 1 Success 2 Success 3 11

12 Success 4 Success 5 Success 6 Success 7 12

13 Success 8 Success 9 Success 10 Success 11 13

14 Success 12 Success 13 Success 14 Success 15 14

15 OVERLAPPING SUCCESSES DESCRIBE SPECIFIC AUDIENCE SEGMENTS Now that you ve defined your different possible successes, combine them together. Look for the areas where they overlap. When you can group successes together, you ve found a potential segment of your larger audience. List those overlaps here. Remember, you can have many different combinations of overlapping successes: Overlapping success 1 Overlapping success 2 Overlapping success 3 15

16 Overlapping success 4 Overlapping success 5 Overlapping success 6 Overlapping success 7 16

17 Overlapping success 8 Overlapping success 9 Overlapping success 10 Overlapping success 11 17

18 Overlapping success 12 Overlapping success 13 Overlapping success 14 Overlapping success 15 18

19 QUESTION FOR EACH SEGMENT Now that you ve found how successes overlap (and the groups that are formed from those overlapping successes), it s time to create a persona a fake personality that represents each group. (P.S. These are the pages you re going to want to make multiple copies of, so that you can answer the questions below for all the overlapping successes listed above.) First, describe the segment of your audience that you re answering questions about: Example: The business owner who wants to use content marketing (blog post, videos) to market to her audience AND who wants a contact form to bring in leads AND wants to run the website entirely herself SO does not want anyone to manage the website. Your audience segment (include the number from your overlapping successes section above): Number Segment description: Second, give your persona a name: Example: Nancy the Owner of a Boutique Clothing Shop Your Persona: the 19

20 ABOUT YOU AND YOUR BRAND Your name, title, and company (if applicable). Write about what you sell and why you sell it. List your decision makers. 20

21 Describe how you interact with your customers (customer service representatives, social media managers). Write about what success looks like for you in each customer interaction. List your goals for marketing. List your goals for your business. 21

22 Elaborate on what you care about most when it comes to your customers. Define the problem you solve for your customers. 22

23 ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMER IF BUSINESS TO BUSINESS (B2B) Overview of company you sell to (what they do and who they do it for). Details about this person s role in the company. What is the annual revenue of this person s company? 23

24 What does success look like for this company? What does success look like for your contact at this company? 24

25 Demographics ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMER FOR EVERYONE What industry does your customer work in? How much experience does your customer have in that industry? What is your customer s annual income? 25

26 What is the education level of your customer? How old is your customer? What age range do they fall under? What gender is your customer? What is the relationship status of your customer? 26

27 List some personality traits of your customer. What hobbies or leisure activities does your customer participate in? Is your customer heavily involved in or concerned about politics, religion, or another cause/organization? Describe in detail their affiliations and feelings about these groups. What strongly held opinions do they have? 27

28 CUSTOMERS NEEDS, PROBLEMS, AND LOCATION IN THEIR BUYER S JOURNEY What does your customer want? What does your customer need? What is the problem that you solve for your customer? What keeps them up at night? What are their concerns? (This does not have to relate to your product or service) 28

29 What motivates them to get out of bed in the morning? What motivates them to make purchasing decisions? Where are they at in the buyer s journey? Are they just realizing they have a problem? Are they actively looking for a solution? Are they considering several solutions? Have they already found a solution? Have they had a solution for a long time? 29

30 What barriers are there to success for your customer? What barriers are there to success for you? What is your customer s secondary goal? How do you help your customer reach their goals or solve their problems? 30

31 Write a few quotes from this person in relation to their goals/challenges. What are their objections to your products or services? How would you introduce your product or service to this person? How would your customer describe you? 31

32 How would your customer describe your product or service? When do they buy products and services similar to yours? Is their purchase schedule regular or variable? Seasonally or Quarterly Monthly One week a month Weekly Daily Multiple times a day Hourly or sooner Are their purchases one time or recurring? 32

33 When will they be ready to make another purchase? Do your customers already buy from another brand regularly? What brand? 33

34 COMMUNICATION What is your customer s technical level of expertise? How comfortable are they online? Do they use mobile devices? What social networks are they on? Where in the physical world do they spend most of their time? Where in the digital world do they spend most of their time? 34

35 How do they consume news and information? How would your customer find you? Where would advertising or marketing be most likely to reach them? How does your customer communicate with other people, with other brands, and with you? 35

36 What channels of communication does your customer prefer? (Social media, phone calls, text messages, online forums, physical mail, ) Where is your first interaction with your customer likely to occur? What does that interaction look like? What is the path from initial engagement to success? What does the path after initial success to long-term customer look like? Who does your customer trust? 36

37 Who has influence over your customer? Who does your customer have influence over? Who does your customer trust to give them information about products and services similar to your offerings? Where does your customer primarily get their information about products and services similar to yours? 37

38 Who could you reach out to or work with who has influence over (or is trusted by) your customer? 38

39 ADD A PICTURE AND CALL IT DONE Congratulations! You now have a customer persona! You have one final task. In the space below, I want you to place a picture of your persona, someone you can keep in mind and visualize whenever you re creating marketing meant to reach them. Find a picture online that you think best represents this person (and is memorable for you), and paste it in the space below. That s it! Complete as many personas as you can for each set of overlapping successes, so print this guide out as many times as you need to for each set of successes you found earlier. And if you re still struggling with marketing, if you re not sure what to do with this template now that you have it, then check out the Level Up to Awesome marketing course. It s packed with explanations of things like branding and marketing strategy and tactics, teaching you how to think like a marketer and more accurately reach your potential customers. Go to bluesteelesolutions.com/resources/level-up-to-awesome to learn more. 39