By Sharon A.M. MacLean
What can you do attract new customers…and keep the ones that you already have?
Start with something you may never have done before. It’s called a customer persona.
Think it’s a waste of time? Think again.
Building a customer persona is simple—and will save you reams of confusion when trying to figure out how to attract more people to your business. This device is one of the most useful things you’ll ever use. When you can truly see the individual you’re writing about, you’ll find that all your communications, from your website copy, to your email campaigns, to your blog, to your videos, will take on more relevant meaning. And we want to build long-lasting relationships, right?
A customer persona takes on shape when we create an in-depth story about a particular individual describing how and why they would be interested in your services. Each profile describes the day-to-day life, his/her likes and dislikes, the type of vehicle they drive, where they live, their hobbies. Today, the big brands call it being “customer centric” which means they want to focus on their customers rather than on themselves.
Here’s an example of a persona that I built for those fans who never missed reading Edmontonians every month over 20 years. One such person I arrived at was “Michael.”
Michael is a 47-year old family business owner. His father started the company 30 years ago but he didn’t step back into the business until about 5 years ago; networking is important to him. He attends political functions and believes in giving back. David and his family enjoy a relatively affluent lifestyle and live near the downtown. Their eldest son, who had been floundering, finally qualified to attend University and their daughter still is in high school. David’s wife drives a Lexus and shops at the outdoor markets in the summer. She’s chaired several fund raising galas and serves on two boards.
By identifying our ideal reader, we were able to tell each of over 300 writers, editors and photographers over the years, who would be reading their columns and features.
Readers stuck with their favorite columnists for years.
