Personas, Personas, Personas

Let’s Talk Personas in Email Marketing

  • What is a persona?
  • How can personas bring value for your audience? 
  • Why personas and email marketing? 
  • Can personas be beneficial to your organization’s market research? 

These are all great questions to have. Below I will help you get a better understanding of these concepts which can help you as a professional marketer! 

First, we must understand what a persona is, a well-written definition of a marketing persona from Ardath Albee states “a marketing persona is a composite sketch of a key segment of your audience. For content marketing purposes, you need personas to help you deliver content that will be most relevant and useful to your audience” (Lee, 2018). 

 This is important to know as creating a marketing persona can aid you in finding solutions to better target and solve the needs of your customers. 

Personas are “fundamental to marketing because without knowing them, you will never be able to offer anything other than a generic message that is designed to ‘catch all’ and hope that it resonates with the majority of your audience” (Lee, 2018). 

Another important step in creating personas is interviewing people! Interviewing people through quantitative or qualitative research can give you a better understanding of WHO your potential customers are.

This image is a great example of elements that can make up a persona

It’s important to note the following are elements that are generally included in a “persona” that you should take notes of as you have a clear understanding of who your audience is .

  • Name
  • Values/fears
  • Demographics
  • Job title 
  • Need for product
  • Interest in products
  • Shopping habits

 Okay so, now what? What do I do with this information!?

As stated from HubSpot marketing “the strongest buyer personas are based on market research as well as insights you gather from your actual customer base (through surveys, interviews, etc.). Depending on your business, you could have as few as one or two personas, or as many as 10 or 20. But if you’re new to personas, start small! You can always develop more personas later if needed” (Vaughan, 2015). 

Now that we have collected data based on what potential customers we can gauge who they are. We now can have a clear understanding of who we are targeting, how to write content, and how to appeal to our specific audience. As well, how we can express our message, values, products, services, etc. to our different audiences. 

The more that you target and cater your emails to the prospective customer persona the better the relationship you can create and your emails will be more opened and read. 

Below are several tips to help you communicate more effectively with your desired audience through email marketing. These are all helpful suggestions that will allow you to better understand, serve, and target your customers. 

  • Use Words your buyer persona will identify with – choose words that your audience knows, understands, and can relate to, as this will draw them in more
  • Be Unique – stand out and get the attention of your reader. Be different from your competitors
  • Use Quality Images – use quality eye-catching images to lure readers that are relevant to your customer’s persona and related to your content. Images are just as important as content make sure they both have a purpose.
  • Write Good Copy which leads to more clicks and opens – write a compelling copy as it is one of the best ways to generate more engagement. Focus on stressing and showing the value and benefits of the product and service you are promoting.
  • Nail Your Email Marketing Strategy – ensure that every email campaign has a goal and purpose, for example, it can include building trust, increasing conversions, building awareness, adding value for customers, growing of referral business. Having established and clear goals help you determine what type of content you want to send in your emails.
  • Understand you’re Personas and Use a Call to Action –  use a Call to Action to draw the attention of your consumers and provide them with an offer they can’t resist! An offer could be something like save 50%, free trial, first month free, and provide them with an incentive to learn more and lead to a conversion.

Okay, wow that was a lot of information to take in. Now it’s your turn to try! As you have learned all about the tips and tricks to creating successful personas and implementing them into email marketing. Give it a shot as it can be beneficial to your company! 

Best of luck!

Leave a comment and let me know your thoughts, opinions, and experiences with personas and email marketing!

Sources:

“4 Simple but Powerful Tactics for Writing Compelling Ad Copy.” WordStream, 3 Sept. 2019, https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/01/12/how-to-write-great-advertising-copy.

“How To Create Personas For Marketing In 2019.” Digital Agency Network, 20 Mar. 2019, https://digitalagencynetwork.com/how-to-create-personas-for-marketing-in-2019/.

Lee, Kevan. “The Beginner’s Guide to Creating Marketing Personas: Buffer.” Buffer Marketing Library, Buffer Social Blog, 30 Nov. 2018, https://buffer.com/library/marketing-personas-beginners-guide.

Thomsen, Rikke Berg. “How to Align Email Marketing to Your Buyer Personas (w/ Examples).” Sleeknote, 27 Sept. 2017, https://sleeknote.com/blog/buyer-personas.

Vaughan, Pamela. “How to Create Detailed Buyer Personas for Your Business [Free Persona Template].” HubSpot Blog, HubSpot, 2015, https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/buyer-persona-research.

Let’s Talk Ethics and Privacy for Marketers

From the moment we wake up in the morning to the moments before we go to bed we have been exposed to thousands and thousands of advertainments through our browsers and social media platforms. Whether we are killing time waiting for our school classes, on a break at work, standing in line at the store, online shopping and or simply using it to pass time. More than ever social media has become a daily use and need for many and it is only on the rise.

“In 2017, less than 2.5 billion people were on social media worldwide. This year 2019, that number is expected to top 2.77 billion. By 2021, more than 3 billion people are expected to be on social media nearly 40 percent of the entire world’s projected population in that year”(Average, 2019).

With this understanding of how many people use social media platforms and browsers on a daily basis. At times these sponsored target ads can be useful as they to show us new products and services and the benefits they may bring. The goal of all advertising displays ad included, is to influence the ad recipient to make a purchase, either immediately or in the future. (Larson, 2018).

However, there can be a negative side of all these sponsored advertisements Have you ever thought about how you were scrolling through your feed clicking and liking posts and then all of sudden you notice a sponsored/recommended ad appeared. How did the browser know what I was interested in? How did they know to recommend a product and or service? You think about how it’s weird and scary that they have monitored my searches and sponsored and target ads towards you.

The large question that comes into play is it ethical to be tracking user’s information and obtaining information about them? Does this invade personal privacy too much? What do we do with this information? This situation also can be referred to all a “crisis of trust,” namely, a loss of faith in institutions ranging from business to government to nongovernmental organizations. A major contributor, they believe, is the lack of objective facts and rational discourse in social media” (AMA, 2018).

Nowadays, the issue of privacy is something that we must be aware of as Marketers. As online advertisers are faced with are they crossing the fine line between getting to better understand consumers or are we being too invasive of consumers’ privacy. I would rank the current model of online advertising is dangerous for society a 3 on a 1 -5 scale being not dangerous at all. I do think that digital privacy and security is something to be concerned about in general but, it’s not a serious threat yet. In general, it’s about being aware of the government, hackers, online marketing taking your information and or watching your movements. It’s extremely important to understand and know how to protect yourself.

Code of Ethics for Digital Marketers

  1. Act Ethically: Act ethically and avoid illegal active and unethical activities with consumer’s data and privacy invasion. Adhering to privacy rules and regulations can help you establish trust within consumers and help establish a good brand reputation. Acting unethically can damage brand reputation significantly and most importantly dis own trust with the consumer.

  2. Be Transparent: Let the consumer know what products and services you are promoting. Provide them with accurate information and never exaggerate the product/services features and benefits as it can lead to false expectations of the product and service and lead to a negative attitude towards the company.

  3. Avoid Biases: It’s best to stay away from any controversial topics that can be considered controversial and stir up a debate such as politic, religion, cultural biases. Stay away from anything that can negatively harm your brand’s reputation. As consumers will always remember when you make a mistake and it’s very difficult to change customer perceptions after it happens.

  4. Know Your Audience: Before promoting and advertising anything always have a clear understanding of who your audience is. Look at their psychographics and demographic features and know their likes and interests, and choices.

  5. Be Consistent: Be consistent with posting quality advertisements, using quality images, and most importantly posting quality content. Use a consistent theme, fonts, colors, etc. that way consumers will be able to recognize your brand’s identity.

  6. Think Before You Post: This step is crucial as many consumers can interpret information differently. Always proofread, edit refine content before posting for prospects to ensure that content if factual and does not lead to controversy and negative perceptions of the brand.

  7. Be Clear: Let the target customer known that you are going to be using their data with a disclaimer and or written in the fine print. Be clear that you are collecting data for research, why you are collecting it, and indicate how you can be reached if they concerns or questions.

  8. Respond to Consumer Concerns: Always clear up safety concerns that prospects and or current customers have with the product and service. Take the time to investigate and respond efficiently as it can clear up any misunderstandings and help protect the consumers.

Sources:

Akbar, Tahir AkbarTahir, and Israyelle. “7 Fundamental Ethics of Social Media Marketing.” Business 2 Community, https://www.business2community.com/social-media/7-fundamental-ethics-social-media-marketing-01571504.

Boote, Tim. “What Have Ethics Got to Do with Digital Marketing?” Digital Marketing Magazine, 17 Jan. 2017, digitalmarketingmagazine.co.uk/digital-marketing-features/what-have-ethics-got-to-do-with-digital-marketing/4031.
“Chapter 7: Display Advertising.” Digital Marketing Essentials, by Jeff Larson and Stuart Draper, Publishing by Edify, 2018.

AMA. “Can Marketers Repair Social Media’s Crisis of Trust?” Medium, AMA Marketing News, 4 May 2018, medium.com/ama-marketing-news/can-marketers-repair-social-medias-crisis-of-trust-6d7f3fb1f797.

“Average Time Spent Daily on Social Media (with 2019 Data).” BroadbandSearch.net, https://www.broadbandsearch.net/blog/average-daily-time-on-social-media.