Let’s Talk Personas

If you’re reading this and wondering, “What is a persona?”, fear not! It’s pretty simple, and we’re gonna dive right in and see how personas connect to successful email marketing campaigns!

What is a Persona? A Simple Definition.

To put it simply, a persona is a charecter who represents a user who may be interested in using your product, service, website, or any other offering.

Personas are extremely valuable to the marketing field because it helps to remove yourself and focus on human centered design and the variety of people who you are designing your product, content, etc., for.

One of the main things a persona does is brings data and statistics to life by putting a name and a face to the numbers. For example, when researching who is going to be your target market for your new product, the FitGYM, a home gym that provides a variety of exercise equipment, you find that your target market includes men and women between the ages of 20-45 who are busy professionals, but also women aged 55-70 who are retired. Giving them names and professions, along with personality traits makes the creative process much easier. Instead of statistics, you now have Alyssa, Kevin, and Karen, making it easier to visualize your target customer!

How Do Personas Relate to Email Marketing?

Email marketing, while it can be effective, is a tricky territory and the goal is always to steer clear of the spam folder. Would you believe me if I said personas could be an excellent way to achieve that goal? Well, here is why you should…

Like I have previously said, creating a buyer persona is a key way to better understand your target customer. Understanding your target customer is a key way to create email content that will capture their attention and create content that is relevant to them, while providing a solution to their problem.

People are looking for value, and having a clear persona can help you to understand how to best provide them with examples of the value you can bring them.

The simple answer to why personas matter in email marketing is this: Personas help you create more effective email marketing campaigns. Why? Because the more targeted an email is the more opens, clicks, and engagement that email receives. Targeted emails create stronger leads, which result in higher conversion rates, which are typically the goal!

The Next Big Step

So you’ve created your buyer personas, and you’re ready for a great email marketing campaign, what’s next? Segmenting your email list!

Segmenting your email list is a great way to put those personas to good use and will also make a huge difference in the success of your email campaigns. Once you segment your email list, sending out a targeted campaign is easy, and you are on your way to a highly successful email campaign!

Once you have segmented your email list you can send out targeted emails that are suited to each particular list, and buyer. One way you can target buyers by using email copy that is suited to them, more specifically by using different words and phrases. For example, if you are targeting a millennial buyer slang phrases could be acceptable, but if your target buyer is older you may want to use different tone and language. You can also target different buyers with different kinds of offers based on what is most important to them. Let’s think back to the home gym example I gave, Alyssa and Kevin, working professionals may be more concerned about time and convenience, where Karen may be more concerned about price, but also convenience.

All in all, personas are of key importance to a successful marketing campaign, but especially a successful email marketing! Now that you know, go create some great personas!

Sources Used:

Dam, Rikke, and Teo Siang. “Personas – A Simple Introduction.” The Interaction Design Foundation, www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/personas-why-and-how-you-should-use-them.

McCarter, Andrea. “Using Buyer Personas in Email Marketing Campaigns.” Mojo Marketing – Cloud, IT, & Telecom Marketing, 7 Mar. 2019, gimmemojo.com/2018/01/15/using-buyer-personas-email-marketing-campaigns/.

Team, SalesHandy. “The Significance of Buyer Persona in Email Marketing.” SalesHandy, 3 Sept. 2019, www.saleshandy.com/blog/buyer-persona-in-email-marketing/.