Trying to stand out in the literal millions of businesses online is not an easy task. You need a plan for attracting visitors and converting them to new business opportunities. Inbound marketing is a great strategy for companies with a high average sale and a long sales cycle to carve out their niche on the Web. Before you can begin to map out the plan, first and foremost, you need to understand your buyers and what makes them tick. Developing profiles around the various segments of your target audience is the first step in persona development which is the starting point of an effective Inbound marketing strategy.
Think of Persona Development as Making New Friends
You’re very busy and you likely have heard the phrase, “There are no friends in business.” That has changed with inbound marketing and becoming “friends” with your buyer personas is how you are going to be successful at growing your business. As we help our friends in the real world, an Inbound Marketing strategy seeks to help our prospects and customers based around their needs. People want to digest information at their own pace, and come to their own conclusions; not pushed into anything with the hard sell. To do this successfully, you have to take time to know who you are speaking to and understand how you can help them solve their problems.
Ticking all of the Boxes to Improve Conversions
Now that you know why developing buyer personas is critical to business growth and that you have to focus on your visitors needs, it’s time to start building out the profiles. The usual demographics you put together when drafting your business plan apply. You need to know the basics like age range, geography, job title, industry, budget. With inbound marketing however, you have to expand on your basics to be successful. You also have to know:
- What are your primary buyers’ interests and problems as they relate to your product or service?
- When they are online, what are they doing? Where are they spending their time?
- What are their pain points? What keeps them up at night?
- How can you help with their pain points or how can you improve their lives with your products or services.
In order to effectively communicate with potential customers and garner their interest, you have to get to know as much as you can about them.
How you will Use Your Buyer Personas
Once you know as much as possible about your target buyers, you will know how to appeal to them and where to find them online. One of the most important factors that leads to inbound marketing success is placing the right information in front of the right people, at the right time. Make this your mantra as you build out your personas so when you begin working on your campaigns, you’ll be such good friends it will be easy to start the conversations.
No time to make new friends? Your experts at Lasso Up can help. Let’s talk!
