In cooking, no matter how great the recipe, everyone notices
when there is an essential ingredient missing in the finished product. This is
because something that’s imperative has been left out of the preparation
process. In a like manner, there is one
missing ingredient often lacking in PR and marketing plans today:
well-developed buyer persona profiles. Scott says it this way, “The most
important thing to remember as you develop a marketing and PR plan is to put
your products and services to the side for just a little while and focus your
complete attention on the buyers of your products” (Scott, 2013, pg. 161).
In order to “succeed on the web under the new rules of marketing and PR, you need to consider your organizational goals and then focus on your buyers first” (Scott, 2013, pg. 162). He further states, “only when you understand buyers should you begin to create compelling web content to reach them” (Scott, 2013, pg. 162).
There are 3 essential components when making buyer profiling a key part of the marketing and PR plan
process. These consist of understanding organizational goals, creating descriptive an segmented buyer persona profliles, and aligning web marketing and media choices based off of those buyer personas.
Understanding
Organizational Goals
As organizational goals are discussed, there are 2 components that make for
successful goals:
1. Goals must
be clear. Vague goals don’t produce intended results or motivate people to
perform. An example of a vague goal would be to do radio advertisements over
the next 6 weeks. There is no clarity on what the organization seeks to
accomplish other than adding a new element to their existing marketing mix.
2. Goals must
be specific. Unspecific organizational goals are not measurable. An example of an unspecific goal would be to
add an alumni section to a higher education institution’s website. An example
of a specific goal would be the goal of increasing alumni web traffic by 10%
over the next 6 weeks.
The Buyer Persona
Profile
A buyer persona profile is simply a representative of a type
of buyer that an organization has identified as having a specific interest in their
organization or product (Scott, 2013, pg. 164).
For each buyer persona, there are specific questions that need to be
asked. These questions include the following:
What are their goals and aspirations?
What are their problems?
What media do they rely on for answers to their problems?
How can we reach them?
The best way to learn about buyers and develop buyer
personas is to interview them (Scott, 2013, pg. 164). Developing buyer personas
is a learned ability to get into the minds and hearts of the target audience
and to understand their needs and problems that can be solved by your
organization’s products or services.
Buyer Personas &
Web Marketing
The typical website has a “one size fits all” approach to
marketing. Scott proposes that “one of
the simplest ways to build an effective website or to create great marketing
programs using online content is to target the specific buyer personas that you
have created” (Scott, 2013, pg. 169).
Instead of organizing websites based on products and services
themselves, the proposed thought by Scott is to organize web content more
intentionally around the buyer personas that have been created. An example of
this would be a higher education website that creates a buyer persona for undergraduate
students, graduate students, parents, alumni, and donors. Developing these
buyer personas thoroughly allows there to be increased website effectiveness. In
order to be effective, the organization needs to anticipate the buyer’s questions
and then answer them by creating compelling content (Gray, 2013).
Do you agree with Scott’s point about the importance of
buyer personas in the marketing plan process and what practical steps have you seen
used to develop effective buyer personas?
References:
Scott, D. M. (2013). The New Rules of Marketing & PR.
Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.