Over the past three blogs, we’ve explored the importance of creating buyer personas, how to use buyer personas to drive sales, and how to create a buyer persona. Of course, you’ll need accurate customer data for your buyer personas to represent your actual customers, so this time around, we’ll teach you where to get it.
1) Google Analytics
If your website doesn’t already have Google Analytics installed, add it. It’s a free tool from Google that lets you track your website activity and gives insights into who visits it. Although you can’t narrow it down to individual users, you can see demographical information, such as age, gender, location, interests, and what kind of device and browser they use.
2) Facebook Insights
If your business uses Facebook, it’s easy to see general information about the people who visit your page and take action in the “Insights” section. Although it’s not as detailed as Google, it does have one other significant benefit: you can often see the profiles of people who have taken action on your page and build a persona from the information you find.
3) Meetup
Information gathered from Meetup.com will let you reverse-engineer a buyer persona. Rather than starting with someone who already is your customer, you can search for interests your customers may have or look up information about competitors’ consumers. Start by searching for a group related to the interests someone in your audience may have. Then, look at that group’s member list and choose someone. You’ll usually find a detailed profile and links to other social media profiles.
4) Surveys
There are lots of different ways to conduct surveys. You can give them to your existing customers, post virtual surveys to forums and social networks, or partner with a third-party provider to collect your data. It’s helpful to let consumers know why you’re managing the data. For example, you can include a line that says, “We’d like to improve our products, so we can better serve you.” Breaking the barriers preventing someone from responding is also a good idea. If you’re asking for personal data, let them know why it’s ok for them to trust you- perhaps that you don’t want any info that will identify them or that you won’t distribute their information. Lastly, incentives will make it worth their while to participate. Customers in your store may be able to return completed surveys for a free item or discount. If you’re distributing surveys online, a coupon code for your website may work better.
5) Interviews
Your interview strategy should work similarly to your survey strategy. You can identify prospects via social networks, your existing customer base, through boards like Craigslist, or use a third party to conduct interviews on your behalf. Again, incentives will play a key role, and you’ll want to ensure people know up front that you’re trying to improve your business, not sell them anything.
Amplify Your Marketing Strategy
If you’d like to improve your online footprint, streamline your strategy, or boost your business, we can help. At JJ Social Light, we offer various customized solutions, such as social media marketing, SEO, website development, video marketing, and content marketing, tailored to the needs of your business and customers. Contact us for more information or to schedule your free 30-minute power strategy session today.
Great stuff! Will be sharing!
Thanks Lisa!