Use Buyer Personas for Stronger Social Marketing

We hear a lot about targeting these days. “Know your customer!” “Market to one individual!” We’ve got the technology to zero in on exactly the kind of person we want to reach, so why aren’t more brands using it?

Forget Technology for a Moment

All the latest tools and tech can’t replace good old fashioned research. When you pay attention to who your customers are (sure, use tech to do that), you can create buyer personas to identify key data that helps you market to them. And you can apply this concept of buyer personas to social media. Just think of all the rich data you can get there! You can glean what someone ate for lunch, where they live, their age, and where they spend time. It’s almost too much information. But if you identify what you care about, you can start segmenting your followers and contacts into groups, and then work to market to them as separate entities.

Figure Out What’s Important

It’s easy to get overwhelmed with what you can know about your followers on social. But pick what’s important to help you market. That might be:

• Geographic location
• Interests
• Which platform they’re on
• Age
• Which of your updates they like or share

For example, you sell organic premium coffee subscriptions and are trying to reach millennials who don’t live in cities with great coffee, and you’ve noticed that often your customers like indie music. A quick glance at their profile on Facebook can point you to your ideal customer.

What to Do with the Data

Once you find a few that fit that buyer persona, you can target updates to them or even take out Facebook ads with those parameters. Both Facebook and LinkedIn ads are great because you can whittle down who sees your ads so that it just appears for people who fit your demographic. This minimizes your spend and puts your ad in front of people who are the most likely to click on it.

Customize Your Approach

Each social site will need a slightly different approach. Google + is great because you can actually create circles with your buyer personas. So set one as Millennial Coffee Drinkers and then send only that group updates that target them. On Twitter, you can create lists and a stream with each group. Monitor them and respond with the right content. If you use CRM, you can apply these buyer personas to your contacts, using that same social media data. This can shape the emails you send, the offers you create, and result in better conversion for future sales.