I have always told my clients that you “need to know your client” and encouraged them to identify their ideal customer. While every client I have worked with felt that he or she ‘knew’ their clients they struggled putting it into words. Therefore, I began developing this persona concept to try and bring some clarity to our marketing and business decisions.
This persona is an example of one that I developed for a client and thought it might make for an interesting discussion here about how developing a “persona” for your blog might help create increased focus, understanding, and practical tactics to develop your Gateway Blog.
Meet Barry & Krista
Barry is a programmer that works in the web development field. Married to Krista, they have one child. Krista used to work at a Real Estate office where Barry was doing some work when they met, now she is a stay at home mom.
As a solo-entrepreneur Barry spends a lot of time in front of the computer in his office at home. Working from home is not without its challenges but Barry justifies his decision saying that “working from home allows me to stay connected with my kids while they are growing up.”
He works hard to provide for his family but despite his above average income he finds himself working in his car and fixing up the house himself in an effort to save some money, plus he enjoys working with his hands and seeing the result of his efforts.
His hobbies include music. Barry started playing the piano as a child and recently got a guitar for Christmas. He is in the process of teaching himself to play and finds it therapeutic. While working, you will find him listening to music, partly to drown out the noise the kids make but mostly because music soothes his nerves, releases the tension, and helps him relax.
Barry might best be described as a bit of a techno-geek. He likely owns an MP3 player, gaming system, and other portable devices. He likes to play and experiment with new things and is most likely an early adopter.
Often, he will get involved as an Alpha or Beta tester because he likes to get in early and experiment with things as a way to remain competitive and current.
Krista and Barry are realists and work hard to make quality life decisions. He would like to spend more time with his family and is always on the lookout for ways to be more efficient, organized, and effective.
Barry and Krista are spenders not savers. The family eats out or orders take-out many times throughout the week - the talk about doing it less often - but justify the expense since they do not have any expensive bad habits and consider “eating out” a treat.
Detail Oriented and Analytical
Barry prides himself in making smart decisions, but when compared to others his decisions are generally on the slower side. He tends to think that people get too emotional when making decisions and should be more logical like him.
He considers himself well informed and knowledgeable in the areas, issues, and topics that interest him. People like Barry respond well to a soft sell, low pressure, and educational approach to marketing because it just “feels more real”. He respects and seeks out sources of quality information.
Create Product Experiences
Barry is an experiential learner which means he like to try things out and test them for themselves. This is an important distinction in selling and marketing to a guy like Barry because of the way he internalizes “the experience” of testing a product or service that increases his confidence when making a decision or recommendation.
If unable to “experience” a product or service directly Barry will spend extra time on research, seek out friends or associates who have purchased or made a similar purchase. He will also look for additional information about alternatives or other options to help himself make a purchasing decision.
All of this translates into making sure your information and marketing communications are well organized and cogent. The last thing you want to do with a buyer like Barry is to confuse him because he cannot and will not buy if he is confused.
Decision Making
Barry prefers information presented in a straight forward, linear fashion, he wants the whole story so then he can interpret the information and decide for himself.
As a self described ‘analytical’ he tends to judge web sites and marketing materials that are not well organized and cogent harshly. The paradox is that he also struggles with developing cogent and organized marketing and communications but as a ‘customer’ will tend to judge your business as somewhat lazy.
He reasons that if you “really cared” you would take the time to invest in developing a coherent and organized message. Remember, if he cannot figure out what you are trying to say or communicate he will quickly abandon doing business with you or simply not buy.
He usually cannot be manipulated to make a decision, in fact, if he feels he is being manipulated or overly pressured he will simply make up his mind and not make a decision.
Barrys’ primary learning style is as an “Internal Kinesthetic” which means he likes to try things out. For example, the warm puppy (limited or time limited free trial) works well because it allows him to acquire additional information through the experience itself.
He appreciates people, processes, and systems that are organized, logical, and cogent.
Barry prides himself in his ability to make a smart decision. His biggest fear is that he does not want to be influenced or corrupted by “the system” and will work hard to make his own “independent” decision.
Remember, Barry values “process” and if you have a process, follow it and he will follow the process. Move outside of your process and you will confuse and frustrate him. Therefore you will want to make a special effort to ensure your communications are on the mark.
Communication Tips
Be careful that you do not talk down to Barry or try to appear superior. Do not rush him to make a decision or try to use high pressure sales tactics. He will spot it a mile away and dismiss you as manipulative and just a “salesman”.
All your marketing materials need to follow a logical and orderly approach. Keep it simple, provide the facts, and offer to be a resource of information to Barry.
All your information and the “marketing message” must be cogent and clear. Avoid fluff, overemphasis, and buzz words. Barry appreciates and embraces authentic and real people.
One key strategy in attracting buyers like Barry online, is to position yourself as a “subject matter expert” in your field. Provide perspectives, case studies, observations and real life examples of your work.
Blogging, forums, podcasts, and writing articles are excellent strategies for attracting and building trust with this methodical and cautious buyer.
What’s the Verdict?
Is this something you think could be helpful in blogging for your business?
Should this be a part of the Gateway Blogging book?
What about this persona helped or confused you?
All feedback appreciated.
Live Large!
3 Comments
I really feel like Barry is a real person. If I wanted to appeal to him, I know how after reading this. That’s the good side to personas.
But Barry’s not my only customer. He may not be the only type of person who is my ideal customer, either. I love the concept of an ideal customer. Most business people don’t have one. I can hear the retort now: “Ideal customer? Why, my ideal customer is the one with the check! Ha ha!”
If I were to focus a site/blog on only one persona, would that be too narrowly focused? On the other hand, if I were to try and resonate with three personas, would that even be possible? Unless they were similar to each other in more ways than not, wouldn’t they sort of cancel each other out?
Great questions and observations. In this case, Barry & Krista are just one of two persona’s - this one happens to be the “ideal” customer, a self-employed, work-from-home solo entrepreneur. The other persona is a younger, less confident, employed programmer/developer.
In this case he actually can make a great business out of the one “ideal” customer. It’s all about choosing to do one thing great - being the best in the world at something as mentioned in the book “Good to Great”.
A person could make a living from either persona the key is that this one persona fits the business philosophy, goals, and objectives much better than the other.
To answer your question, yes I found that I could speak to two of the three personas effectively.
When I did my Marketing Safari I definitely developed my marketing communications to attract three specific personas - two of the three showed up more often than the third. Here is the important point, the third is what made all the work worthwhile because they had the ability to pay.
You might ask, “Why not focus on the third exclusively?” Well, I have found that the other two personas paid the bills and allowed me the time to invest in developing the business relationship with the third. Plus the third is the most elusive persona that everyone in the world wants as a client. They represent just 1% of the population.
I chose to diversify and spread the risk by paying the bills serving the first two personas and the third persona is where I made all the profit and learned some of the most valuable business lessons.
As far as canceling each other out, at first blush that seems a natural assumption - if you approach marketing in the traditional sense i.e. focusing on target markets.
I do not subscribe to the theory of target markets - I subscribe to targeting needs not markets and have been doing so for 17 years. See, by targeting needs we are appealing to a common need that each persona has…
They just like it delivered a bit differently, which I think is exactly what you are getting at. In my experience it is simply a matter of using appropriate language, specific words that are in alignment with the persona you wish to serve.
My personal experience is that writing for two of the three works great and the third is a bonus that comes along once in awhile. Could a person focus exclusively on the third persona? Only if they are also in the 1% club. Otherwise I have seen numerous good people fail out of business trying to catch the big fish and starve because they never had time or the desire to fish for a smaller catch.
Does that help?
That helps a lot–makes perfect sense. I can see how focusing on needs rather than markets would mean that you could work up several personas as ideal customers/audience members and there would be a lot of overlap between them.
2 Trackbacks
[...] These personas are like imaginary friends for business. In fact, not too long ago, Greg wrote about personas. But what I’m doing now is showing how personas fit into the overall picture for Gateway [...]
[...] over at Gateway Blogging have written up an idea that takes this a 1/2 step further related to developing personas to describe your ideal customer. It’s a great article - Greg does a nice job fleshing [...]