Most companies these days already know precisely what their consumers want. This knowledge is a core business element that helps businesses remain competitive. Consumers these days want to feel like every promotional message they see from companies is specifically tailored for them and their interests, and personas can help companies create those messages. In the world of public relations, that means companies must craft their messages towards their intended impact on the target audience.
Buyer personas have been changing the way public relations efforts operate. These personas give companies data-driven insights into the experiences they need to give their target audiences. When companies can develop buyer personas, they’re also able to understand what type of audiences they want to attract to their products or services, as well as how they can help consumers achieve their own goals.
Data-driven
One of the biggest advantages of buyer personas is that the companies that use them no longer must rely on assumptions and guesses regarding the personalities or preferences of consumers. When a business must guess what its customers want, it generally tends to result in misunderstanding. That’s why buyer personas can help companies, as they’re based on detailed customer data generated by various sources, from customer surveys to digital marketing analytics.
Insights
When a company is successfully able to create a great persona or several great buyer personas, it becomes easier to truly understand its target audience and their pain points. Instead of companies having to rely on standard advertising efforts that are targeted at the public, with buyer personas companies can identify the real reasons why consumers make particular purchases. This knowledge helps businesses create strategies to further deepen the relationships they have with their consumers.
A strong relationship between a brand and its customers can quickly turn those customers into brand ambassadors, which means the customers will go out of their way to promote that brand and its products to their own friends and family. Those brand ambassadors, or brand advocates, can generate a lot more interest for companies compared to their own advertising efforts. This is because potential customers trust the recommendations they get from people in their own social circles, more than those of branded messages they see on different channels.
Flexibility
The last great thing about buyer personas for companies is that they’re very fluid and flexible. Depending on the data and insights that companies generate from their own consumers, the buyer personas can be changed accordingly. While a strong buyer persona can provide companies with a lot of guidance regarding how to shape their brand personality or craft their marketing messages, all those elements are subject to change, depending on consumer reaction and response. If the data shows that the company has missed the mark when it first launched its PR campaign, changing the buyer persona and the subsequent PR efforts can help the company update its campaign and improve its public relations efforts.
