How well do you really know your audience? We’re here with the last blog in our Shake Up Your Social Media series to give you everything you need to really get to know your audience – including a free customer persona sheet!
Why should you get to know your audience (or intended audience)?
Getting to know your audience is the first step in building your social media strategy. You can’t work to beat the algorithms if you don’t know what your audience wants to see. Getting to know your audience helps you to create kick-ass content that your audience wants to see, and that better targets your ideal customer. It also reminds you to put your audience’s needs ahead of your own (and ahead of any misleading statistics – remember: just because a post is succeeding for Instagram doesn’t necessarily mean it’s succeeding for your audience). The best way to get to know your audience is by building a customer persona.
So what is a customer persona?
- A customer persona is a detailed description of someone who represents a segment of your ideal audience or customers.
- It’s usually fictional, but sometimes it helps to loosely base your profile off of a customer you already have.
- Your customer persona should include all demographics, interests, behaviours, goals, needs, and other information that will help guide your marketing, product development, and even brand development.
- You might also need more than one! Think of the different products or services you offer, and the different types of people that you want buying them.
Okay, how do you create one?
- Start by looking at your current customers or online audience! The best source of data is the people who are already engaging with your brand or company.
- Do some social listening to find out your customers’ needs and goals – look at mentions of your brand, your products, or even your competitors to see what people are saying!
- Think about how your products or services can help fulfil these needs or goals – make sure you focus on the benefits rather than the features of your products.
- Write it all down! Start building your customer personas by looking at common characteristics and grouping your research together. Then write a list of those characteristics, being sure to include all the information you’ll need. (You can use our free downloadable Customer Persona sheet to do this! Read ’till the end to get your hands on it!)
Now that you’re set up, how should you use your customer personas?
- The first and arguably most important way to use your customer personas is to make sure everyone in the company is aware of them. This way, they’re at the front of people’s mind at any stage of your business – whether that’s sales, marketing, or management.
- Keep them in mind when creating your social media strategy. Make sure you’re addressing the needs and goals of your ideal customers – no matter how flashy or exciting your idea may be, any strategy should relate to your customers or audience.
- Use them when you’re setting up your targeting for paid social media! Once you’ve nailed the content, make sure it’s being seen by the right people.
But…
Don’t get too hung up on your customer personas! If you find that your audience on a platform is a completely different demographic to your ‘ideal customer’, don’t focus too much on the persona that you’re ignoring the real people in front of you.
Ready to get started?
Download our Customer Persona sheet below and be on your way to getting to know your audience better!
