How to Build a Solid Foundation for Marketing Success

When an architect designs a building of any size, one critical component is always included.  Without that one component, the building will not be supported, and the project will fail.   That one component is the one that the building will sit on and gain strength from.  It's the first part of the building to be put in place and the most important part.  It is, of course, a solid and strong foundation.

Many companies launch marketing strategies and inbound marketing campaigns without laying that foundation which results in them not achieving their goals and getting a return on their investment.  

When you are planning a marketing strategy, it's important that you approach it in the same way.  By building a solid foundation, you will set your brand up for success.  

When planning a marketing strategy and related campaigns you must take time to put a strong foundation in place before doing anything else.  The foundation of successful marketing strategies is knowing and understanding your customer completely.

Ask yourselves - Do we know exactly who our Ideal Customers (Buyer Persona's) are?  Have we taken the time to research, define and document them?  Is our Marketing Strategy built upon those insights?

If you answered 'No' to the above then you need to take a step back and ask yourself how your business is going to be successful if you don't know exactly who it is you are trying to sell your product or services to.  To attract, convert and close sales with the right customers, you have to know all about them.   

After all, if you don't know who exactly it is that you are trying to market and sell to, how will you know:

• What content will they find useful, and what they won't?  
• Which channels should you be actively marketing on?  
• What value you can add to their business?  
• What challenges they have that you can potentially help them with? etc

1. What's a buyer persona?

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. They include demographics, communication preferences, background (personal and career), challenges, goals etc.

In a recent blog "How To Attract Ideal Clients to your Website" we outlined the key information that comprises a buyer persona.  At a high level they include:

• General demographic & biographic information - Job titles, Roles, Responsibilities, Salary, Industry etc
• Common Behavior Patterns - Drivers, Motivations, How they like to communicate
• Pain Points & Challenges (professional, personal)
• Goals

Without knowing this information about your ideal customers,  your marketing and sales will suffer seriously.  When putting together a marketing strategy and plan, you need to start by taking an in-depth look at your ideal customers and create buyer personas.  Don't cast a wide net, cast one that's going to get you the customers that you want without wasting a lot of time and effort those who aren't in need of your product or services. 

2. How do you create a persona?

To learn about someone, you need to invest some time doing research.  For marketing and sales, having a thorough understanding of their customers and potential ones will provide valuable insights in how to drive leads and sales forward.  Some of the key ways to research your ideal customers are:

Market Research

Questionnaires/Surveys

Use your existing customer base and send out questionnaires/surveys.  If you have the budget, you can offer incentives to customers to complete your survey.  Use tools like Survey Monkey to put surveys together so that its automated and results are easy to extract and analyse.

Check your Website and Social Media Analytics

Analytics can provide valuable demographic data about the people currently interacting with your site and your social media.   Use this data to build out your personas.

Talk to your Employees

Your sales, client services and support employees know a lotabout your customers (even if they don't realise it).  So you need to talk to them.  It's also important to talk with your C-Suite as they will have valuable insights.

[If you need a free template to help with creation of your own personas, you can download our free Guide to Creating Buyer Personas which also includes free templates]

3. Why do you Need Them? How Should You Use Them?

There are many reasons why you need buyer personas and how you can use them.  Here are some of the key ones:

Focused Marketing & Sales Efforts

By focusing on your ideal customers, you stop wasting resources on those who don't need your product or services.  Leads that marketing passes onto the sales team will be much more qualified and allow your sales team to focus on closing sales with customers to your company can provide real value.  If they are getting more qualified leads, then the sales cycle should be shorter too.

Advertising

Targeted advertising can be twice as effective as non-targeted.  So use your buyer personas to set up targeted campaigns for better results.  Use detailed insights from your research on social media channels and your website to go after people or companies who are a good fit for your buyer personas.  Use it for retargeting campaigns to increase results. 

Lead Generation

By directing your marketing efforts at buyer personas, you are more likely to attract leads who need to buy your product or service.  This will result in increased conversion rates as your visitors will be genuinely interested in what you have to offer them.

Email Campaigns - Personalisation

Use your buyer personas to segment your email marketing campaigns and target different personas with different content more relevant to them than to a wider audience.

Segmented Contact Lists

You can use your buyer personas to create segmented lists for targeted campaigns. Given that each persona has specific challenges, create campaigns to uniquely target those needs across the buyers journey.

Social Media Marketing

Knowing who your ideal customers are and what social media channels they interact on means you know where to focus your social media efforts.  Be active wherever your buyer personas are, and promote your content on those channels.  Otherwise, you could be wasting time on channels they don't interact on.  This applies to your social media paid advertising too.

Create Quality Content That They Want and Need

Knowing more about your customers and being able to see through their eyes, will help you put together a more powerful content marketing strategy.  You can create offers, blogs and other content that is helpful to your intended audience. 

Website Design

When designing a website, you need to design it for your ideal customers.  Having buyer personas will help you understand them and better engage and convert your visitors and leads.

• Use your buyer personas to capture your visitor's attention instantly. Ensure that your website speaks to them and conveys the right message to them.  
• If you know what your buyer personas want, then you can use this information for planning page content and for your keyword research and SEO optimisation for all of your pages.
• Use your personas for the user experience design process to provide the best possible experience for your visitors.
• Use them to design effective calls to action, landing pages, forms etc, to boost your lead generation.
  
  

Mapping Your Buyers Journey

Mapping your buyers journey is an essential part of planning your marketing strategy and implementing campaigns.  In order to do this effectively, you will need to have well-researched and documented buyer personas.

Product/Service Development

It's not just your marketing and sales teams that will benefit from Buyer Personas.  Your Product Development, UX Design, or Customer Success/Service teams will also benefit from being involved and having a clear understanding of your ideal customers.   So when the process is complete, share them with anyone in the company who may benefit from them.

Marketing and Sales Alignment

Marketing and Sales Teams need to be aligned.  Make sure both teams sign off on your buyer personas and have a clear understanding of them.  This will enable sales teams to communicate with potential customers on a more meaningful level and improve those conversations.

Conclusion

So that's how to build a solid foundation for marketing success.  If you haven't well-defined buyer personas then hopefully you now have a greater understanding of the importance of them and how they can be used when putting your strategy and goals in place.  

But remember like everything else in your business, Buyer Personas will evolve as your business does so you need to review them at least annually or more often if your offering is changing.

 If you want to see exactly what's involved in running an inbound marketing campaign, then check out our online guide Guide to Running an Inbound Marketing Campaign.

We have also created a free guide and templates to help you create your buyer personas.  You can download them below to get you started on the right track.

If you are currently facing any other challenges and would like some further advice please feel free to contact us.