Creating Buyer Personas Will Identify the Type of Customer That Gives You the Most Revenue….

Knowing your ideal customer is crucial in the lighting and controls business. But how well do you truly understand their interests, needs, and challenges? You may have a general idea about who you sell to, but getting specific will dramatically improve your marketing and sales results.

How well do you understand their interests and needs? Do you know how old they are? Where they went to school? Whether they have kids? What a day-in-the-life looks like?

Sure, you know Bill from ABC Architect Firm and Fred from XYZ Electrical Engineers; loyal customers for years, reliable, consistent, and definitely unique in needs, concerns and personalities.

By grouping people into categories (i.e. personas), it’s much easier for marketers, product designers, salespeople, and services people to tailor their content, messaging, product development, and services to different groups of people.

A persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customer or target audience. If, say, you are looking to appeal to architects for future business, we would create an Architect Persona. For example, Joe is an Architect, about 55-60 years old, 30+ years’ experience, with very specific needs related to your business. Joe’s bio would also include areas of concern related to “pain points”, challenges, and expectations.

An example:

By creating personas for your customers, you will be able to personalize marketing to your target audience (persona). Instead of sending out the same email to your entire mailing list, you can tailor emails to specific personas, thereby appealing directly to their needs.

How do I create a Persona?

First, identify who your customers are. As a lighting agency, your personas might include:

• Architect (see example above)
• Electrical Contractor
• Electrical Distributor
• Electrical Engineer
• Lighting Designer
• Interior Designer
• Audio/Visual Integrator
• … and more.

To help you define a persona, we have created a downloadable PowerPoint template with a generalized Q&A (interview). You may already have a good idea of what a persona’s profile will look like based on customers you currently have. Here’s a partial example of the template:

Persona A:

• What is your job role? Title?
• What is your age, education level, years of experience?
• What skills are required to do your job?
• What is the size of your company?
• What are your biggest challenges?
• How do you learn about new information for your job?

In today’s internet-driven marketing environment, personas are an important tool in seeking out new business as well as nurturing existing clients, crucial to any marketing plan.

At Performance Marketing, we understand the need for personas in marketing, and can help you develop personas to benefit your marketing. If you have questions, we have more details about personas at our website [link], and are happy to assist in person.