3 ways buyer personas are essential for PR

Learn how buyer personas make it easier than ever to target customers

These days, companies can’t survive with only a vague understanding of what kinds of customers they want. Consumers want to be catered to, and when you’re working in PR, you need to understand not only what customers want, but also what drives them. This allows PR experts like those at Axia Public Relations to predict what customers want and adjust the message accordingly.

By developing buyer personas, which are short, fictional biographies of ideal customers you want to attract, you can easily and successfully adjust your PR strategy to fit your needs and meet your goals.

We compiled a list of the top three reasons why creating and maintaining buyer personas is a key influencer to your company’s bottom line.

They help you get into the minds of your customers.

With a verified buyer persona, it’s easier than ever to get into a customer’s mind and approximate what exactly makes him tick. Buyer personas let you go beyond a simple reason for a purpose to the deeper motivation that inspires it. For example, “He wants a cheap air conditioner because he likes to save money,” becomes the far more helpful “He prefers less expensive products because he’s saving up for a new car. He can spare a little bit more money than other customers who want cheap products because getting the new car is not absolutely essential to him, so he can always spend some more time later saving up money.”

As you look to engage with this customer, you know exactly why he’s saving money and can plan around this in your PR efforts.

Must read: How to write content for each buyer persona in every stage of the buyer's journey

They’re built on solid data.

A good buyer persona is built on data collected from previous customers, including their buying habits, what types of calls-to-action they respond to (e-book offers, newsletters, etc.) and what information they provide on information forms. With this intel, you can build an accurate buyer persona that correctly reflects the customers who purchase goods or services from your company.

Any type of information – from in-depth surveys to a quick analysis of what consumers click on the most on a website – is useful in creating a persona. In fact, combining as much data as possible is often essential for constructing an accurate buyer persona.

They’re flexible.

One great thing about buyer personas is that they’re easy to change. For example, if data is showing that there’s a variable you missed the first time around when creating your buyer persona, you can quickly add it to your persona profile without having to change much. If trends are changing, you can easily change your persona, as well.

PR operates in very volatile situations, where circumstances can undergo serious changes in a matter of hours, so it’s important that a key part of your plan is flexible just in case major changes do crop up.

If you haven’t set your buyer personas up yet, now is the time to do so. Creating and maintaining personas helps you keep up with the ever-changing market. For help developing this powerful tool of business for your company, call Axia today at 888-PR-FIRM-8. To see the effects of buyer personas in action, check out our e-book about maximizing your PR investment.