5 reasons why you should know,
who exactly your customers are

Of about 30,000 product launches per year, around 80 percent fail - according to Professor Clayton Christensen of Harvard Business School. There are many reasons for this: Sometimes there is a lack of budget and investors, sometimes there is not enough demand, or marketing and advertising miss their target. The core of the problem is always the same: lack of knowledge about the target group. The solution: data-driven personasTo help entrepreneurs better understand their customers.

What is a persona? Definition and meaning

Simplified, the persona is a stereotype that represents a certain target group. The profile of the persona is summarised in a profile. It is based on socio-demographic data of existing or new customer groups. They say something, for example, about the name, age, place of residence and marital status, but also about interests, values, character and consumption. In short: the profile of a persona makes detailed statements about a large group of people. The profile is supplemented by product-relevant data points, such as: Which needs of the target group does the product or service address? What pain points does the target group have that the product or service can solve? How, why and when does the target group decide in favour of your offer - in short: what does the customer journey look like? And last but not least: How does the target group use the offer?

data-driven persona gives consumers a face and makes abstract data tangible. It is always crucial for success when a product, service, offer or medium needs to reach people in a targeted way. If you integrate personas into your business strategy, you will measure success after only a short time.

Personas increase turnover

When it comes to success, turnover is one of the most important business goals. And personas play a significant role in this: they are an integral part of the business strategy of around 71 per cent of the companies that exceed their sales and lead targets. For example, the software manufacturer Adobe, which recorded 10 per cent more email orders and 53 per cent higher web revenues with persona-based launches. The price for the increase in sales is low: according to study results, 3-4 personas are responsible for more than 90 percent of companies' sales. Marketing-generated revenue alone can be increased by up to 171 per cent with buyer personas, according to a case study by MarketingSherpa.

Personas make email campaigns efficient

When it comes to improving performance, personalised messages are top of mind for marketers: email campaigns created based on data-driven buyer personas score up to five times more clicks and 50 per cent higher open rates . Those who tailor email campaigns to subscriber interests achieve a click rate increase of up to 75 per cent.

Targeted pages improve performance

Websites built on data-based marketing personas are two to five times more effective. Targeted content marketing in particular has an influence on this: it increases the organic traffic of websites by up to 55 percent and generates around 97 percent more online leads. MarketingSherpa also shows that the use of data-based buyer personas can increase the duration of visits to pages by 900 percent and the number of pages visited by 100 percent.

data-driven personas save costs

If you know your customers well, you can better assess how they will react to something new and thus prevent financial damage. It is important to design marketing and communication from the outset in such a way that it reaches the desired customers. In this way, you can avoid unnecessary expenditure on formats on channels that your customers do not use at all. Thanks to data-based personas, products that have not been developed with the customer in mind are also a thing of the past.

data-driven personas ensure customer centricity throughout the company

Personas visualise the one goal that counts: No matter if it is customer service, product development or controlling of a company: They all work for one and the same target groups. The use of personas also improves internal communication by always steering discussions and solution approaches in the direction of your customers. Everything you do, they look at from the customer's perspective.