Use an "Ideal Customer Persona" to guide your social media marketing campaign

It is essential to understand your target market in every way possible to maximize the potential of your social media marketing campaign. In order to do this, create an ideal customer persona which will describe all aspects of your ideal customer with the most potential to buy your product or service; doing so will allow you to structure your social media marketing campaign, social media content, promotions, brand voice, and identity around what appeals to them.

Accumulate internet search data that relates to your product or service alongside your company’s sales records and statistics, if they are detailed enough.

Internet search data, sales records and statistics collected by your company will identify demographics such as age, gender, geographic location, marital status, ethnicity, income level, purchase patterns, and any other data which may contribute to understanding consumers who purchase your product, or your competitors. Now, many of the demographics referenced are rather detailed and may not all be collected by your company’s CRM (customer relationship management) data and statistics. That is why internet search data pertaining to your specific product and industry is often more relevant in this operation that your own data and statistics. Internet search data can reveal specific buying patterns and spikes pertaining to your products, services, or industry as a whole. Internet search data is also capable of capturing particular demographic information which may be much harder for your company’s CRM system to accumulate. The benefits of obtaining internet search data to accumulate general knowledge about your customer base, industry trends, buying patterns, and various other patterns will create the opportunity for your company to gain a competitive edge by using data to better understand priority consumers and build your social media marketing around an “ideal customer persona”.

Categorize, analyze, and filter all data and statistics to identify consistent patterns and trends within the demographics to determine your ideal customer and the social media strategy which will engage with them.

After creating a database of internet search data with your company’s sales records and statistics, patterns will emerge which will reveal specific demographics about your ‘ideal customer persona’ such as:

Who buys your product most often?

What geographic location is most common to your ideal customer?

What is the average income level of the consumer who purchases your product?

Is the majority of your customers male or female?

What is the age group of the customer who purchases your product consistently?

Which time of year, day, or season shows trends in purchase by the ideal customer base?

Now, these questions can be answered strictly based on the data and statistics which your company has on hand. These key answers will help you to develop a social media strategy which caters to your ideal customer, establish or fine tune your brand voice, and allow you to focus social media efforts towards the channels which will reach your ideal customers most effectively. In order to fully develop an understanding for the consumer who is most valuable to your brand and its continued success, elaborate on the internal and external attributes, motives and details about of your ‘ideal customer persona’ by using the data gathered to answer more elaborate questions:

What sort of lifestyle does your most reliable customer live?

In which way does your product or service add value to their lifestyle?

What alternatives does your customer have, and what motivates their decision to choose your product?

Does your company have a competitive edge over your consumer in any specific demographic?

Which social media channels is your ideal customer the most active on?

The answers to these questions will help to determine the direction to head going forward. Specifically, by identifying key indicators which will allow you to structure your entire social media strategy around catering to the customer who will be most receptive and effectively, will lead to an increase in brand ambassadors, engagement and sales. We would love to help you to answer these questions and develop a strategy in order to communicate effectively with your ideal customer. Contact us for more information.

Written by: Anthony N. Lento

Edited by: Jonathan Dacosta and Andrew C. Belton