Buyer Persona: Prelude to a Personal Conversation with your Customer

As humans, it is natural to want to categorize everything into concise groupings that make sense in our brains. It is natural to do so because it lessens the energy and time the brain has to use to figure out what is happening, what is most likely to happen next or how to appropriately respond. Marketing your business’ goods and services to its unique buyer can be (and should be) quantified and categorized with an understanding of your buyer’s persona.

The data that can be derived from your customer base and their activity is increasingly important in marketing your goods and services. In nearly an instant, you can draw up a report on nearly any highly specific category of users or customers. As much as I love statistics, the data speaks for the group as a whole and we mustn’t forget to actually talk to our customers. Here is why. 

In my personal life, I have had the immense honor of having a wildly diverse group of friends, classmates, colleagues and mentors. Truly, on any given day, I am interacting with a diverse group of people in a wide range of occupations, ages, ethnicities, cultures, identities, faiths and languages. Exposure and representation connect people with new ideas that may not have any kind of statistical relationship.

Let’s take a look at the cultural aspect. The current generations are diverse in heritage and this will undoubtedly increase. I am an example of this. My ancestors stem from nearly every continent on the planet each with their own rich culture and language or dialect. I hate to break it to you, but if you have not noticed, that is not going to change and will only increase in the coming generations. As much as a company can gather data on my usage of their website and my behaviors, how do they know who I really am? Sure, statistically speaking, they can say with (insert percentage) confidence that I am x, y and z. However, how are they to know that I speak and understand multiple languages and that the use of that one word in their social media post is offensive or negative in another language, one they didn’t expect their customer to be categorized by? 

Regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality, sexual orientation and identity, spiritual beliefs or lack thereof, your customer can be unique in their opinions on any topic at hand. One’s combination of political point of view, skillset, communication style, profession, languages spoken and religion can make one an outlier on a graph.

I understand that people like the safety and security of categorizing others; it’s only natural and not necessarily rooted in anything evil. However, as our world is interconnected and more and more complex, your data, though statistically significant, is only a prelude to a personal conversation with your buyers. 

So, how do you really get to know your customers? You may have gathered from your data that your customer base responds well to your corporate social responsibility and that sales of a collection with a talented artist from a marginalized group are even higher than expected, but how can you learn more from your customers? One of the easiest ways to converse with your customers are in the comments and direct messages of your company’s social media pages (assuming you don’t block differing opinions or constructive criticism.) Interacting with your customers can look like a pop-up that makes sense for the culture of the city and its people, in-person or virtual events, surveys and real reviews on your website. 

All companies and organizations can have a two-way conversation with their customers and can communicate properly with them. Though, there is nothing quite like generating a report in a matter of moments, to take your company or organization to a more intimate level with your audience, you must use your statistics to start a meaningful conversation. Contact Heritage Writing Co. to make sense of your data points and translate them into an enhanced user experience.