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Added for You - How to Use Personas to Connect with Your Target Audiences
Interior design seems to be all the rage these days. If you don’t believe me, just turn on the television. Designers tackling small spaces, kitchen remodels and even designer reality shows. Have you watched one of these programs and thought you could do that? It takes more preparation and work than you see in a hour or half hour show.Interior designers have stiff competition from each other. Homeowners will shop around until they find the designer that fits their needs. Licensing is required in 23 states. And, three out of ten designers are self employed.Designer’s work consists of enhancing function, safety and aesthetics of a space. They deal with choosing colors, fixtures, furniture, lighting and art. A designer may specialize in commercial or residential design but it isn’t a requirement to limit your clientele.A designer must be able to read blueprints, and know fire and building codes. She must be able to work with contra
But remember that personas can't stand-alone. Your organizational goals must guide the communications planning process. And
Surely one of the biggest bugbears of the modern age are those automated telephone answering systems that try to answer your telephone calls, but rarely actually do. It seems to make no difference whether you are trying to speak to your bank, a utility company, or any large corporation, you are almost certain to be faced with a computer inviting you to make a selection. Press 3, and on and on.Only yesterday when trying to obtain some service on my crackly telephone line I was invited to press a certain digit. After leaping over no less than eight separate hurdles I was finally assailed with this glorious message, “we are experiencing a larger than usual number of calls at present, and cannot immediately take your call. Please try again later!”Perhaps if seemingly half the population weren’t chasing themselves around these computerised mazes of infuriating messages like crazed rats in a wheel, the company in question wouldn’t have been
Traditionally, personas have been used for design of computer hardware and software, particularly web site usability. They are starting to be used for marketing and communications planning and I think they have a huge value in the nonprofit marketing arena:
• How Can Personas Help My Organization Connect with Our Target Audiences?
Personas are hypothetical "stand ins" for your nonprofit's actual audiences. They enable communications and development teams (and that includes planners, writers, designers and others) to stand in their audiences' shoes. They focus the communications initiatives on supporting audience needs and interests. And you'll find far greater success designing a communications plan or a program's marketing message that meets the goals of a specific person, rather than trying to plan or write for the hazily-defined needs of many.
• Is Persona Just Another Word for Market Segment?
No, but that's a common objection you may here from the marketing traditionalists within your organization. Market segmentation is a great tool for identifying the groups of people you are trying to reach, and why. But market segmentation can't shape your marketing messages or choice of strategies.
Assume you know that 33% of women aged 25-40 are interested in supporting breast cancer research, and that messages and graphic design are key elements affecting their giving decisions. Well, that's a good start. But personas add a great deal of richness. A persona might show that Miriam, aged 36, wants to give to breast cancer today but is concerned that she doesn't know enough about how her money will be used if she gives to your nonprofit. She wants to be assured by information showing how contributions are used.
• How Do We Create Personas that Work?
Although personas are fictional, they must be defined with rigor and exactness. Ideally they are based on some understanding of real audiences. It's easiest to create accurate personas if your organization has some idea of demographics and, even better, data on habits and interests. When you base personas on audience research, you'll ensure that the personas truly represent your audiences. Interviews of current and potential audiences are one of the best ways to gather qualitative information. Here's a link to a recent case study on another approach to audience research: http://www.nancyschwartz.com/getting_feedback.html
But remember that personas can't stand-alone. Your organizational goals must guide the communications planning process. And
Marketing Strategy #1: Meet your prospects before you even start your business/promotion. Knowing your prospects before you offer them anything is incredibly powerful, not to mention profitable. On top of that, if you get to know them first, before doing a promotion, they will tend to respond more, thus bumping up your sales with no additional costs!Marketing Strategy #2: Ethically ‘bribe’ your prospects to do business with you. There have been too many unethical bribing incidents reported in the media recently. Be very clear, I’m NOT asking you to break the law. At the same time you need to realize that people do business with those who give them the most ‘bribes’ (compelling benefits). So come up with strong compelling reasons why your prospects can benefit from you.Marketing Strategy #3: Prove what you claim is true. With the growth of information technology, people are getting constantly bombarded by advertis
• How Can Personas Help My Organization Connect with Our Target Audiences?
Personas are hypothetical "stand ins" for your nonprofit's actual audiences. They enable communications and development teams (and that includes planners, writers, designers and others) to stand in their audiences' shoes. They focus the communications initiatives on supporting audience needs and interests. And you'll find far greater success designing a communications plan or a program's marketing message that meets the goals of a specific person, rather than trying to plan or write for the hazily-defined needs of many.
• Is Persona Just Another Word for Market Segment?
No, but that's a common objection you may here from the marketing traditionalists within your organization. Market segmentation is a great tool for identifying the groups of people you are trying to reach, and why. But market segmentation can't shape your marketing messages or choice of strategies.
Assume you know that 33% of women aged 25-40 are interested in supporting breast cancer research, and that messages and graphic design are key elements affecting their giving decisions. Well, that's a good start. But personas add a great deal of richness. A persona might show that Miriam, aged 36, wants to give to breast cancer today but is concerned that she doesn't know enough about how her money will be used if she gives to your nonprofit. She wants to be assured by information showing how contributions are used.
• How Do We Create Personas that Work?
Although personas are fictional, they must be defined with rigor and exactness. Ideally they are based on some understanding of real audiences. It's easiest to create accurate personas if your organization has some idea of demographics and, even better, data on habits and interests. When you base personas on audience research, you'll ensure that the personas truly represent your audiences. Interviews of current and potential audiences are one of the best ways to gather qualitative information. Here's a link to a recent case study on another approach to audience research: http://www.nancyschwartz.com/getting_feedback.html
But remember that personas can't stand-alone. Your organizational goals must guide the communications planning process. And
“At senior levels of an organization, the ability to adapt, to make decisions quickly in situations of high uncertainty, and to steer through wrenching change is critical. But at a time when the need for superior talent is increasing, big U.S. companies are finding it difficult to attract and retain good people. Executives and experts point to a severe and worsening shortage of the people needed to run divisions and manage critical functions, let alone lead companies. Everyone knows organizations where key jobs go begging, business objectives languish, and compensation packages skyrocket.”Elizabeth Chambers etal, McKinsey & Company, The War for TalentIn a recent interview, Dr. Jay Conger states, “Business organizations are not designed to be great training grounds for leadership development. They are great training grounds for execution of an existing business model and, if [the business model is] right, all you need are managers.
• Is Persona Just Another Word for Market Segment?
No, but that's a common objection you may here from the marketing traditionalists within your organization. Market segmentation is a great tool for identifying the groups of people you are trying to reach, and why. But market segmentation can't shape your marketing messages or choice of strategies.
Assume you know that 33% of women aged 25-40 are interested in supporting breast cancer research, and that messages and graphic design are key elements affecting their giving decisions. Well, that's a good start. But personas add a great deal of richness. A persona might show that Miriam, aged 36, wants to give to breast cancer today but is concerned that she doesn't know enough about how her money will be used if she gives to your nonprofit. She wants to be assured by information showing how contributions are used.
• How Do We Create Personas that Work?
Although personas are fictional, they must be defined with rigor and exactness. Ideally they are based on some understanding of real audiences. It's easiest to create accurate personas if your organization has some idea of demographics and, even better, data on habits and interests. When you base personas on audience research, you'll ensure that the personas truly represent your audiences. Interviews of current and potential audiences are one of the best ways to gather qualitative information. Here's a link to a recent case study on another approach to audience research: http://www.nancyschwartz.com/getting_feedback.html
But remember that personas can't stand-alone. Your organizational goals must guide the communications planning process. And
Successful management teams understand that organizational success is much more dependent upon the effectiveness of their teams than any other market influence. Robert H. Waterman understood the importance of people in business when he wrote that organizations exist for only one purpose: to help people reach ends together that they couldn't achieve individually.So the question that management faces on a daily basis is three-fold: How can we or I improve the wins for the team, the department and the organization? How do we or I close the gaps between today’s outcomes and the desired future results? How do we or I create a positive return on investment (ROI) for the resources expended in trying to improve the wins for the team? During my experiences as both a process improvement and performa
• How Do We Create Personas that Work?
Although personas are fictional, they must be defined with rigor and exactness. Ideally they are based on some understanding of real audiences. It's easiest to create accurate personas if your organization has some idea of demographics and, even better, data on habits and interests. When you base personas on audience research, you'll ensure that the personas truly represent your audiences. Interviews of current and potential audiences are one of the best ways to gather qualitative information. Here's a link to a recent case study on another approach to audience research: http://www.nancyschwartz.com/getting_feedback.html
But remember that personas can't stand-alone. Your organizational goals must guide the communications planning process. And
Have you always wanted an Internet business but been stopped by hurdles like no web site, no product idea, no networking marketing knowledge, etc, etc, etc? Or are you one of the many affiliates struggling to make sales and commissions from your business or Affiliate programs?If you answer “Yes” to any of the above question, then listen ……. I have extremely exciting news.Read this article in its entirety to find out what you should do if you’re serious about making money and finding the secret ingredient for your success.Statistics gathered by industry expert show that over 90% of people who join affiliate programs never make enough money from their sales commission checks. Why do they fair miserably?You see, if you want to make money on the Internet then you need to understand the “rules” of the game... Then you need to play better than everybody else.So...how exactly is it that you learn the “rules” so that you
But remember that personas can't stand-alone. Your organizational goals must guide the communications planning process. And frequently, it's important to test messages or multiple versions of letters with your audiences.
• What Does a Persona Look Like?
Here's a sample persona checklist. The precise details you'll want to include depend on your organization's marketing and communications goals. Are you aiming to increase use of a new health care clinic, motivating volunteers for your mentoring program or build the number of visitors to your nature preserve? No matter your goals, here's what you'll want to include in your personas:
• A one to two page narrative profile, for each persona.
• A few fictional details about the persona's life --an interest or a habit--that makes each person unique and memorable. When you start here, the hypothetical constructs spring to life.
• Brief outline of a daily work day or day at home (depends on who you are trying to reach), including specific details, likes and dislikes.
• Name, age, photo and personal information.
• Work environments if you're trying to reach professionals, rather than individuals, including length of time in the job, professional development habits (if marketing services such as training for social workers on public benefits), information- seeking habits and favorite resources, personal and professional goals, colleagues with whom the persona works most closely, etc.
• Personal and professional goals.
Sample Persona – Nonprofit Communications Campaign on Community Fitness
• Context: A nonprofit is launching a new community fitness program and needs to promote it to community activists, politicians, and citizens, and to motivate their involvement. The staff needs to know what's important to these audiences segments, so it can shape its messages, website (a centerpiece of the campaign), brochures and events accordingly.
• Challenge: This is the first time the organization is proactively communicating to motivate creation of fit communities. It will launch a new website as the centerpiece of this campaign, but doesn't know how to design the site to most effectively educate its diverse audiences and motivate them to act. The communications team doesn't really know where to start.
• Persona (short version):
Introducing Frank Cummings, age 64
Frank, 64, owns his own home in a moderately-priced area of an industrial-based community in Ohi
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