So much has changed in 2020: attitudes about how to buy, what to buy and who to buy from as well as our level of comfort with how we interact with the physical world. An April study from McKinsey & Company, “How COVID-19 Is Impacting Consumer Behavior” describes changes in buying patterns, including willingness to travel, that may stick around even after the turbulence settles and we are “free to roam about the cabin.”
We know that the print industry needs to get back to marketing our services, and we need to help our customers get back to marketing their services, but how do we adapt our marketing and our services to our new reality?
We wish there was a simple answer to that – but there never is. What we can offer is a simple tool to help you to visualize the needs of your various customer groups and think clearly about how to communicate with them and serve their needs. At the end of this post, you can download a Persona Template designed by our friends at ColorKarma.
Working with Personas
A persona is a semi-fictional character built from the qualitative and quantitative data that you have about customers or prospects for a particular company. You will typically develop multiple personas to help to distinguish between customer groups that have differing needs.
Persona development helps sales, marketing, and product development teams gain a deeper understanding of their customers. When team members can visualize and empathize with their customers’ needs they can be more creative in how to respond.
Better messaging, product innovations and more cost effective service options can result from developing a rich and deep customer understanding.
Using this free persona template, your team can uncover valuable insights for your next project, product or campaign.
You can use this tool for your own planning, and make available to your customers to help them with planning. You may want to consider leading a persona development session with your customers to help them visualize needed changes to their marketing plan. Personal development is most successful when team members with different perspectives are contributing to the discussion. More detailed instructions are included with the 2-sided template.
- It can be printed and completed or completed digitally
- The front page shows the persona template.
- The back page contains guided instructions.
Need more help? Get in touch. We’re going through the same process!