2020: The year you should put your persona first

As the New Year gets underway, in fact, the new decade gets underway, many companies will undoubtedly be looking to revamp their digital presence; in particular their website.

Technology is a truly wonderful thing and the 2010s saw the fourth industrial revolution truly get underway as new products transformed the way we interact and engage with the world around us. From smartphones and AI to social media and 4G, the way we work in 2020 is incredibly different to how we did in 2010.

This growing technology has meant that it is both very difficult and very expensive for businesses to keep up to date with the latest trends. More than that however is the growing culture of instant gratification that consumers now demand. No longer do they expect to browse websites and absorb everything; taking their time to find out exactly what they want. Nowadays, consumers want the information immediately — typically browsing from a smartphone or tablet in a hurry.

This change has forced website designers to adapt the layout and design of their sites; the text-heavy websites with endless pages scattered all over the place were thrown out and sleek image and video led sites became the norm. Whilst they might visually look better for the consumer, for advertisers it is has increased the challenge of trying to drill down who their target buyer is.

With lots of pages, they were able to track movements and build up a profile of their target consumer however this becomes an increasingly more difficult job to do with the modern websites. It is still a vital part of the marketing process though; selling a product to a 21 year old is vastly different to selling it to a 61 year old, so companies need to be able to meet both demands.

So how do they do that? Well, the answer lies in persona driven websites that speak directly to the consumer. These are going to become increasingly more common over the next few years and here at 1.3 Creative we work with businesses to understand what their target personas are before creating a beautiful website around them, building a compelling story and page structure that helps to convince potential buyers to make the purchase.

To do this successfully requires a blend of engaging copy written in a modern style, captivating images and videography as well as the use of unique colours specifically designed to entice customers. Alongside all of this, there also has to be specific call-to-actions placed in strategic places as well as contact forms and various types of thank you pages to acknowledge and speak directly to the persona.

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What is a Persona and how do you identify them?

Before you can begin to build the perfect persona driven website, you need to truly understand who that persona is. In this modern world of user-centred design, marketing has had to become a lot more personable. To do this, fictional characters are created to best represent the types of people who are likely to become valued users of a company; these are your personas.

By understanding who these personas are and the ways in which your target audience will behave will allow you to predict their movements and tailor content to that; helping to engage with them in a more personable manner and boosting your customer satisfaction. We are all emotional beings and are more likely to purchase from a company that strikes a chord with our values and way of life — so ensuring you understand your customer personas is incredibly important in boosting your sales.

In order to create the personas for your company, you need to look at a few key areas:

Age

The first thing you need to understand is the age of your demographics — not only those who are likely to purchase your products but also those who are most likely to use your website. This will allow you to tailor the design to the required needs; for example adding larger text for older audiences or creating a more dynamic navigation process for younger audiences.

Name

This might seem a little strange, but you should always give your characters a name. This helps you to create an image of a real potential customer — allowing you to work out how the website will work for them, “Would this design choice work for Mike? Can Linda afford this price?”

Education

With a name and an age for your persona, you then need to work out what the typical level of education is for your demographic. This is an important part of the persona building process as it helps to define the language you use on the website.

Background

Where does your persona come from? What is their job role? Their hobbies? Family life? You need to question all of this in order to build up a true understanding of your target audience and the customers you are trying to attract.

Geography

What country do your personas live in? What area of that country? Do they live in a city or are they based in a more rural area? What is their first language? Again, these are very important points to understand in order to be able to build up that knowledge of the target persona of your customers.

When you have been able to create a persona using these five points, you will then be able to tailor your website design and content to target them directly. It will let you align your website with their common values, so rather than guessing at what your hypothetical audience might want to hear, you will be able to speak directly to them.

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How 1.3 Creative can help you…

Here at 1.3 Creative, we are one of the UK’s leading digital transformation partners and since 2015 we have been helping businesses to transform their online presence and keep up with the ever-changing digital landscape.

This means we are able to work with you directly to help build realistic and useful target personas for your business. Using a unique methodology, we are able to break down the creation process into key bite sized elements, making it easier for you and us to adapt the persona along the way. By building a suite of personas relevant to you, we are able to truly understand your company — so when it comes to actually building the website, we have a full understanding of who the target consumers will be.

This means we can focus on creating a compelling story on your website, drawing your potential customers in with engaging copy, design and calls to action. Not only that, but by genuinely understanding your business we can hone in on the best keywords; boosting your SEO efforts and extending the story across social media and online advertising.

So if you are looking to revolutionise your digital presence this year and maximise your sales, get in touch with 1.3 Creative today. In 2020, persona driven websites will yield more results as users will be able to find exactly what they want in a way that relates to them.