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What Are E-Commerce Personas and How Can They Help Your Business?

by | Nov 1, 2021 | Uncategorized

Businesses in Singapore and around the world must possess an intimate understanding of the needs of their audience in order to promote products and services that are laser-targeted to what their potential customers are looking for. The way a product is marketed is important in e-commerce because the cycle of selling and buying takes place exclusively online, without any in-person interaction between companies and consumers. To find out more about different marketing strategies, consider taking a digital marketing training course in Singapore.

Targeted marketing strategies, such as using e-commerce buyer personas, help companies reach a wider range of customers that are likely to be genuinely interested in a product or service. Instead of advertising broadly in the hopes of reaching a handful of casual viewers, e-commerce buyer personas help businesses target specific groups of people within a larger audience base. This equips brands with knowledge to market their products in a way that resonates with — and caters to — specific audiences.

What Are E-Commerce Buyer Personas? 

E-commerce personas are archetypal profiles of potential consumers, generated from real data about existing customers or research on industry-specific consumer trends. Developing the right persona profiles can go a long way in helping businesses make key marketing decisions, for example, on their messaging style, the marketing channels they should invest in, and how to improve customer relations. Many businesses start out with around three to five personas.

What Makes a Good Customer Persona?

A substantial customer persona should be built around both qualitative and quantitative research. Personas can be as simple or complex as you want them to be. Main insights that should be included in a good customer persona are the “buyer’s” goals, concerns, expectations, and behavioural drivers. Following on are examples of key components to factor into the creation of a customer persona.

1. Demographic Segmentation

Demographic information helps you understand where your persona exists within larger groups of society. This information is fairly easy to gather as opposed to other segmentation techniques, such as persona psychographics. Common demographic factors include:

  • Age
  • Ethnicity
  • Gender
  • Education level
  • Income level
  • Career industry

2. Psychological Segmentation

Psychographics goes a step further from demographic segmentation, and dives into consumer activities, interests and opinions. To form a well-rounded psychographics profile, one might ask questions to find out how a product or service relates to the customer’s attitudes, aspirations, and other psychological motivations.

  • What values does this persona hold?
  • What are their hobbies and interests?
  • What are their goals and hopes and how does your product relate to them?
  • What are their concerns and how can your product or service help them?
  • What triggers does this persona have and how can you avoid them?

3. Behavioural Segmentation

Behavioral segmentation generally refers to a consumer’s behaviour when making purchase decisions. This may include their brand loyalty, their readiness to purchase, interactions with your web page etc. In the space of e-commerce, this will likely involve questions on their online behaviour. Questions asked may include:

  • What social media channels do they spend the most time on?
  • Where does this specific persona find his or her information?
  • How much do they spend in one shopping session?
  • What prior knowledge do they have about your product or service?

Gathering Persona Information

Information for the above categories can be gathered through a variety of online and offline resources. For example, Google Analytics and Facebook Audience Insights are often used to capture basic demographic information. To get more detailed information on psychographics and behavioural insights, you may need to conduct further research through the form of surveys or interviews with your existing customers. Incentivise your surveys with a lucky draw voucher or a discount code to get more responses. You can also make use of consumer reports by third-party sources like think tanks to gather necessary information.

Creating the Persona

After collecting all necessary information, it’s time to put the persona together. Give your persona a memorable name, and consider including a real-life photo to make the profile more empathetic and realistic. As consumers come to expect increasingly tailored products, knowing your audience is more important than ever. Well-developed customer personas will help you execute e-commerce marketing campaigns targeted to your most valued customer segments. Speak to your customers’ core needs and wants and convert interest into sales, while retaining loyalty.

Check out ASK Training Singapore’s courses on digital marketing to learn more about targeted marketing strategies. You can also get in touch with any questions you may have regarding the most suitable course for your business needs.