Putting personas at the centre of your customer acquisition strategy

With digital advertising, it can be easy to get caught up in the data and forget that the users you are selling your events to are human beings, who are likely to share characteristics and have common demographics. This is why it’s so important to think about your audience, and even create personas based on what you know about them from your data, their behaviours and so on. Simply defined, a persona is a profile that represents users who would be interested in purchasing from you.

Creating personas should be one of the first things that you do when planning an event marketing campaign. You are likely to have multiple personas to think about when you profile your current customers, (such as those who have previously attended your event or subscribed to your newsletters), your target customers and influencers who are in the position to direct others to your event. Putting yourself in the centre of your personas allows you to think like your potential buyers, which makes it easier to plan how you are going to market your events to the people that are most likely to buy tickets to attend.

Your customer base is extremely valuable when creating personas. Reach out to them using polls and surveys as this will give you a deeper understanding of the audience, their characteristics, their behaviour and their needs, all of which will be valuable within your personas. You should also reach out to other connections within the industry and prospects who may have different needs to your current customers.

Something we often do for clients which can really help is to create visual personas, choose a name and give them a real identity such as the persona card below, which you can then build on by thinking about ‘what would George like to hear or find out more about?’.

There are lots of questions you should be thinking about when creating your event marketing personas and profiling your audience. Why would they be searching for your event? What relevant searches would they make? Who would be interested in attending? Where is your event located and would people be able to travel there easily? What type of language do they use? Are there common job titles? What knowledge will your event provide and who needs this knowledge? Once you have all this information about your audience, you can tailor your messaging to explain how your event will benefit them in a way that they are most likely to interact with. 

You can also create negative personas, which represent the audience that you do not want to focus efforts on marketing towards. A few things to think about here include those who may not have the financial means to purchase a ticket for your event, competitors, those who do not fit your company goals and ethos and those who regularly engage with your content and have done over a long period of time, but continue to not convert. Having negative personas helps with reducing time and budget wastage.

Once you have detailed personas in place, you will be able to plan your event advertising campaigns with ease. Consider them vital and always come back to them when you have questions about your campaigns. If you are going to change your messaging, ensure it is still tailored towards these audiences. Want to trial a different social media platform? Think about whether you are likely to find your audience there.

If you are looking for more information on event marketing personas or have questions about using paid search and social to grow your event and sell more tickets, get in touch on 01732 368120 or contact us here.