HOW TO USE CUSTOMER PERSONAS EFFECTIVELY IN VIDEO MARKETING

It is not a secret that video is one of the content mediums with the highest ROI. This is partially because videos make personal stories more credible than automated chatbots could ever do. Yet, as powerful as video marketing might be, it is also important to create personalized content that resonates with your target group. This is where customer personas come into play.

In this article, we want to explore together how you can use buyer personas to personalize your marketing and make more effective and targeted videos.

A Short Definition of Customer Personas

We dedicated one of our previous articles to the essence of customer personas, so we are not going to discuss the concept in detail here. Let us simply remind you that a customer persona is a generalized, fictitious person who embodies the characteristics of an anonymous target group. This means that a persona is not a real person, but it gives a comprehensive picture of a particular target segment. 

Developing buyer personas allows marketers to classify and characterize target groups, as well as to build a better emotional connection with them. Customer personas can open up opportunities to create more customer-centric strategies, build a differentiated and uniformed brand image, as well as communicate with the audience in a natural way. After all, it is much easier to speak to an imaginary person than to a list of characteristics, isn’t it? Interestingly enough, some companies even print out images of their customer personas to help them make better day-to-day marketing decisions.

How to Use Customer Personas to Better Target Your Videos

A lot of businesses can have multiple customer personas due to a complex buying process. Keep in mind that even a single product or service can meet more than one need. This means that different target groups might be interested in buying it, yet for different reasons.

It is certainly possible to focus on 2-3 customer personas when you think about your video’s audience. Nevertheless, experience shows that the best way to create targeted, effective video content is to speak to a single persona.

Here is a more detailed list of 5 ways to benefit from customer personas in video marketing. 

1. Determine the Purpose of Your Video

On the one hand, you need to take into consideration the general characteristics of your customer personas when you create videos.  However, pay attention to the fact that the purpose of your video can also be indicative of your audience’s specifics. The different stages of the sales funnel are associated with different marketing goals. 

At the top stage of the funnel, the focus is on raising awareness of a problem and introducing your brand to a broad group of people. To do so, you need to know which platforms and channels are most often used, as well as what customers’ interactions look like.

If your videos aim at engaging prospects or nurturing leads, then it is vital to clarify what makes your audience tick. At this stage it would be hard to target your videos effectively unless you are clear about your ideal client’s background, interests, pain points, etc. 

Naturally enough, your video’s purpose might also be to delight or retain your customers. If this is so, analyze how your business has helped your existing clients.

2. Utilize Customer Personas to Tell More Powerful Stories

You probably know from experience that telling stories is a powerful tool for engaging an audience. Every story features a main character and this is what helps make a human connection between you and your audience. 

If you want to fully tap into the power of videos, do not focus primarily on tutorials and ‘explainer videos’. Yes, tutorials can allow you to illustrate and showcase what your service and product can do for your clients. Nevertheless, they do not turn the viewer into the hero of a story, so they do not relate as much. 

Creating a character for your story that your audience feels emotionally connected to is no easy task. However, there are possibilities. 

First, you need to take the time and create a customer persona that embodies the goals, the challenges, the needs and the characteristics of your ideal clients. Next, use this information to create a video in which your story character transforms through a challenge your audience faces.

Nestlé Milky Bar, Street’s Ice-cream, Yellow Pages and other brands have managed to even go one step further. Their mascots serve as a recognition mark, inspire their marketing campaigns and tie their products to a particular feeling.

3. Use Customer Personas to Become Personal in Your Videos

Another benefit of using customer personas in video marketing is that they can help you make your videos more personal. This can include showing off your staff, using real people in your campaigns instead of actors, etc. Nevertheless, remember to adjust your content to your audience’s needs, interests, questions and problems at each stage of your sales funnel. In other words, you can become personal by simply sharing relevant trends and news based on your clients’ industry.

4. Define Your Video Style and Stay True to It

Even if viewers do not always pay conscious attention to messaging, design and tonalities, these are cornerstones that determine your video style. 

Design

It makes a difference if you are talking to CEOs of international companies or millennials working for a high tech startup. In the first case, your video will include formal formulations that communicate concisely what is most important. On the other hand, a target audience with an entrepreneurial mindset will appreciate a creative approach and colourful videos with animations. 

Tone

Including music in a video can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it can allow you to activate your audience more powerfully. On the other hand, sounds can evoke emotionally charged memories you have no control over. Some people may adore what others detest.

It might be hard to choose a song which will appeal to a large number of people. However, it is not mission impossible. Just keep in mind that you are not your ideal client. So, set aside your prejudice and preferences, and focus on that would resonate best with them.

Language

Nuances of speech definitely play a significant role when it comes to making a video script. Therefore take into consideration the following two aspects. 

First, language has to be tailored to your target audience. So, having a customer persona will make it easier for you to identify how you would speak to that person. When you research your target audience, pay attention to the language they use to talk about their topics of interest.

Second, you need to make sure that your voice-over script is conversational and easy to read out loud. To sound better, stick to shorter sentences. 

Voice

Here are a few more tips you can follow if you use a voice-over in your videos. 

First, unless the topic of your video is a gender-specific topic, you can choose a male or female voice.

Second, viewers are more receptive to people of the same age, so pay close attention to the perceived age of the voice-over artist.

Third, adjust any other subtleties in the human voice that might influence how your audience will react to your message.

5. Use Customer Personas When You Choose What Platforms to Broadcast Your Videos on

Before you can turn prospects into customers, you need to attract leads. So, if you use video marketing, then you need to make sure that your videos reach the right people. To do so, you need to choose wisely what platforms to broadcast your videos on.

It is well known that people tend to share and forward videos they have watched on social media. However, do not just randomly post videos on all the possible channels. What we advise you to do instead is to focus on platforms that are preferred by your target audience. Getting to know your ideal clients’ online habits is part of creating a customer persona. Therefore, this is another way to use personas in your video marketing.