The Case For Personas

Can you use personas to help you make better decisions about your site, strategy and content even if you're not a Conversion Scientist?

Well, I think so.

This is a short excerpt (13 minutes) from our Webinar Right content. Right response. I think you could use the Decision Mode and the Generation of your most important visitors to craft more engaging content on your site.

It's worth 13 minutes to find out, isn't it?

The slides that accompany the discussion are:

3. Will you understand social networking now, or when it becomes a proven tool?

Are you a Marketing Sheep? 261 Questions.

How long ago was it that you worked in a dot com company, or worried that you'd missed the boat because you didn't? It seems like yesterday. It was about six years ago. Six years passed quickly.

So, it stands to reason that the next six years will go by equally as fast. That's when the 11 year olds that make up what CNN is calling Generation We will be 17 years old. They'll have already swept past you as key influencers of consumer and business marketing.

Word of warning: You don't have six years to wait.

If you believe the insightful rants of Roy H. Williams--The Wizard of Ads--you only have about 2 more years. That's when Generations Y and We will have moved Generation X and the Baby Boomers to socially connected buying behaviors.

Image courtesy stock.xchng

2. Is Marketing a Job or a Calling?

Are you a Marketing Sheep? 261 Questions

How do you feel about what you're marketing? Are you proud? Yikes. Do you feel that your product is the best available in the marketplace? Yawn.

Is your product going to change lives, enable businesses to be all they can be, create jobs, or instill inner peace? Are you marketing something that you thing has to be out there or you will explode?

This graphic is from a blog post by Kevin Koym. He talks a about entrepreneurs, but I don't think you need to be an entrepreneur to give some serious thought to where you are on the Z.

Honestly, I'd probably be at the career level if anyone would have kept me on long enough to start a career. Most marketers can relate.

Your prospects will get it if you are on a mission or have a calling. In fact, you could erase the worked "meaningful" and replace it with "outward-focused."

Is your marketing blathering on about your brand, your features, or even your benefits? Have you ever met someone who is on a mission or has found their calling?

I'd like to hear about it. I bet that if they were marketers, they wouldn't be putting up brochure sites.

1. Are you writing Web pages or designing helpful online services?

Are you a Marketing Sheep? 261 Questions.

When you say "I'm going to update our company's Web site" do you call a Web design firm? Is the first thing you worry about the colors and fonts and "attitude?" If so, you may be a marketing sheep.

How about questions like this:

• How can I extend my products and services out onto the Web so that visitors can experience them?
• What valuable services compliment my product or service?
• What valuable services appeal to my prospects, even if they are unrelated to my company's offering?
• What would appeal to my customers' customers?

Now you're talking. In fact, even if you only put a brochure site up, it will be fundamentally different if you see yourself as providing a valuable service: to inform our visitors about our product. Why? because the focus is put on the visitor, not on the company and its offerings.

Let's not bicker about whether or not the Web page is dead. Let's figure out if we have anything better to offer than Web page.