Until recently, colocation companies used demographic data to identify and attract their target market. Such vague details are not as useful for modern consumers, who ignore online information that is not relevant to them personally.
Nearly half of all American consumers claim to receive irrelevant emails routinely. They have developed mechanisms for tuning out such marketing white noise.
As a result, colocation companies and other businesses are struggling to understand and appeal to the buying behaviors of today’s consumers. The solution is buyer personas, which are swiftly becoming a marketing mainstay.
What is a Buyer Persona?
Buyer personas are archetypes that represent a business’s ideal customer. They make it easier to know who that customer is, what they want, what they value, and how to motivate them. This information shapes the company’s marketing content and increases its effectiveness.
Why Are Buyer Personas Important to Colocation Companies?
When properly put together, buyer personas clarify who a company’s customers are, the challenges they face, and what goals they want to accomplish. As a result, they can help a colocation company create social media posts, blog articles, and web content that their ideal customer would find both valuable and relevant.
Other reasons include:
- Insights into what type of information customers will want to share, which exposes the business to a wider prospect base
- Website content that the search engines will favor due to a high relevancy factor
- Marketing measures that align with customer interests, resulting in greater client satisfaction and potentially increasing sales
A colocation company has a much better chance of winning a prospect’s business if it clearly shows how its services will solve a problem or challenge the person routinely faces. If the buyer persona depicts a person who wants to save money by cutting down on IT costs while keeping their website and digital media constantly accessible, they want to be sure that the colocation company has an excellent track record for security and uptime. If XYZ Company can show this persona that it can handle such a mission-critical requirement, it will receive more qualified leads and new customers.
Creating Effective Personas
Some companies create their buyer personas by deducing details from leads already in the marketing database. While this can work, the best way is to ask the client or prospect themselves whenever possible. A form used to convert leads on the website can include a field asking, “What challenges do you hope to solve with this product?” or “How would you describe yourself?”
A business can have anywhere from one to 20 personas, depending on its size and offering diversity.
There is no real limit to the number of ways that a well-composed buyer persona can be used to advance a colocation business. A ‘Manager Dave’ persona for the sales team can positively influence how they approach and work with prospects and existing customers. Marketers can use ‘CEO Susan’ to compose the website experience, social media interactions, and calls-to-action that incoming leads encounter.
Does your colocation center use buyer personas to direct sales and marketing initiatives? Sound off in the comments below.
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