Up until recently, colocation companies used demographic data to identify 
and attract their target market. Such vague details are not as useful when it comes to modern consumers, who ignore online information that is not relevant to them.
Nearly half of all American consumers claim to receive irrelevant emails on a routine basis and have since fine-tuned mechanisms for blocking out this 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 understand who the customer is, what they want, what they value, and how to motivate them. This information is used to shape the company’s marketing content and increase effectiveness.
Why Are Buyer Personas Important?
When properly established, buyer personas clarify who a company’s customers are, the challenges they face, and the goals they want to accomplish. As a result, they can help a colocation company create social media posts, blog articles, and web content their ideal customer would find both valuable and relevant.
Other reasons include:
- Insights into what type of information customers will want to share (exposes the business to a wider prospect base)
- Website content 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 they show how their services will solve a problem or challenge the prospect 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 the colocation company has an excellent track record for security and uptime. If XYZ Company can show this persona they can handle such a mission-critical requirement, they 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 most effective way is to ask the client or prospect directly 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 limit to the number of ways a well-composed buyer persona can be used to advance a colocation business. For the sales team, a ‘Manager Dave’ persona can be a positive influence on how they approach and work with prospects/existing customers. Marketers can use ‘CEO Susan’ to compose the website experience, social media interactions, and calls-to-action 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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