Understanding marketing automation begins with understanding who your audience is and what will make them engage. You cannot build a successful campaign without first constructing an audience-specific strategy. What does this mean? It means understanding the personas of your audience members and how they coincide with your marketing automation streams.
If you’ve read any of my previous blogs on marketing automation, then you know that it’s best to build your campaigns around three streams; Awareness, Consideration and Justification. A big part of setting your campaign strategy revolves around how leads are flowing through these streams and how these streams position leads within the sales funnel. The persona of a lead changes as they move closer to the point of conversion. That being said, it is important to make sure that you are hitting each persona with the information that appeals to them at that precise time.
Persona of an Awareness lead
Think of these leads as the new kid at school. They know that they are where they belong, but they are new and unsure of how they should proceed. In a similar way, these leads are new to your company/product and don’t know how to proceed. This is where you should begin introducing them to your company. Provide an overview of what you can offer them. Ease them through your Awareness stream with more generalized pieces.
Persona of a Consideration lead
Let’s use a timely example to describe the persona of a Consideration lead – voters. We’ve all been inundated with political ads, soliciting our vote by explaining why they are the best option or why their opponent is not. Like voters, the leads within your Consideration stream already know your company on the surface, but don’t know enough about what you can offer them specifically. This is where you need to appeal to their curiosity and start providing higher-level pieces of content that explain what your company can do for them as an individual.
Persona of a Justification lead
The most important persona within your marketing Automation campaign falls within your Justification stream. This is where you are speaking with the decision makers. Think of these leads like a jury. You have presented your case in the Awareness and Consideration streams. Now it’s time for your leads to consult with their team of decision makers. Using the information you have provided, they must justify their decision to move forward and work with your company.
Head over to our marketing automation page for more information on how to target different personas within your marketing automation campaigns.
