Everyone has heard the advice to picture your audience in their underwear to avoid being nervous. But have you taken the time to think about the brand of underwear? Where they bought it? That person’s name? What they like and dislike? Marketing companies have. They build what is called personas, and this tool could help you in your next presentation. In the recent movie Date Night, the mild-mannered married couple Phil (Steve Carell) and Claire (Tina Fey), have a tradition for their evenings out. They look around the restaurant, pick out other couples and begin making up stories about their pasts, how they met and what conversations they are having. Turns out this not just a fun date activity, but an important step in understanding your audience and preparing your message.
Personas are fictional characters created to represent the different user types within a targeted demographic, attitude and/or behavior set that might use a site, brand or product in a similar way. Personas are useful when considering the goals, desires and limitations of buyers in order to help to guide decisions about a service, product or interaction.
Angela Quail at Goal Centric is using personas to humanize telesales interactions. She works with sales teams such as Hewlett-Packard, that have thousands of sales people on the phones working with clients they have never met. Angela’s team develops the persona or fictional character with a full history and background so the HP employee can relate better to the customer.
When you develop a persona for your audience, there are many possible behavioral traits you can target to help inspire action. Ahmed Taleb, Director of Strategic Planning at Bulldog Solutions advises “focusing on the three most powerful types of behavior: avoidance (pain points), attraction (motivators) and validation (third-party consultation).”
Pain points are simply the set of stimuli that cause a listener to react with a set of actions that minimize or eliminate negative outcomes. These are the things that most trouble someone and can be the most powerful motivating force behind rational decision making.
Motivators, on the other hand, are the set of stimuli that operate in exactly the opposite way — they inspire action to encourage or repeat a positive outcome.
Validators are important in the world of Google where a third-party consultation can be made in just a few clicks. Make sure to ask yourself what proof your audience will need before acting on your idea.
Collect the common pain points, motivators and validators for your next audience, develop the persona and prepare messaging the will appeal to this fictional character. Your pitch will inspire your audience to take action even if they are wearing more than just underwear.
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