Personas, target groups and needs groups
Why target groups just aren’t enough in online marketing
The chicken or the egg? The persona or the target group?
Who came first? The chicken or the egg? Or in our case: the target group or the persona?
One thing’s for sure: In the beginning, you’ve got your target group. It consists of demographic characteristics that are collected, for instance, via market research. Needs groups are quite easy to explain: They consist of a group of people with the same need. Even though it is easier to define a needs group: For a good content strategy, it is essential to create personas. Last but not least, target groups are now often pigeonholed into generational categories. Baby Boomers, for example, display different buying behaviours than members of Gen Z.
Our tip: Set goals, define the target group, create personas and develop a content strategy. You can find step-by-step instructions in “Content Marketing – Das Workbook” (German only)!
From target groups to personas
Target groups are people grouped together based on data. We might know how old our customers are, where they come from and which payment option they prefer. They’re people we don’t know and who remain completely anonymous. So how can we find the right words to reach the people in our target group?
In contrast to the very broad target groups, personas are more detailed and give the target audience a face and a name. This makes it easier to find the right words later on in content marketing. Words that will be read and understood by your target group and that lead to certain actions such as purchases, bookings or recommendations.
Advantages of personas
- Personas make it a lot easier to deal with target groups. Instead of anonymous data such as “female, between 20 and 30, outdoorsy and active”, in content marketing, we are dealing with “Melanie, 26, from Salzburg, avid hiker”.
- Your target groups are closer to reality. Personas give their members faces and bring them to life.
- Your content hits the nail on the head. Because personas make content creation much more efficient and effective.
- You can hold fictitious briefing conversations with your personas. This allows you to find out which topics are relevant to your target group and which are not
Hi, my name is Paul!
This is Paul. Paul is 35 years old and lives with his wife Lisa and his two children in a fancy part of the city of Salzburg. After getting his degree in business, Paul started to work his way up in a well-known company and is currently a senior executive. He regularly attends further education courses. In his free time, he likes to do sports or read non-fiction books.
This summer, Paul would like to spend his family holiday in Styria. He wants to make sure the needs of all family members are met equally. Even though he doesn’t enjoy research, he is intensely concerned with the location and child-friendliness of the hotel. That’s why straight answers, facts and a simple booking process are important to him. If finding information takes too long or the booking process becomes too cumbersome, Paul loses interest.
Hello everyone, I’m Miri!
This is Miri. Miri is 23 years old. She has just graduated from university and started her first full-time job. She recently moved into her first apartment of her own in Salzburg. Miri spends a lot of time on Instagram and TikTok and has also done a few collaborations with smaller start-ups. She likes to spend time with friends who share similar interests and lifestyles. They all prefer to shop online rather than in malls.
This summer, she wants to go on holiday to a trendy hotel in Styria together with her friends. The hotel needs to be instagrammable and look more expensive than it is. Miri researches suitable hotels exclusively online. She compares offers and gets inspiration from influencers. Besides the image of the hotel and the region, the price also plays an important role.
Miri & Paul shape your content strategy
Although both personas want to spend their holidays in Styria, their needs are very different. In online searches, Paul ends up entering “hiking holiday with kids” and Miri “lifestyle holiday with friends”.
You see – these two people no longer have anything to do with an anonymous target group. We know what questions Miri and Paul are asking, what they are looking for, and also how they want to be presented with the information. Especially in content creation and seeding, it’s incredibly helpful to keep the personas in mind.
And for good reason: A detailed persona makes it easy to tailor content to them. Knowing what they want and need becomes obvious.