Personas help an organization to understand who its customers are. They are particularly useful in journey mapping, customer service design and ensuring the right CX capabilities are receiving investment.
By taking the time to understand the various personas that comprise a customer base an organization can tailor its engagement strategy to each different type of customer.
Jaslyin Qiyu, head of client marketing, channels and content for Citibank Singapore says consistent engagement has a role to play in influencing the decision-making process of customers and, in turn, will influence the level of loyalty they have towards your brand and products.
The approach she outlines in this article was key to the success of Citibank’s Life and Money content strategy, launched in partnership with Yahoo in 2023.
Qiyu, who is also a CX Network Advisory Board member and one of our Leaders to Watch for 2024, shares more on the campaign and the results it has generated to date during CX Talks: The power of content marketing for CX.
What is a customer persona?
A customer persona is a data-based snapshot of the different types of customers that engage with a brand or buy a product or service.
Acting as a representation of the target customer, a persona will identify their problems, priorities, preferred channels and purchasing habits. This information allows an organization to focus on what motivates different types of customers, how and when they want to engage, what influences their decision-making and how likely they are to recommend a brand or even lodge a complaint.
Having this information to hand allows all teams involved in the customer journey – from sales and marketing to service – to more successfully tailor what they do for each persona. When successful, this can influence such factors as spending and loyalty.
There are many different personas and each organization will have a different line-up of customer types. This article focuses on three key personas and how Citibank Singapore has been working to engage them.
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Engaging the discerning buyer
Discerning buyers seek customer experiences that align with their values. To find brands that offer this, discerning buyers often conduct their own research on multiple channels and may even consult friends and family.
“Such buyers tend to be more brand agnostic and decide based on what matters more to them from their criterion perspective, be it price, value for money, projected returns or durability for example,” Qiyu shares.
They can be engaged across multiple formats but respond better to validated claims rather than bold marketing messages, as outlined by the habit of consulting with friends and family. With a fact-based outlook, this persona also responds well to messaging that explains how an organization’s offering stacks up against that of its competitors.
Qiyu says: “To engage these customers, content and communication at all parts of the journey should call out the practical level benefits a product offers when compared to competitors, in addition to tangible incentives for them to take up the offer.”
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Tailoring engagement to impulse and emotive buyers
Many brands want to deepen the emotional connection their customers have with them and become their first choice for every need – this is a foundation of customer loyalty. Emotive buyers, however, are slightly different. They are significantly influenced by loyalty but can also be enticed by whatever connects with them.
Qiyu says: “If they are impulse or emotive buyers, they tend to look to their preferred brands first or be enticed by an offer, message or advert that connects with them and relates best with their pain points, wants or aspirations.”
Once pain points, wants and aspirations have been established through surveys, focus groups and data analysis, marketing and sales content can be tailored to position the brand as a solution or means by which to achieve their aspirations.
For this reason, storytelling is an key means of engagement, but the aspiration-focused buyer needs a strong call to action to progress a marketing journey to a sales journey.
Qiyu explains: “For emotive buyers, engagement can be in the form of storytelling and educational content they can relate to, alongside a time bound offer to work on that impulse.”
Targeting purpose-driven buyers
As the name suggests, purpose-driven buyers need more than a promise or an emotional connection to select a certain product or service. Despite this, they do share some traits with the emotive and discerning personas.
Qiyu explains: “If they are purpose driven buyers, they might look more at brands that represent the same values or beliefs as them, for example, a cause they support. The tipping point of their decision making when two offers are almost like-for-like, would be that this brand is closer to their personal values in terms of the things they say and what they do.”
For purpose driven buyers, engagement must occur across multiple formats and channels and should comprise storytelling and campaigns that can demonstrate the additional purpose this customer persona seeks. For example, this could focus on the wider company purpose beyond its products, or how proceeds are contributing to what the company supports and the broader community.
Jaslyin Qiyu explains more about customer engagement in the CX Network research report, Artificial intelligence for customer engagement, produced in association with Twilio. Read the report via this link.