How to create a buyer persona for your OOH content

Advertising should never feel as though your brand is simply shouting out into the void - it’s just as important to know exactly who it is you’re speaking to as it is to know your message. What would your brand be without the people who use it? Creating buyer personas is a great way to cement an image of exactly who it is you’re trying to reach with your OOH advertising. Through consumer behaviour analysis and audience segmentation, you can build detailed buyer personas to help inform your campaign content. Let’s break down what buyer personas are, why they’re important, and how they’re made.

What are Buyer Personas and Why are They Important?

A buyer persona is a detailed profile of a fictional ideal customer, based on research of your current consumers. They can help you to further understand the different demographics that might interact with your brand, and how best to appeal to them and encourage their loyalty and interest. An effective buyer persona will include details such as your ideal customer’s buying behaviour, paint points and challenges, and general lifestyle. 

The information provided by buyer persona research is useful for:

• Refining product development

• Increasing customer engagement

• Optimising your marketing campaigns

• Improving buyer experiences

Conducting Audience Research 

To create your buyer personas you’ll need to carry out research. This involves gathering data and demographic information about your target audience. You can gather this persona research from various sources, some of which include market research, customer surveys and social media analytics. Your aim should be to understand who your audience is and how they’re likely to interact with your brand and products, based on their past behaviour.

It’s highly likely that you’ll already possess a lot of the data you will need to create your personas. Analytics will be able to show you common traits among your returning customers, and past product reviews will provide vital qualitative information not just on who is using your products, but also how and why they need them.

Identifying Audience Segments

With your research at the ready you can begin your audience segmentation. Segmentation involves breaking up your audience into distinct groups based on their demographic information. You can use geographical location, interests, age, and even shopping styles to inform your segments.

For example, if you sell stationary, your products will appeal to different segments. School-aged children and middle-aged office workers will both be interested in buying notebooks, but will want them for different purposes, and respond to different types of advertisements. Therefore, they would be two separate segments.

Creating Detailed Buyer Personas 

Create a buyer persona for each segment of your audience. Each persona will act as an example of a typical member of that segment. When creating buyer personas you should include:

• Age

• Location

• Occupation

• Income

• Motivations

• Pain points

• Interests

For example, one buyer persona for the fictional stationery brand we mentioned earlier could be Studious Sarah, a 18-25 year old full time student based in London, trying to juggle shift work with her studies. She wants to get her degree, stay organised, and in her free time she regularly attends park runs. This persona would be representative of lots of people, and its characteristics are appropriately specific but widely applicable.

Applying Buyer Personas to OOH Content Strategy

Once you have created your buyer personas you can apply them to your strategy by using them to inform the creation of OOH content. We can use our example persona Studious Sarah and our fictional stationary brand to demonstrate this. From the information we collated about Sarah, we know she’s likely to be short on free time, money conscious, and that she runs at the park near her university. Therefore, a bus stop poster promoting a student discount on stationery at a nearby store is likely to catch her eye and appeal to her on several levels. It’s placed somewhere she visits frequently, it addresses her money concerns, and it tells her the quickest way to take advantage of the deal - visiting the nearby store. 

This is just one example of how a buyer persona could influence your OOH marketing. Some segments may overlap in their features, making it easier to make content that appeals to a wide audience. Once you have your ideal buyer persona in mind, our audience insight tool, RADAR, can help you pinpoint their movement.

Audience Personas in OOH Advertising

Targeting specific audience segments with tailored messaging means you’re much more likely to produce effective OOH campaigns. OOH adverts are seen by a lot of people, but it’s important to remember exactly who it is that you’re trying to appeal to in order to drive better results.

Refining Your Buyer Personas

Buyer persona development is never finished, as your personas should evolve alongside your brand. Data analysis might even reveal new audience segments over time, or show that the persona you thought was your biggest buyer actually doesn’t interact with your brand as much as you think. One example could be a buyer persona representing teenagers who love your brand - but teenagers grow up, and as they age their circumstances and priorities change. You won’t want to lose these customers, but you’ll need to change your tactics to continue to appeal to them as adults.

The more content you produce and data you collect, the more you can revisit and refine your personas to keep them accurate and insightful. Testing different versions of your OOH content can help you to identify which messages and designs resonate most strongly with your audience. It’s also good to show your audience that you’re willing to adapt and reinvent your approach to better suit their needs.

Collaborating with Clear Channel for OOH Success 

Creating buyer personas is a proven way of enhancing your OOH advertising strategy and driving better results. By tailoring your marketing to your personas you’re showing your audience how well you understand them, encouraging their interest and loyalty in your brand. 

Clear Channel are OOH experts who want to inspire marketers to get creative with their advertising. We’ll be happy to help with your buyer persona development and show you just how much you can do with well-targeted OOH ads - get in touch today.