Back up and act it out
In Greek mythology, Athena sprang out of Zeus’ head, fully formed. Your customers won’t always appear with such theatrical flair, but they should be realistic enough.
The best marketers get inside the mind of the people they seek to serve, inhabiting their daily questions, impulses, emotional rhythms and language.
At its simplest, its barest, marketing is about empathy.
If you could feel what your customers feel or access the conversation taking place in their head, what would you say in order to add value to the conversation?
Persona development allows you to create characters and inhabit them without judgment. By so doing, you can add value to your customers. You may even fall in love with them.
Novelists travel to their characters' cities and try to walk in their shoes. They might frequent their favorite bars and restaurants and generally try to get a feel for their daily life. You don't need to take expensive trips or hire Hollywood actors in order to develop a realistic persona. Today, you can do this with data, anecdotes, and a dash of intuition.
It's an exciting challenge.
Embrace it.
Dramatize your persona.
Stage.
Lights.
Action.
If the dialogue is clunky, you'll know it immediately. If the characteristics are off the mark, you’ll know it.
Try it right now.
Pretend you’re your persona. Take her out to lunch. What is she grappling with? What problems can you help her solve? What are her objections? What did you say that made her face light up?
In other words, try to convince you to buy what you're selling.
It's not kooky; it's marketing.
When in doubt, back up and act it out.