Every business has a target audience. This is the group of people most likely to purchase your products or services and can also be referred to as “buyer personas”. However, some businesses may have more than one type of person in their target audience – for example, female and male customers. If you find yourself in this situation, it’s crucial that you create a negative persona too!
A negative persona is a fictional character that personifies the “worst-case scenario” for your target audience. They are just like any other type of buyer personas because they represent someone/group who could potentially buy your products or services. The only difference between them and positive buyer personas is that they don’t want to buy anything from you!
HubSpot says, “For many businesses, especially those with a heavy service component, not all business is good business. Negative personas will help you establish which personas should be kept at bay when making strategic marketing moves.”
Negative personas give us insight into the mind of our competition and allow us to understand better how to market our products or services. In this blog post, I’ll discuss why it’s essential for business owners to create negative personas to stay ahead of the curve.
REASONS TO CREATE NEGATIVE PERSONAS
1. SAVE TIME AND MONEY
Creating a negative persona means you do not have to spend time going after people who are not interested in your product or services. It also saves money because you do not need to spend money on activities that would go toward those people.
With negative personas, you’ll end up saving money and time by putting your focus on your ideal customers and creating offers that make it clear to your customers what you have for them before they even open the door.
2. DEVELOP EFFECTIVE MARKETING STRATEGY
With negative personas, you can create an effective marketing strategy by thinking about what might go wrong and planning ahead. How? Negative personas allow you to understand the types of people opposed to your products and services so that you can make changes accordingly.
As a business owner, this will help you understand those who are not interested in your products or services, which will enable you to cater better to those customers. This will result in an effective strategy for both parties involved because it satisfies the needs of all consumers.
3. UNDERSTAND YOUR COMPETITION
The battle for customers is becoming more and more competitive. Differentiating your brand from the rest of the pack can be difficult, but one way to do this is by understanding who you are up against.
If you’re in business, chances are you have at least one competitor. It can be tempting to think of your competition as the enemy or someone who’s trying to bring you down. But that mindset is ultimately self-destructive and will lead to a negative mind frame. Instead, business owners need to understand their competitors better, and you can do that with negative personas.
With negative personas, you can identify the challenges that your competitions face and provide insights into solving those problems in your own business not to become a threat. As a result, you think outside of yourself, business and consider other viewpoints on different issues that affect the business you do.
4. EMPATHY FOR YOUR BUYER PERSONAS
How many times have you felt frustrated or annoyed with a customer service representative? It is easy to get caught up in negative emotions and forget who they are there for.
Creating negative personas does not just help you identify the group of people who are unwilling to buy your products or services, but it also helps you develop empathy for your target customers by showing how frustrating it can be when your needs aren’t met. They give insights into the different ways that people react to frustration. This, in turn, complements your marketing activities, helps you tailor your responses accordingly, and helps you create meaningful messages that speak to the pain points of your ideal customers.
CONCLUSION
Negative personas are a great way to save money and time because they help you understand those who are not interested in your products or services. They help you understand your competition. Most importantly, for business owners, they allow you to create better content that will resonate with the right customers.
If this content sounds like something up your alley, I encourage you to follow The CC-Creator on Instagram and Facebook!
