The first customer personas were introduced in the 1980s by Alan Cooper, a pioneering software developer. Frustrated by the lack of knowledge software developers had about their users, he created personas to help them better understand them—and improve their experiences.
Fast forward 40 years, and customer personas are used by nearly every business, in nearly every industry, for nearly everything imaginable. From consumer product developers to healthcare providers, organizations of all types recognize that putting themselves in their customers' shoes can improve their marketing, sales, solutions development, and service.
So, why wouldn't associations do the same? Creating member personas can help you get a handle on the specific traits and characteristics that influence your members' wants, needs, and decision-making. With those insights, you're better equipped to create a member experience that drives revenue, retention, and engagement.
Simply put, a member persona is a fictional representation of an association's ideal member based on real data and research. Member personas can help you more precisely identify your members' needs, wants, and goals so you can create products, programs, services, and experiences that inspire greater engagement, satisfaction, and loyalty.
The benefits of developing member personas include:
Amplifying your marketing efforts. Understanding your target member can help you create more effective and influential marketing campaigns. Personas can point you to the right channels to reach the right members with messages that resonate.
Expanding your product and program development. Personas can highlight the resources your members need, the experiences they desire, and the problems they want to solve. These insights can help you fine-tune your existing offerings and create new offerings to meet members' needs and seize untapped opportunities.
Enhancing the overall member experience. Getting a better grasp on your members' wants and needs will result in a better member experience at every touchpoint—from onboarding to everyday customer service. Your personas can help you evaluate the current experience, identifying ways to improve how you engage with members and how they engage with you.
Creating member personas sounds like a complex undertaking, but it can be surprisingly simple (and fun!). These 4 steps will set you down the path to persona development.
Chances are good at least one group in your association has already engaged in a form of member persona development: your learning and education team.
Instructional designers have long used learner profiles to understand their target audiences better. There are many similarities between learner profiles and member personas, ranging from their data-driven development to their fictional character representation. Both persona types include information about a member's age, gender, location, interests, challenges, and needs. And both can be used to create a more relevant and desirable member experience.
When you embark on the effort to develop member personas, engage your learning and education team from the start—they likely already have important insights to lend.
Associations' ability to thrive depends on understanding—and responding to—their members. Developing member personas is one of the surest ways to uncover your members' expectations and shape your offerings to match.
In a follow-up article, we'll help you bring your member personas to life with specific ways to use the characters you've created to enhance the member experience.
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