The Effect of Personas on Website Conversion Rates and the Long Tail

A persona is simply a definable set of characteristics applied to a category of visitors to your website.  Think about a beginner violin student, a professional tennis player, a new mother, etc.

The power of personas, because they are poorly understood, probably represents one of the great missed opportunities of websites, whether they are e-commerce or lead generation.

Here’s An Example of a Website Persona

Let’s say you have a website selling dog supplies.  You and your team put your heads together and decide that you want to cater to people who use dogs in Search & Rescue.  You do your research and assemble all the items in one place on your site, so that the Search & Rescue practitioner can find everything they need.  This might be anything from ‘how to’ books, to a portable solar cell phone charger, to protective eye goggles, perhaps in a kit.

The Long Tail.

Never, in a million years, would you think of selling these items, and hundreds, even thousands of other items without creating personas.  Embedded here, is the brilliance of a Long Tail business.  If you’ve never read Chris Anderson’s original explanation of Long Tail businesses, I can only think of one word to describe it:  exhilarating.

Happy Website Customers Lead to Improved Conversion Rates

Now think of the opportunities opened up for the dog supply site.  New puppy, arthritic dog, police dogs, hunting dogs, on and on forever.  Everything in one place, happy loyal customers spreading the word, higher average dollar size orders, improving website conversion rate.

Websites will frequently target what they describe as the average customer.  The problem is, there is no such thing.  Think about dog owners. Think of Diamond Website Conversion if you need help in defining personas you’d like to target with your website.

Don’t Miss Out.

Create your first persona.  It’s fun.  It works.   It’s profitable.  Enjoy!