Negative personas or "anti-personas", a marketing approach not to be overlooked

1. Introduction

The creation of personas is a common practice to better target and understand your audience. According to a study conducted by Forrester in a 2018 report, 72% of companies that integrate personas into their strategies have seen a 50% growth in their sales and activities. (1)

Personas are designed to identify your ideal customer, by tracing a complete profile of their behavior, preferences and demographic data. This will allow you to identify the points of contact between your persona and your brand. It's a classic marketing approach.

However, there is often a second approach that is often overlooked but just as interesting to consider. That of negative personas, also known as "anti-personas".

What are negative personas?

Negative personas represent individuals or groups who are not your target audience.

These are the people you don't want to attract with your products or services, either because they don't fit your offer, or because they could have a negative impact on your business.

2. How to apply this theme in your marketing strategy and what it is used for?

The integration of "anti-personas" into your marketing strategy serves several objectives:

a) Refine your targeting: By clearly identifying who is not your target, you can focus your efforts and resources on your real audience.

b) Save time and money: By avoiding targeting people who are not likely to become customers, you optimize your marketing expenses.

c) Improve the quality of leads: By excluding anti-personas from your campaigns, you increase the likelihood of attracting qualified prospects.

d) Refine your message: Understanding who you are not targeting helps you refine your message so that it resonates better with your real audience.

To apply this approach, start by identifying the characteristics of people who do not fit your offer.

This can include demographic factors, purchasing behavior, values or specific needs that do not align with your product or service.

Refining the marketing strategy with the identification of anti-personas is a crucial process to optimize the marketing strategy and reach your target audience more effectively.

3. An example to illustrate

Let's take the example of Spotify, the giant of music streaming.

Although Spotify does not publicly disclose its anti-personas, we can deduce some groups they could consider as anti-personas.

Image from: LADN Business

• Users who prefer to exclusively buy and own their music rather than stream it.
• People who rarely listen to music or podcasts.
• Users who primarily seek highly specialized audio content not available on Spotify.

By identifying these anti-personas, Spotify can focus its marketing efforts on users who are more likely to appreciate and regularly use their streaming service.

4. Discover your real personas with Persona Builder

Refine your marketing strategy by quickly identifying your real personas. With our intuitive platform, you can:

• Create detailed profiles of your personas
• Compare your target personas and your anti-personas
• Clearly visualize the data to make informed decisions
• Update your profiles in real time

Identify your personas and anti-personas more easily with the help of Persona Builder, a powerful marketing persona tool to create personas and optimize marketing strategy.

5. Conclusion

Negative personas are another approach often overlooked in the modern marketer's toolkit.

By clearly identifying who is not your target audience, you can refine your message, optimize your marketing expenses and improve the quality of your leads.

With tools like Persona Builder, the integration of anti-personas into your strategy becomes not only possible, but also simple and effective.

Read other resources related to the persona

Did you enjoy this article on negative personas? Don't miss our other content on our blog:

1. The Importance of User Behavior Analysis for Content Personalization

2. How to Use Buyer Personas to Boost Your Sales Funnel Efficiency

Other Sources

https://www.digitaweb.com/blog/creer-un-persona-marketing-generer-des-leads