How @Brightpeak financial Used Audience Segmentation to Increase Traffic 97 Percent

Paul is a 27 year-old engineer from Minnesota. He’s the kind of millennial who likes to brew homemade beer in his garage while listening to Coldplay, Bon Iver, or The Lumineers. Paul and his wife of one year, Sarah, have been thinking about starting a family. For now, though, he’s happy visiting relatives and sampling his homemade brew in his free time.

Paul sounds like a pretty cool guy, only he isn’t real. Paul and Sarah are two fictional personas brightpeak financial has created in order to understand different segments of its target audience—married Christians between the ages of 20 and 45 who are preparing for major milestones in life.

brightpeak is a not-for-profit financial organization that takes “a refreshingly holistic approach to personal finances,” according to its website. It’s upfront about being faith-based, baking Christianity into its mission statement: “We’re helping Christians look at money in a whole new light.”

“We’re definitely marketing to Christians,” Ashley Haugen, content strategist and editor for brightpeak, explained. “But we are careful to do it delicately so that we’re not alienating people who are non-Christian. We believe in financial strength and literacy for all, regardless of faith.”

Content for a niche audience

A look at brightpeak’s content strategy reveals that while faith is an important part of the brand, it does not overpower its millennial appeal. On Instagram, for instance, Bible passages are sprinkled among inspirational quotes, food pictures, and financial tips.

For brightpeak, faith is one of many elements that influence the decision-making process. Other factors like occupation, family goals, and financial literacy all shape purchasing decisions, which is why they are crucial parts of the brand’s audience segmentation strategy. The better brightpeak can define its personas, the easier it will be to target people who fit those personalities.

If you’re in brightpeak’s target audience, chances are you relate to Paul or know someone who does:

He follows Deschutes Brewery on Instagram. He also follows Humans of NY on Instagram because the channel shows ‘real’ pictures of people. Every so often, Paul gets to thinking about faith and spirituality while listening to a beerpastor.com podcast and crafting a rich, dark stout.

Clearly defined personas help the company’s marketing leadership identify financial patterns and match them with brightpeak products. How does this process work? The same research that shows Paul enjoys a milky stout also suggests he avoids risk when dealing with money.

“Each of our personas have different concerns and approaches when it comes to different financial topics,” Haugen said. “So we take a product line like emergency savings and try to figure out, from [one] perspective, what are the types of questions they’re asking? What are the emotions they feel? How does their background impact their savings habits? How are they communicating with their spouse? From there, we do a lot of social media listening.”

One thing Haugen likes to do is visit Pinterest and type in keywords like “emergency savings” to see what pins would appeal to different personas. After examining which pins get the most engagement, she uses that as a…

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