An introduction to Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

Read on to discover how MBTI can boost your marketing and help you get to know your customers better. We’ll give you the lowdown on what MBTI is, how to map out your target audience’s needs with the help of personas, and how to customise your platform to these personas with MBTI. Let’s get started. 

In this blog, we’ll cover: 

• What the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is.
• How to map out your target audience’s needs using marketing personas.
• How to find out what kind of buyer each of your audience segments are.
• How to customise your CRM or content marketing platform with MBTI.

What is MBTI?

The Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was developed by Isabel Myers and Katherine Briggs in the 1940s. Based on Carl Jung’s theory of personality types, it aims to make sense of a person’s behaviour and actions by assigning them one of 16 different personality types.  MBTI is one of the most widely used psychological instruments in the world, helping anyone from marketers to therapists to evaluate an individual’s personality. 

You can read more about the 16 different personality types on the Myers-Briggs website.  

Using personas to map out your target audience’s needs 

Developing buyer or customer personas is an important part of your marketing strategy. Not sure how to get started or need some tips on refreshing your current personas? Read our blog on how to create an effective buyer persona. 

Once you have your personas in place, you can use them to map out your content marketing plan to each of your target audience’s needs. Then it’s the fun bit – customising your platform to your personas with MBTI. 

How to customise your CRM or content marketing platform with MBTI 

Customising your content marketing platform with MBTI helps busy marketers create more effective communications and ensures your marketing messages appeal to the different buyer segments. This should result in better audience engagement and more conversions. 

Here’s how to get started: 

• Take each of your personas through the MBTI questionnaire.
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• Use the Keirsey Temperament Sorter to segment your personas into one of the following four temperaments identified by David Kiersey.
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• Now it’s time to ascertain what kind of buyer each of your segments are. Luckily, Jeffrey and Bryan Eisenberg devised a handy system to help you map your personalities to 4 key buyer types: Competitive, Spontaneous, Methodical and Humanistic. 

So, if you have identified a customer as Humanistic they are more likely to respond to marketing messages that appeal to their emotions rather than sense of logic and will respond better to a longer, more subtle lead nurturing process. Likewise, if your target audience is Competitive, you could try more direct marketing campaigns with a clear and rational tone.

When you are creating content for the Spontaneous buyer, focus on messaging that sets the pulse racing and don’t be afraid to get right to the point.

For the Methodical customer, opt for content with plenty of detail and useful information. Don’t rush them or create an unnecessary sense of urgency.    

We hope this introduction to MBTI has given you some ideas on how your business can get to the next level with targeted customer communications. If you would like more insights into the top content marketing trends, take a look at our new industry report. 

We are always happy to help grow your business with content marketing. If you’d like to find out more, check out our “Why Contentoo” page and find out why we’re the preferred choice for content marketing services. 

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