What is a buyer persona and why do I need one?
If you’ve read my other blog posts, then you’ll have heard me talk about buyer personas. It’s a term I use almost daily in my communications work, but I’m aware that to a marketing layman, it’s a term that may cause confusion. I’m here to explain exactly what buyer personas are and why they are the central to your marketing and communications efforts.
Hubspot defines a buyer persona as a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. Your ideal customer is the person who would most benefit from your product or service (note: it’s not a customer who behaves in the ideal way). If you offer B2B products or services, your ideal customer is the company who would benefit most from engaging with you. Meanwhile, a buyer persona focuses on how the customer or decision maker thinks and behaves. In other words, it’s a detailed profile of the person behind the purchase.
A buyer persona is informed by existing knowledge of your customers, Google Analytics and sales data and, most importantly, market research in the form of interviews of your real customers. When crafting buyer personas, most people give their persona a name and will include demographic details, interests, and behavioural traits. A complete buyer persona describes their goals, challenges, pain points, and buying behaviour.
So now we know what a buyer persona is, let’s explore why they are so central to all aspects of your marketing. Well, it should be no surprise that marketing which is highly tailored to the needs of your ideal customer will resonate more deeply and is more likely to result in a sale. To go a step further, by getting inside the mind of your buyer persona, you can pre-empt the types of challenges they will face or questions they may ask which would lead them to you. You can craft website messaging, blog content and social media campaigns which speak directly to your buyer personas and help them form a connection with your brand. While it can be helpful to explain your business offering from the founder or team perspective, it’s far more important to think about it from the minds of your customers, since they're the ones you’re trying to convince.
You’ll likely find you have more than one buyer persona. I’ve worked with companies who have five or more. For example, if you're a B2B business, you might have the following personas: the end user of your product or service, the manager of the user who must approve the purchase and the finance manager who handles the payment. Each individual involved in that decision is a separate persona. They'll have different criteria for evaluating your product, and you'll need different strategies to address said criteria.
How are buyer personas used?
Marketing
Once you’ve completed your buyer personas, they should be stored somewhere safe and referred back to constantly. Every time you craft a blog post or design a new campaign, you should use your buyer persona insights to inform your work. You’ll now know exactly where they prefer to consume content and in what format. You’ll know if they spend their days on Instagram or LinkedIn and how much they rely on referrals or online reviews. Your personas should form the basis of your keyword research and SEO efforts and will help in the identification and prioritisation of promotional activities.
Sales
By understanding exactly what problem your business solves for your customers, combined with knowing how they make purchasing decisions, you can make sure your sales efforts are tailored, appropriate and pre-empt any concerns they might have. You’ll know what type of language to use once you’re at the last stages of the buyer journey and you’ll know how to build rapport throughout.
Customer service
A deep understanding of your customers will mean you can better serve them - it’s as simple as that. By easily being able to empathise with a customer who’s frustrated or disappointed, your support teams will be far more effective. On the other side, if you have formed a strong connection with your customer, they’ll be more receptive to referral programs or requests for positive reviews post-purchase.
I believe buyer personas are even more critical for purpose-driven businesses, who tend to have customers with high expectations and more buying criteria than the average consumer. People making socially-minded purchases want to connect with brands who have values which align to theirs. Not only have you got to convince your customers that you’re the right brand for them from a practical point of view, but you’ve also got to convince them that your environmental or social standards match theirs. In addition, they are likely to have a longer decision making process, which must be taken into consideration when mapping out your buyer journey and the content that will support that journey.
Don’t let this scare you - the process of building your personas is not only informative, but rewarding. You can expect to gain clarity on your business offering and feel more confident that your marketing efforts will pay off. Even better, you’ll maximise your positive impact and reach more people who will genuinely love what you have to offer.