Marketing is very important to anyone who owns a business, it’s basically a key to success and there are plenty of advertising approaches that your company should try out. One of them is definitely making a Buyer Persona, they are a crucial part of your marketing strategy.
At this point basically anyone and everyone has heard of this term but if you haven’t, keep reading to find out more about this topic.
The concept of a buyer persona was created by Alan Cooper, a software designer, and programmer.
A Buyer Persona is also known as a Marketing Persona or an Audience Persona.
What is the famous “Buyer Persona” & Why is it necessary for my business?
A Buyer Persona is a semi-fictional personality who portrays one’s ideal consumer. Making it needs significant study, combining market research, pre-existing customer data, and possibly some assumptions about the buyers.
Creating buyer personas is not about illustrating an imaginary consumer . It’s quite the opposite, the buyer persona should depict genuine people within your target market.
Let me put it this way, if your business happens to be selling diapers, your ideal customer probably isn’t a twenty two year old guy called Liam from New York who is still a student. It’s more likely that the person you are trying to sell your products to is Linda, a young mom who just gave birth to a child number two.
Does this mean I have to name them?
Well no, it does not, but you shouldn’t shy away from doing so. Businesses name their buyer personas more often than not. In some cases they even provide photographs of them so it can help them see better who they are advertising their products to.
This makes it possible for businesses to approach their customers in a more individual and personal way.
What kind of traits should I assign to my Buyer Persona?
A buyer persona will have features such as geographical place of residence, age, gender, passions, hobbies, preferences and so on.
The idea is to gain insight into your customer’s aspirations but also their problems. This makes it possible for you to recognize your client’s weak spots and provide solutions using the goods or services that your company offers. It is also vital to understand how your clients spend their free time. That can reveal what is important to them.
This tool assists businesses in developing more beneficial products and creating more specific advertising campaigns.
Why are they so important and what are the benefits of having one?
Let’s get this out of the way, you can have a perfect service or product but if it’s not marketed to the right people, all of your efforts are pointless and you just won’t be able to sell it.
As soon as it comes to selecting a merchandise or service, customers typically go for companies they recognize and like. In addition, one of the most effective ways to create trust is to demonstrate genuine compassion and empathy for the other individual, in this case it’s those who purchase from you.
Demonstrate to the people who might buy from you that you fully understand them by addressing their issue or desire.
Benefits:
- Better leads
- Improved targeting
- Creating products that are more aligned with your customers needs
- Increased sales
How is a Buyer Persona different from the Target Audience?
It is very understandable that after reading all of this information you might be wondering “Wait… Isn’t this the same thing as a Target Audience?”. The definitions do sound quite similar so let’s break down how a Buyer Persona and the Target Audience are actually different terms.
A Target Audience is the demographic of people to whom a company’s marketing is aimed at and who are most likely interested in buying the goods or services it offers.
With that in mind, a Buyer Persona is much more specific and it is a precise character with a very detailed personality. It collects significantly more information about the people you wish to approach. Marketers can learn about the wants, needs, and routines of certain groups of customers by establishing buyer personas.
Both terms are related to the specific set of people or businesses that you want to target. The biggest difference here is that buyer personas are more precisely defined than target audiences. A buyer persona concentrates on particular individuals of a group of consumers, whereas a target audience identifies with a much broader demographic.
So in conclusion, a buyer persona is not just another way to say target audience.
Creating a Buyer Persona
So, you want to create your buyer persona but don’t know where to start? Let me help you with that one. You can do it the old fashioned way or have help from some digital platforms.
Research everything there is to know about your customers. Try to find patterns in their behaviors, likes and dislikes, what motivates them but also what challenges them etc. Then, just simply grab a pen and a paper and write it all down in one place. The whole point is to go into as much detail as possible to get to know your ideal buyer, so you would know how to market your product to them in the most efficient way.
When you are done, you should have a good idea on:
- What they look like
- How old are they
- What are their hobbies
- Their education
- Where do they live
- What is their profession
- Their marital status
- Struggles they might be facing
- What worries them
- How much money do they approximately make
Some of the online tools that can help you with creating your buyer persona are Userforge and Make My Persona. They can help you generate and visualize your Buyer Persona if you enter the data you previously collected on your customers.
Make sure that you review your buyer personas on a regular basis, especially if your firm is changing or new client segments emerge. That way, they’ll stay helpful and effective.
Conclusion
Having a buyer persona is the key aspect of any thorough marketing plan. Companies that put together precise images of their ideal customers are able to adapt the products, goods, and advertising campaigns in order to attend to their customers’ needs. That will eventually lead to increased sales and strong bond between the company itself and its customers.
