Buyer Personas – Let’s Get Specific

Buyer Personas – Let’s Get Specific

We’ve talked about defining your target audience, but now we’re taking a deep dive into how to understand your customers through buyer personas. Buyer personas help you answer questions before important changes in your business, like launching a new product or rebranding. They test the new concept by answering specific questions like, “Would Claire like this product?” or “Would this product description make sense to Mark?”

What’s the difference between buyer personas and my target audience?

If you’ve read our blog on target audiences, you may be wondering about the difference between a target audience and a buyer persona. While a target audience gives you a general idea of how to phrase your copy on social media and your website, a buyer persona takes characteristics from your current customer base and groups them into a single named persona that you can use to test new ideas, products, or services. In short, buyer personas are more specific and personalized.

Let’s start with the basics…

What are buyer personas?

Buyer personas, also called marketing personas, paint a picture of your ideal customer. These are not real people, but in many ways they are based on real people. Your buyer persona has a name, and should have an age, gender, beliefs, expectations, and needs. In other words, the buyer persona is a generalized representation of your key customers.

Why are buyer personas important? 

Buyer personas help you understand your customers, in order to give them the best experience with your product or service. Buyer personas also help your employees and internal teams coordinate their efforts to provide the best possible customer service, marketing copy, and seamless website visit.

How do I make my buyer persona?

The first step to creating your buyer persona is to gather customer insights from your actual customer base. These insights can be gathered through surveys (written, emailed, or in person Q&A!) as well as online research into competitors and your industry.

Here are a few examples of question topics for defining your buyer persona. Always remember that you’re trying to understand your customers’ motivations, so one of the most important questions to ask during these interviews is why?

  • Demographics
  • Daily Habits
  • Goals
  • Shopping/ Purchasing Habits
  • Social Networks
  • Motives

If you’re asking “who are my customers?,” start by thinking of your group of loyal, repeat customers. Try to find common characteristics in this group, possibly where they live, what kinds of jobs they have, other places they shop, etc. If you’re feeling stuck, check out these tools to help you brainstorm.

What do I do with my buyer personas?

Once you have developed a strong buyer persona, it’s time to share this information with the rest of your team. When everyone has a clear understanding of your buyer personas, you can create and develop all aspects of your business around your customers. And a customer-centric company is better positioned for sales!

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