A buyer persona is simply a detailed description of your target customer, whether you trade B2B or B2C – they are extremely useful in either circumstance.
A persona can help you create a visual representation and understanding of a prospective customer – which can then be used to your advantage as you already know what this prospective customer is like, how they act and what their individual needs are.
They are more complex than an average customer profile in the sense that they consist of more detailed information. So what should a fictional representation of your ideal customer be made up of?
Here’s a quick list of the information you will need when creating a buyer persona – remember, it’s all valuable!Demographic Information
• Job title, roles, responsibilities
• Family & life outside of work, household income
• Industry they belong too, location
• Budgets they may work with
Behavioural Information
• Pain points and challenges they face
• Their story
• What sort of person they are and how they act as a person
The common misconception of buyer personas is that they are perceived as mere descriptions but are actually in-depth representations of who your potential prospects are. Having simplistic customer profiles can result in you being swamped in general personas that provide no where near enough marketing guidance – which might result in a failed campaign. Buyer personas also have the potential of increasing the success of your marketing campaign as they can drive qualified leads to your companies website (instead of ‘dead’ leads). This undoubtedly contributes towards your businesses lead generation capabilities.
They generate leads because the personas you have set up allow you to create content that is aimed specifically at that user. This process is what helps to filter out those ‘dead’ leads that I mentioned above as your content will be user specific (and often only useful to that specific persona) – this will prevent anyone and everyone from wanting to read the content, which is actually a positive effect! So, now you know about buyer personas, would you consider incorporating them into your company strategy to provide that increased fluidity?