The way marketing works in today’s market can be a frustrating process. One minute you’re generating good leads then the pipeline of leads stops and changes. Each business, no matter what it provides its customers, is going to want to attract certain type of person. Certain businesses purely view this as a fact, others see it as an opportunity. One thing is certain - getting your buyer personas written and implemented in your marketing plan will have a major impact on the success of your marketing.
First Things First
What is a buyer persona? A persona is a fictional character which is based on real people and their experiences with your company. This fictional character has a story, demographics and ideal buying journey from initial contact to final sale and beyond. The buyer personas you create for your business can help you create marketing plans and tactics that will entice prospects, with features and characteristics that match with the buyer personas.
Why Create Buyer Personas?
The inbound marketing philosophy is based around developing a range of buyer personas and making sure your marketing strategy is tailored to follow these personas to the maximum, in order to attract your ideal customers. It can be a big ask for a business to change their strategy and can raise questions from business owners. “Is this effort really worth it” will be the main question from the heads of the company.
Well, the simple answer to that question is YES. More and more companies around the world are seeing success by developing buyer personas because it gives the company clear direction on the message to portray to the audience. In turn, generating more and more high quality leads.
In the first instance it can be a lengthy process to create detailed buyer personas, but they will help the company gain an advantage over the competition, by getting the details right.
How To Create Your Buyer Persona:
The first part of the process is to collect as much data as possible from all of the systems your business uses. Find out what certain clients purchased, when and the amounts. This part is very important in generating high quality personas that work. Many businesses fail by not getting all the information possible form the sales teams.
The second part of the process is to conduct interviews and surveys with existing clients. The questions you need to ask will help you understand age ranges, locations, education levels, time taken to make decisions, interests (such as sport or celebrities), social media platforms used and many more areas. This will give you a great base of information to create your buyer personas.
Take Time To Answer These Questions
Answer the questions below in as much detail as possible as this will ensure you get the best personas, which will help your marketing strategy and move the business forward.
- Why was purchasing this product important for the buyer?
- What does the buyer expect as a result of the purchase?
- Is that what they are getting?
- What exists in the buyer’s life history that would impact their choice about your product?
- What are your persona’s highest values?
- What are some of the priorities in their life?
- What style of communication will attract their attention, and what style will turn them off?
- What are some of their pressure points?
It is important to remember that the best answers to the questions above will come from the information you collect from your business and customers.
Developing a Marketing Strategy
Once you have carefully put together your buyer personas in as much detail as possible, take the time to meet with all the relevant departments to explain the personas in detail and why they are so important to the business. Especially make time to meet with the rest of the marketing department to discuss the marketing strategy in light of the information you have gathered. What parts of your services fail to meet the needs of your buyer persona? Which elements of your product/service turn your buyers off? What could your service do or provide to attract more people like your buyer persona?
JDR can help with this, we are experts in developing marketing strategies for businesses based on their buyer persona. No strategy is a one-size-fits-all which is why we take the time to understand your persona and how best to market to them.
Conclusion
Creating buyer personas enables your marketing strategy to have more than just an idea of who to speak to with your content. It gives clear and precise focus. It gives the whole marketing team the blueprint to create specific content that’s going to convert. Creating buyer personas can be a tough undertaking, but it will give your department a clear return on investment and give the sales team high quality leads.
