A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer and/or prospect.
It is created based on their demographics, behavior, needs, motivations etc. Simply put, you have to think about “getting into your client’s shoes” to try to understand what is it that they need from you.
Given that the foundation of Inbound Marketing is creating valuable content for your audience. Creating the profile of someone that is most likely to buy your product will play a very important role on your marketing and sales strategy. Understanding the interests, worries, and pains your buyer persona may have but also – and maybe most importantly – how and where they reach for help.
One of the most important characteristics of a buyer persona (that also functions as the catalyst to differentiate one from another) is their pain. This may sound a bit out of context, but in this case, the term “PAIN” refers to the problems and worries our buyer persona may have that can be fixed or helped by your product or service. If you know what “pains” your buyer persona, you have gotten hold of a very valuable information. Their drive, their motivation to run a certain search on Google, or their disposition to purchase a product or service you may be offering.
But, How can you develop the perfect buyer persona for your business?
First things first, you have to gather data and relevant information. You can easily achieve this if you “think outside the box”. Give use to as many different sources as you possibly can. Be it marketing studies and evaluations, A/B testing and surveys, interviews and conversion rates. Every piece of information counts.
Some of the questions you should consider when creating your buyer persona are the following :
- What is his/her demographic information?
- How can your service or product help solving his/her problem?
- What is his/her job description and position?
- Where does he/she goes to search for information and answers to his/her questions?
- What does a “normal” day look like for him/her?
- What are his/her daily needs?
Once you have collected enough information you want to create a file for your persona and describe it as if you were telling a story. Assign them a generic name ( Sample Sally, Landscaper Larry, Manager Marty are some good examples). Go as far as selecting a real-life image for your persona so everyone in your team can invision what he or she looks like. It may sound silly, but it really helps to put a face to a name.
Knowing your users and what motivates them will give you a much better idea of what type of content you need to provide for your consumers and the news they really have for your service or product. Like this you will become “closer” to your actual customers – and new leads –
