The more you know about what makes your clients tick the more you can figure out how to create meaningful connections that give both you and them what you want. Which is why creating buyer personas is an essential element of any organisation’s marketing and sales strategy.
Personas are your sketch of a typical buyer that provide insights and structure for how you engage with a particular audience. They can provide a focus for the kind of language, content and channels you should use to connect to a group of clients. Ideally, they should be based on research and data, reflecting reality without naming a real individual.
Why are personas so important?
Accurate, well-researched personas help you work out the type of customers you want to work with, what they’re interested in, what they need, and, most important, how to guide them to you in the right way, at the right time. Going through the process of creating your buyer personas will teach you about your ideal customer’s demographics and online behaviour, along with an educated speculation about their personal histories, motivations, and concerns.
Here’s our 4 step guide to creating buyer personas:
Step 1 – Background, demographics and identifiers.
Background. Sketch out some basic details about your persona and their role in their organization. Gather information about what a persona’s company might look like. Work out their background information, like education or hobbies.
Demographics. What’s their gender, age range, HH Income, and urbanicity?
Identifiers. Consider the buzz words they might use and their mannerisms. Find them on social media – what are they talking about, what are they sharing, what are they saying?
Step 2 – Goals, challenges and how your business helps
Goals. Talk to people who can inform your personas development about their goals.
Challenges. What are the main challenge to your persona’s success? What other challenges might they encounter?
How your business helps. Consider how you might solve your persona’s challenges and how you will help them achieve their goals.
Step 3 – Real quotes and common objections
Real quotes. Speak to your clients and listen out for a few real quotes your buyer persona has used – taken during your interviews, for example. It will make it easier for employees to relate to and understand your personas.
Common objections. Identify the most common objections your persona might raise during the sales process.
Step 4 – Marketing messaging and elevator pitch
Marketing messaging. Think about how you should describe your solution to your persona.
Elevator pitch. What’s the pitch to this persona? Make describing your solution, simple and consistent across everyone in your company.
