Buyer PersonaS
DEVELOP YOUR BUYER PERSONA!
Personas are not just lists of demographics, profiles or a buyers journey, they are more than that; they are based on interviews and collected data from real customers, they provide a human centric way of understanding and an insight on consumers behaviors
What is a buyer persona?
A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your actual buyers. Personas are an essential part of any marketing strategy or sales plan, they are based on research and interviews with your actual customers. This will help you understand your customers needs, address problems that your business must solve, and you can also use them to revitalize existing products. We could also say that personas are a personal narrative of the people who are most interested in your products or services.
Why are personas so important?
Marketers should understand that buyers influence the buying decision and that creating personas can tailor content, products, and customize the needs and concerns of your target audience. In addition, personas are tools that if done right they can help businesses to engage with their customers and make contact with the right ones. Because without customer understanding it is impossible to create a marketing strategy, but personas are not only for marketing they can be helpful in sales and product departments. Beyond helping your business to grow, understanding your customers can help you navigate the ‘’why’’ behind their preferences and actions. Personas will help you retain objectivity and not fall into the expectations of your stakeholders, salesperson etc. assuming they are the target audience, rather than your actual customers. When you develop multiple personas it is easier to empathize with your customers and focus on creating the right campaign that will speak to them. Personas are not just lists of demographics, profiles or a buyers journey, they are more than that; they are based on interviews and collected data from real customers, they provide a human centric way of understanding and an insight on consumers behaviors.
Steps in developing the buyer persona
- Get to know your users
- Analyze the research data
- Create personas on a template
- Find scenarios for the personas according to interviews
- Finalize the development of personas and share it with your team and stakeholders
What are the main elements in a persona template
- Demographics (name, age gender, education, location, occupation, family)
- Photo
- Pain points/frustrations (what doesn’t work for them)
- Goals and needs (why the customers need your product/service)
- Quotes ( a quote or slogan that captures a little bit of the personality)
Persona Template (example)
Keep track and maintain your persona
As your business grows you will be able to understand more about your customers, even though your customers’ needs can change drastically through years so you cannot rely on personas you have made years ago. You should often revisit what you have made and update it. You ought to consider changing or updating your personas when your business has changed its products or services, shift in business strategy, have attended a trade show or event. In addition, it would be wise to analyze them once a year and include any new marketing ideas you have and gathered through years.
The importance of Negative Personas
Why should your strategy include negative personas? The ugly truth is that not every customer will be satisfied by your product or service and not everyone will be interested in what you offer, therefore you should do your research on those people, interview them and pain point what your organization can do to change the narrative, if possible.
Identifying the negative personas can also save your business money and time by not targeting people whom you don’t want to sell or work with.
