Developing a Buyer Persona is Crucial to Your Marketing Success
You already know that having a precise target market is important. Clearly, you don’t want to be wasting your advertising dollars on people who couldn’t care less about your product or service. But how much do you really know about your current and potential customers? Could you predict how they think? Would you be able to determine what their goals are? Do you know why they buy when they do? If not, it’s about time to figure it out. Introducing the buyer persona: a detailed look at whom you should be marketing to.
What is a buyer persona?
Simply put, it is a complete picture of who you imagine your customer to be. However, it is not profiling or caring just about demographics. While you do want to understand what gender, age, income level, and lifestyle your target market is, a buyer persona digs much deeper. A properly researched buyer persona will get you into the minds of your customer. It will help you relate to your client as an actual person with thoughts, goals, and specific reasons for making a purchase.
Why is a buyer persona important?
Because people are complicated. Demographics only get you so far, and if that’s all you focus on, you are wasting your time and money. However, if you can get inside the minds of your buyers, you will know exactly what drives them and can adjust your advertising accordingly.
How do I create a buyer persona?
It all comes down to research. You should be conducting interviews of both current customers and people who have never heard of your brand before – people who love your product, and people who hate it. You need to get out in the trenches and talk to the masses:
- What do they want to accomplish with your product?
- What problems are they facing?
- What is stopping them from purchasing?
- What makes them decide to buy a product?
- What would they change about yours?
- And so on and so forth.
Remember, it is impossible to really understand your buyer if you try to base the information solely on the data behind a screen.
How do I use a buyer persona effectively?
Once you have developed a full story behind your buyer, it is time to put it to use. Now, you can market in a precise way that will pull on your customer’s heartstrings, leaving them no choice but to buy from you. You can do this several ways:
- Show them exactly how you will solve their problem.
- Put your advertising in their terms.
- Easily get their attention with the things that really inspire them.
- Combat inaccurate perceptions of your brand.
- Demonstrate how you will make their lives easier.
- Focus on what matters the most to your buyer.
When you have successfully developed a buyer persona, you will have a clear image of who your customer is. You will know them from the inside out, and in doing so you can ensure that all of your marketing dollars are going exactly where they should be.
