You’ve probably heard of buyer personas and maybe even tried to create one for your target market. But buyer personas are more than just a single document; they’re an ongoing process that evolves as you learn more about your customers and what they need from you. In this article, we’ll discuss how to use buyer personas to understand your customers better so that you can meet their needs and grow your business.
What are buyer personas?
Buyer personas are representations of your ideal buyer, the customers you want to target with your marketing. They show you who they are and what they need from you in order to become a customer. A buyer persona is an archetype of one specific type of buyer at different stages in their buying process for your product or service (hence buyer personas).
One buyer persona is not enough. You need to know different types of buyers with different goals to create the right message for each buyer type at every stage in their buying process. For example, if your product was a research tool used by researchers before they write papers, then one buyer might be an academic who wants to find the perfect research tool to help them write their essay. Another buyer might be a professor who wants to purchase your product for all of their students and requires special features like custom branding options. A buyer persona shows you what buyers need at each stage to become customers so that you can create better messaging and more compelling offers for each buyer type.
To create buyer personas, you have to know your target market and why they should choose your product or service over a competitor. You also need to understand what problems buyers are trying to solve by using your product so that you can offer the right features at each stage in their buying process. Then it’s time for buyer persona research.
Creating buyer personas
The buyer persona research process involves talking to your target market so that you can learn more about their needs and goals, what they consider important in a solution or product, how much money they have for purchases, etc. There are many different buyer personas depending on the type of buyer, but there are some common questions asked during buyer persona research that you should always ask:
- Who is your buyer?
- What do they need and want from a product like yours? Why are they buying it in the first place? How does what you offer fit into their workflow or life/job/etc.
- Where can we find them, how will we reach out to them?
- What sorts of questions or objections do they have about your product?
- How can we answer those questions and close the sale with our buyer persona research findings?
For more advice on creating buyer personas and business opportunities, contact me to learn more!
