Do you want to profile your target at best? You realize that consumers
do they prefer personalized experiences more and more? Have you ever heard of buyer personas?
Until a few decades ago, marketing was aimed at a generic target, consumers, people, without investigating who fell within these definitions. Today the situation has changed a lot, people are far more cunning and aware, and the advent of inbound marketing has increased the need to look beyond these overly simplistic definitions.
Within macro-groups, there are individuals with names, personalities, needs and life stories , who don’t like to be confused or treated like numbers.
The time has passed when one could address everyone without distinction.
To achieve your business goals, you need to know almost every member of this target by name in order to increase the number of conversions and make the most sales.
From here the concept of buyer persona is increasingly affirming itself , the representation of the ideal customer, with whom to interact and build ever closer relationships.
What exactly is it about? What benefits could it bring to your business?
In the next paragraphs I will explain how to define buyer personas and why they are fundamental in any marketing strategy.
If, on the other hand, you need to rely on expert hands and accelerate the growth of your company immediately, contact me for a consultation.I will help you plan your marketing strategy in the best possible way.
What is meant by buyer persona
Is your communication the same for everyone? Do you think you can speak to every member of your audience in the same way?
I want to remind you what for me represents an axiom of marketing and communication: talking to everyone is equivalent to not talking to anyone .
I’ll explain what I mean.
Depending on the demographics, behavioral styles and reasons that led them to buy, people need to be treated specifically. Not everyone speaks the same language or buys driven by the same need, for this reason it is essential to know your target and be able to reach different buyers in an appropriate way.
Corporate communication, as well as the product, must be based on the characteristics of the customer, otherwise it only creates a criticality that can damage the brand and turnover.
To overcome such problems, it is essential to know the target and be able to identify your ideal customers, or your buyer personas.
What does buyer personas mean?
Buyer personas are representations that describe your ideal customers, according to their purchasing choices , socio-demographic characteristics and purchasing methods.
Once these fictitious models have been identified, the whole company will work in the same direction: satisfying the customer with targeted offers, well-defined products and suitable communication .
And this represents a huge opportunity for the correct definition of your marketing strategy.
What is it for in marketing strategy
Buyer personas can be considered one of the most interesting tools in marketing.
In summary, dividing your audience into ideal characters allows you to refine communication, choose the most suitable means , improve your Inbound Marketing strategy and increase your return on investment.
By defining the characteristics of the public, in fact, you can better identify with customers and understand how to approach them.
To obtain an accurate result, interviews, surveys, market analysis can be used and valuable help can also come from micro-data .
Thanks to the development of your buyer personas, you have the opportunity to promptly identify the needs and requirements of the customer, so as to personalize their customer journey with:
- targeted messages;
- relevant content;
- suitable tone of voice;
- implementation and improvement of the product and service;
- curated reports;
- creation of touchpoints according to the customer’s characteristics;
- favorite channels and right tools.
Furthermore, the definition of the archetype will also allow you to better control your sales funnel and implement more effective strategies. Each buyer person, in fact, behaves differently depending on whether they are in the awareness , consideration or decision phase and you will have to take this into account to offer a targeted and quality user experience .
Buyer personas of different types
How many buyer personas should be identified?
Do not think that there are already defined types of buyer persona to be inspired by.
The type and number of buyer personas are influenced by several factors: they depend on the type of company, the sector in which you operate and the type of product you sell (generic items or niche products).
However, it is good that you know that, to a greater number of buyer personas, the degree of personalization of your offer increases and, consequently, your possibility of hitting the goal.
This does not mean that you have to identify dozens of ideal customers, but you can also start with two or three types, and then grow over time.
The important thing is that it also manages to represent the so-called negative buyer person, that is, the one who is not in target and will never be able to become a source of income for your company. Typically, these are people who should be excluded because they require too high an unjustified investment, or are not really interested in your company or product.
Although there is no list with the types already defined, consider that many companies have similar categories of people, such as the HR manager, the purchasing manager or the sales representatives.
How to define buyer personas
The most suitable profiling method takes into consideration several factors that allow you to obtain a very accurate identikit of your ideal customer:
- Socio-demographic data : how old are you? Where does she live? How much do you earn? What is your level of education?
- Lifestyle : what hobby do you have? What activities do you like to do?
- Buying Behaviors : Where Do You Collect Information? Where do you usually shop?
- Relationship with technology : do you use the internet? What are your favorite media?
- Needs and Goals : What Problem Should You Solve? What are your needs?
- How can you help them : what solutions can you offer?
By answering these questions you will have a very corresponding picture of your target customer. However, you can go even deeper into the description of your customer avatar , giving the buyer persona a very specific name, personality and connotations.
This information can be collected following a well-structured process, in which it is necessary to involve the sales force and analyze all the data available on your users.
Precious elements come from the analysis of digital behaviors, from chats and from behaviors on social networks . Collecting such information requires extreme competence, attention and the ability to manage each stage of the analysis.
We start from digital behaviors, from which it is possible to extrapolate data on search intent , on the pages consulted and on the devices from which the connection is made.
Thanks to these it is possible to obtain information on the geographical origin .
Essential support comes from the sales team , the department of the company that has the most direct relationships with the target. At this point, business tools also come into play , essential for cross-referencing data and starting to outline the characteristics of the ideal customer .
I warn you: do not think that the work on buyer personas stops once you have identified a certain number. These figures are constantly changing and you can only follow their evolution.
Additional tools for the identikit of the typical customer
Quantitative data form the basis for making a first skimming and obtaining rather generic types. In some cases, the process can stop at this stage while, for some companies, it is necessary to investigate the data collected. From this moment it is necessary to adopt more refined analysis and data collection tools, such as interviews, questionnaires,
surveys, ethnographic research, feedback analysis, analysis of online conversations .
In data collection, it is essential that you do not have any kind of prejudice that could compromise the quality of the data collected. In some situations, in fact, entrepreneurs tend to underestimate data that they do not consider interesting on a personal level but which could be valuable.
The most complete tool is the in-depth interviews , from which the life stories of customers emerge .
Other sources of data are corporate CRMs or databases with which basic customer information is collected. Furthermore, by setting up your forms correctly you could expand the available data and deepen the knowledge of customers.
Then, dwell on the feedback received, on the reviews and on the contacts with customer support: from here emerge critical issues that you should address immediately, both to keep the customer acquired and not to repeat mistakes in the future.
Examples of buyer personas
To define your buyer persona, therefore, you must think of it as if it were an individual in flesh and blood, with a personality, a character, certain physical characteristics, preferences and daily habits.
Obviously, based on your sector of affiliation and your type of business, you will have to consider some aspects rather than others.
I’ll give you some examples of buyer persona .
Let’s say you have a B2B company . At this point your buyer personas will be other companies.
To go in depth, you could imagine your interlocutors as members of the corporate structure: human resources manager, purchasing department, CEO, marketing manager, and from there you should begin to outline the contours.
Do you sell legal consulting services? Then you might imagine speaking directly to members of management or the administrative office.
If, on the other hand, you dealt with software, the ideal customer could be the manager of IT services.
Changing our point of view, however, we can think of a B2C company, which is aimed directly at the final consumer. Your product or service, in this case, should have all the essential characteristics for consumption and should address each individual as if it were unique.
Among the examples of buyer personas I cannot fail to include the negative buyer persona : if your ideal customers are over 70 years old because you sell healthcare products, you will have to exclude the lowest age groups a priori. Or if you are a meat producer, you will not be able to include those who follow a vegan diet among your customers.
Create your buyer personas and increase your sales
Having a marketing strategy to increase conversions and, consequently, sales, is fundamental to the success of an organization. But even if you have the best strategy in the world it would be useless without having defined your target accurately and specifically.
Buyer personas are a very effective tool to make the company more human and create a close relationship with the consumer. Furthermore, knowing your ideal customer puts you in a position to use the right marketing tools without wasting budget and wasting time.
Contact me for a personalized consultation! I will help you analyze your audience and create a well-profiled target , so that you can speak the right language, at the right time through winning tools.