What is Buyer Persona? and How to Create it in 5 Steps
Many companies spend a great deal of effort, time, and money working on a marketing strategy that helps them catch the public without taking into account that the most important thing is to start from a portrait as accurately as possible of the audience they are seeking to attract.
There is a tool with which to define that audience in detail, something that will allow us to better target our campaigns and messages. If you want to learn how to connect your products and services with your potential customers, read on and discover what a buyer persona is and how to create it in five steps
What is a buyer persona?
A buyer persona is a fictitious representation of a company’s target audience through which we can get to know its audience in detail to create marketing strategies that are as oriented as possible based on their needs. It is, therefore, a way of better understanding who we are addressing and of relating to the public to whom we want to sell our products and services.
Do you think a restaurant with a Michelin star located in the most expensive neighborhood of Madrid has the same buyer persona as a lifelong bar in a Galician village? Do Filmin’s original version with subtitles and each Marvel production on Disney + consume the same audience? The answer is obvious …
What is the buyer person for?
The study of trends, behaviors, and patterns of the potential public allows us to create a marketing strategy based on objectives, challenges, and pain points ( pain points in Spanish or, what is the same, those problems that it faces the audience and what we could solve with our products or services)
Understanding their motivations and pain point through the buyer persona is key to understanding both what makes them happy and what they need to solve. Once we are clear about it, we will know what content to create, how and where to share it, as well as how to improve our presence. Think of the buyer persona as a compass that tells you where to direct your business.
How do I know who my buyer persona is?
If you have already understood that it is important that you make use of this tool to be more accurate in the marketing decisions you make with your projects, surely you are wondering how to know who your buyer persona is.
The first thing you should do is carry out market research (with both quantitative and qualitative indicators) on the type of people who usually buy your products and services, as well as analyze the data of the clients with whom you have worked so far.
It is important that you do not stay solely with your database and that you take into account how the people who trust your direct competition since it is likely that the problem they are trying to solve is the same or very similar. This data collection, which we will develop later, in the first of the steps with which to create your buyer persona, is the key to success.
To make a portrait of your audience as accurately as possible, you need to gather information from questions such as:
- What do you do?
- What labor sector do they belong to?
- What is your training?
- Where do they live?
- What challenges do you face every day?
- What solutions do they need to achieve?
- What doubts do you have when you try to implement these solutions?
The socio-demographic aspects are essential to understanding who we are headed, but understanding their work behaviors, personality, and behavior on the network will also help us define his portrait. Therefore, the next step is to ask yourself questions such as:
- What activities do you like to do in your free time?
- What are your aspirations and motivations?
- What would you change about your job to be happier?
- What media and books do you usually read?
- Which social networks are the most active?
The compilation of all this information will give you more and more keys with which to draw an increasingly clear profile, which will be enriched if you ask yourself what interest the public may have in your company and ask related questions, such as how they could be They learned what they usually like most about your business and what they would improve.
Buyer persona vs target
It is important to differentiate the target or target audience from the buyer persona since they are concepts that are often used as if they were the same without being the case. While the buyer persona defines needs and identifies with a fictitious portrait that is given a name, surname, face, and story, the target or target audience does not have its own identity, is a much colder concept that is limited to some characteristics basic such as age, place of residence and social class.
The target or target audience is abstract and groups together a set of users, but the buyer persona tries to create a real image of a person we want to make love with our products and services.
For example, the target of Zara could be a young, modern, and elegant woman who is usually loyal to the store, aged between 18 and 35 live in large cities, and have average incomes. However, a buyer persona of the same brand would tell us the story of a woman with a face, name, and surname from which we would define her studies, personality traits, with which celebrities and belief systems she identifies, what has been her successes and biggest challenges, as well as your buying habits, fears, and life expectations.
Types of buyer person
Another difference that you must identify concerning a buyer persona is their influence when making a purchase, there are the following types that you should attend to:
Purchase decision maker
It is the person who makes the final purchase decision, being the most popular case.
Prescriber
The prescriber is an authoritative profile that recommends a product. It would be the pharmacist who advises one product over another or a shop assistant you ask to help you choose one cosmetic product or another.
Influence
We are talking about those people who can determine the willingness to buy from a third party, both for better and for worse. This is where the famous influencers would enter, whom we should keep in mind to collaborate with them since their influence is increasing in the purchasing habits of their audience.
Advantages of creating a buyer persona
Now that you have understood what a buyer persona is and what types of buyer persona you can design, let’s see the benefits you can get from using an increasingly important tool in any online marketing campaign, especially inbound marketing :
- You will know your ideal customer better than ever: you will understand their needs, their problems, and their consumer desires. You will gain a much deeper understanding of their tastes, habits, and preferred shopping methods, so you will connect with them much better.
- You will be able to do better-segmented marketing campaigns: this will help the creation of content marketing since you will be able to do it in a more personalized way and with better long-term results. When you are aware of what language your audience speaks, what channels they consult, and what needs they have, the orientation of your proposals will be much better.
- You will know in which spaces to invest and in which not: you will stop wasting time in places where your potential clients are not present, which will lead to more effective strategies without so much risk of wasted investment. In addition, you will identify the clients that you should not focus on.
- You will optimize resources: you will learn which actions to focus on and which to ignore by understanding the pain points of your customers and their possible objections. You will personalize your content more smartly.
- It will strengthen the relationship with the commercial team: the people who carry out the sales work in your project are the ones who are closest to and know your customers best, being a clear element in the development of a buyer persona. Listen to them and work hand in hand with them.
How to create a buyer persona?
Now we want you to understand how you could create a buyer persona in five steps, with ideas that you will have to work on and dedicate the necessary time to. Let’s go there!
Step 1: Define your needs
The first step in designing a good buyer persona is to know what you need to know to define your ideal client. Remember that information is power and that the more information you collect, the better you can define your buyer persona.
The questions you ask about your buyer persona should range from general areas to personal issues. Here are some examples:
- Demographic data: age, gender, location, income, social class …
- Personal situation: is this person married, separated, or divorced? Do you live alone, as a couple, or share a flat, or are you still with your parents? Does he have children?
- Employment information: are you studying or working? What is your job title? In which company and sector do you work? What prospects do you have?
- Goals and Goals: What goals and views do you have for the future? It is advisable to differentiate between personal and professional goals. From there, understand how your product can help your customer.
- Challenges and problems: what are the main problems in your day today? What impediments do you find in meeting your goals? What obstacles separate you from our products and services?
- Attitudes and behaviors: what is your attitude towards our product? How is your behavior on the network? From what devices are you browsing? What web pages and networks do you like the most?
Step 2: Gather information about your customers
Once you are clear about your needs and know in which fields you need information, start collecting everything you know about your customers.
CHECK ALL YOUR SOURCES
First of all, review and consult in depth all the sources where you have information about them. In your database, you will find the demographic data and details about the personal situation of your clients. This will help you better define the people who are interested in your product. You already have a base to start working on!
CONTRACT WITH THE SALES TEAM
A marketing team does not function optimally if it is not in contact with the sales team. And neither does teamwork with a sales team if the marketing team does not work with it. Both departments must go hand in hand, and every company aware of the inbound methodology must understand it.
