4 key factors in creating a successful Buyer Persona

Do you think all people buy the same way? Let's see, will a teenager with a summer job have the exact needs of a 30-year-old adult? Will the content a 15-year-old girl sees be the same as a 40-year-old woman? Would a person who has little knowledge of technology shop online? And would a tech native?

Buyer Personas are semi-fictional characters created to represent ideal buyers of a business and generate personalized commercial strategies. This tool is vital for departments such as marketing, sales, and customer service as it allows us to understand customers better, focusing on the needs and desires of specific groups of people, avoiding falling into a generalization of the market.

Index

• Define your target audience
• Determine their needs and wants
• Understand which are the best channels
• Develop personas based on research

Define your target audience.

Most companies do not sell to "everyone." There are usually segments of the market that are more likely to purchase the product or service offered; this is because not all products and services respond to people's needs or are affordable for specific populations.

Analyzing the target audience is a crucial marketing task; it is about choosing a strategic segment and understanding the people who share those characteristics to satisfy the specific needs best. It is essential to clarify that a Buyer Persona is not just about demographics but about understanding what motivates people to make buying decisions.

What is a buyer persona?

The following data can be considered to start building the Buyer Persona:

• Age
• Gender
• Location
• Education
• Profession or occupation
• Interests and hobbies

Having Buyer Personas facilitates the segmentation of campaigns, delivering quality content that speaks directly to the customers' needs. According to DMA, 77% of email marketing ROI comes from segmented campaigns targeted to ideal customers.

Determine their needs and wants.

Once you have identified the market segment, you must determine its needs and wants; this means asking yourself questions such as:

• What does the customer want?
• What motivates them to buy?
• What are their pain points, pains, or frustrations?
• What are his strengths, desires, or expected benefits?
• What would be helpful to them?

Understand which are the best channels.

It is not enough to have content for a commercial strategy; defining where to deliver that key message is necessary. Part of understanding who the company's Buyer Personas are, is to identify the best communication channels correctly - do they prefer email, social media, phone calls, or text messages? You will also need to understand how your buyers behave online.

The idea is to identify where they spend most of their time and reach them with a message that captivates them.

Develop personas based on research.

The first step is to define the target audience. To ensure that this segment is the right one, it is necessary to subject it to analysis, that is, to gather data to support the hypotheses; this can be done using surveys or, for example, Google Analytics. Look at where the people who visit your site come from, how often they return, and which pages they spend the most time on. Then ask yourself who these visitors are: are they male or female, teenagers, young adults or older people, people living in different countries?

To create a successful Buyer Persona, you should answer these questions: Who are my ideal customers? What interests them? What motivates them? What frustrates them? And How do they buy? Having correctly defined ideal customer profiles is key to an efficient, effective, sustainable business strategy.

Already have yours? You can download the available template or read more about it at the following link: Buyer Persona Imagineer.