Anyone who works in marketing will agree that in order to have your campaigns work and reach greatness, a target market is probably the most important concept to fully understand. But within target markets, there are a few prime candidates that might convert to your product or service a whole lot smoother. Those target customers are referred to as buyer personas.
What is a Buyer Persona?
A buyer persona, also known as a customer or marketing persona/profile, is a target customer whose profile is thoroughly researched – with known habits, daily routines, life challenges and their overall decisions recorded for optimised marketing techniques. Buyer personas are researched to create the ideal customer persona.
The complexities and freedom of life gives marketeers an additional challenge where multiple buyer personas come into play. This could differentiate between two target markets entirely; for example, if your services are targeted towards accountancy professionals, their impression of your marketing will help in converting – but no middle tier accountant will be able to approve a service without the authority of a C-Level manager. This creates two buyer personas.
Another multiple buyer situation could arise if your company creates products that cater to a variety of ages of all genders – natural beauty products. Younger clientele might be inclined to use your products for their ethical reasoning, while older clientele; probably need the products more than their children or younger family and friends.
While both situations provide impressions for your brand; the criteria on which your product or service is being judged relies on different factors that will eventually evaluate your brand, deciding if you are a success or not. These different buyer personas will require tailored marketing strategies.
Ultimately, the most important thing to understand is that buyer personas, multiple or single, help businesses empathise with their customer base and provide a better service if absorbed into the company’s ethos.
Why are buyer personas important?
Adopting a buyer persona strategy into your marketing campaigns will help guide you into making the right choices for your company. The insight acquired will help ensure that all campaigns, activities, strategies or events are tailored to your target customers’ needs.
Again, for anyone who works in marketing, this might sound like the obvious, run of the mill choice. Right? Well, it’s not that easy a task to achieve. Here are a few points to keep in mind:
It’s not about you
Many companies think that clients want to know what they do; when in reality customers want to know what companies can do for them. Customer needs are far more important than company practice. This helps customers to convert to a brand and if executed correctly, that service or product will retain customers based on what they can do for the client or customer.
A company’s principle is always a selling point – but does it translate to the customer?
Wait, it’s actually all about you
Confused? No problem, we’ll simplify it. A company is nothing without trust. So it’s a company’s main priority to instill trust in their client base that will effortlessly travel to the rest of the unconverted target customers in the public. Finding the right balance in translating what you do and constantly satisfying the customer is a tough job. But it can be done.
Managing your company’s marketing efforts takes up so much time – why not contact 4Sight for expert digital marketing services? Our experience in the field of marketing will help you identify your buyer personas, strengthen their effects on your brand and help retain a client base for increased ROI.
How are buyer personas identified?
Creating a buyer persona profile can be quite intense, but the results are so rewarding. It takes quite a few hours of self-reflection and honesty; that might be difficult for some long-term company owners to answer.
A fresh pair of eyes might be the solution for improved marketing efforts within your company. Here are a few starter questions to encourage the brainstorming session:
Start off with the basic info:
- age,
- gender,
- marital status,
- children,
- location,
- income and,
- education,
- job title/role,
- career path,
- company/industry,
- company size,
- professional tools used,,
- special skills and.
Move on to values and fear + goals and challenges:
- What do they value in both their personal and professional life?
- What is important to them when choosing a product like yours? Any objections?
- What will help them to convert?
- What are their personal and professional goals?
- How are their goals prioritized?
- What challenges hold them back?
Next find out where they are…
- How do they obtain information?
- How do they prefer to communicate?
- What media resonates best with them? What about social media?
- What do they do for fun? Are their hobbies relevant to your brand?
And lastly, identify the negatives:
- Are there consumers that you don’t really want?
- Are they too difficult?
- Too expensive to maintain?
- Do they belong to the wrong industry?
- Do they fit your brand image?
Identifying these pain points will help you create a buyer persona that aims to deliver throughout marketing strategies and campaigns. They can also help when;
- creating roadmaps during brainstorm session,
- building effective strategies and campaigns,
- trying to build a rapport between sales teams and customers and finally
- generating a positive environment in after sales and customer care services.
No matter how big or small your company is, a buyer persona is definitely needed to effectively conduct rewarding marketing efforts. If you think that your company needs the help of experienced professionals in the industry, get in touch with our team at 4Sight today