Many businesses risk failing due to ineffectively promoting their products and services to the wrong people. It’s a serious drain on financial resources. Which is why buyer personas are so important! Buyer personas are one of the elements used in an effective marketing strategy for any business and all too often the power of them is overlooked.
What is a buyer persona?
Let’s start by defining what a buyer persona is. A buyer persona is a generalised representation of your “ideal customer”. Consisting of a set of attributes that can be based on demographics and/or shared behavioural traits. You can then segment these audiences based on their shared attributes to effectively target them.
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Income
- Education level
- Cat lover
- Knows all of the lyrics to The Greatest Showman
The list is endless! But getting the right mix of demographics and interests means the success of your marketing and promotions will dramatically increase!
The Negative Buyer Persona
You may not quite know yet who is your ideal customer, but you might know who ISN’T. This type of buyer persona excludes anyone that you don’t want as a customer. Maybe a company with high-end designer products, they won’t want to be targeting people with a low disposable income, as they know that it is unlikely that they will make a purchase.
Creating a buyer persona
The best buyer personas are created through research, there are many ways to create buyer personas but always take the time to back it up and keep a watchful eye for changes and trends.
Ask your customers what they want
A lot of the time companies fail to ask their customers what they want. It’s surprising because so many of them are willing to tell you. For an organisation with an existing customer base, buyer personas could be created through questionnaires and interviews, checking data and identifying similar characteristics and trends. For a new company is can be conducting market research to discover these attributes.
Test, test, test
Another tactic for building a winning buyer persona is to create a selection of attributes based on assumptions and “ideals”, test these and use the data build an insightful profile of your best customers. You may think you know- but it will more than likely surprise you when the data comes back.
Using Buyer Personas
Technology is so sophisticated, you’ve been scrolling through social media and an advert comes up that immediately attracts your attention. It might be something new that you weren’t aware of, or it might be something you have searched for. Either way, it has more than likely been put in front of you for a reason. Or if it’s Wish, maybe not.
A buyer persona in the greater marketing strategy allows you to tailor content to each of your customer segments, appealing directly to them and encouraging action. It is a mix of the right product or service, with the right content, in the right place, at the right time, to the right people.
It pays to understand your audience
For existing customers understanding their requirements, pain points or what they value can increase their buying potential. After all, retaining customers is the aim of the game!If you want to attract new customers, you need to be sure you’re putting the right product or service in front of them and let them know you’re there. Think you know your audience?