Jan 22 | Categories: Research

The Power of Buyer Personas

Picture your favorite movie, show, or book character. Have their image in your mind? Now ask yourself this: What makes this character unique from the others? Do you share similar interests, likes, and dislikes? Whatever your answers may be, this character has specific attributes that stand out to you.

Buyer Personas function the same way. They are semi-fictional characters that represent your target audience, people who you want as “characters” in your customer base. Your business could (and should) have multiple User Personas, each with in-depth descriptions as if they are a real person, so you know who to market to.

We’ll get to the technicalities a bit later. First, let’s go over the why of Buyer Personas.

The Power of Buyer Personas

One of the best ways to create content and promotional campaigns that truly engage your various target audiences is by creating buyer personas.

Each one of your target markets (and therefore, your buyer personas) is different; they are attracted to you for different reasons, they may live in different locations, they may fall within different demographics, and they certainly have different questions about your product or service which means they’ll be using different terms to search terms on Google.

By creating personas, you are getting to know each customer segment. And once you do, it’s game over. When done successfully your marketing team will be able to understand the ins and outs of your various personas, who they are, where they consume their information, and how the make a purchase decision. Knowing this allows your content and promotional campaigns to reach them when it matters most and be catered to their specific needs.

Do Your Research

Creating Buyer Personas means doing market research. Don’t worry, you’ve got this! You may already have an idea of your target audience. Yet, getting into the nuances will take some research.

Market research can be done in several ways:

Interviews
Surveys
Observational research
Observational research via social media. A tip for this strategy: look at online profiles of people who follow you and those who you want to be followed by. Note who they follow, content on their feed, and what they post. You’ll get ideas of who they are and hopefully inspiration for your content.

Once you’ve gathered your research, you’re ready to compile the information and create your Buyer Persona!

The How-Tos of Buyer Personas

It’s now time to tune into your inner storyteller. What? Storytelling? What does this have to do with Buyer Personas?

Well, just about everything! Simply put, you need engagement, and you get engagement by knowing your audience, and I mean really knowing them. Buyer Personas tell a story of who your target audience is, wrapped into a consolidated character (or characters).

Buyer Personas include a variety of topics. Note that there is not a specific formula, yet these are common categories:

Demographics: what is the age, ethnicity, and location of your Persona? Who’s in their family?

Be specific to adhere to the wants and needs of particular demographics. It may not be helpful to promote electric scooters in rural areas or sell lawn mowers to city residents.

Business Info: What is their job position? How long have they been at their place of work? What is their income?

This may allow marketing to specific income and business brackets, which is especially helpful on digital advertising channels such as LinkedIn and Facebook.

Interests: What does your persona like? What are their hobbies? Their passions?

Knowing your audience outside of the business world connects you on a personal level and builds trust.

Weaknesses & pain points: it may sound harsh, but home in on potential roadblocks.

Knowing your target audience’s dislikes, distractions, and pain points may help you decide what to include and/or exclude in your content.

Buyer Personas in Practice

Take P&G’s “The Look” commercial, for example. It’s an advertisement that addresses the biases Black men in America experience. This call for action is objectively empathetic. By producing this commercial, P&G tells Black men, as well as others who feel the same way about racism, that P&G is anti-racist.

Here’s the thing: P&G makes Tide detergent, Pampers diapers, Charmin toilet paper, and other similar products. What does this have to do with anti-racism?

The answer: their audience. Nowhere in the commercial does P&G say “buy our product,” but by creating content that is specific for a Persona, they strategically place their company in a societal conversation that empathizes with their audience. This trust-building attracts people to their company.

Even further, the main character is a dad who clearly cares about his son. Coincidence? Think again. Who buys products like diapers, razors (Gillette), and Mr. Clean magic erasers for those crayon-on-the-wall incidents? Dads do. All products that P&G produces. That is the power of creating Buyer Personas. When you know your audience, you know what to create.

Make Your Own

Defining your target audience by building Buyer Personas can increase user engagement and allow you to focus on leads, ultimately advancing your SEO. If you have questions or need some assistance starting your Buyer Personas, reach out to us! We’re happy to help.