Fundamentally, buyer personas should be a tool that brings insights into why and how customers buy products or services. “72% of respondents stated they were using buyer personas for content marketing and messaging. 45% stated they used it to assess market challenges and problems, as well as to address overall marketing strategy”. “Consumer Think” noted that they saw a close correlation between the effectiveness of the buyer personas and the business goals.
Buyer Persona Template
1. Demographic data
Search your customer database, read conversations from the support team, and choose a real name for your persona with a real problem or need. Check the demographics at a micro-level.
Complete the first section of the Buyer Persona Template with:
Name
Segment or industry
Title or function
Years in Job
Reports to
Age
Education
Type of persona: Buyer or User
How does the demographic data help you with your digital strategy?
Describing your buyer persona at a micro-level gives you a better perspective for targeting campaigns and writing positioning messages.
2. Situation
Continue your Buyer Persona Template with:
A typical day in the life of your buyer persona
This step helps you understand your customers’ worlds, what their unmet needs are, their problems, concerns, and joys. Understanding their daily lives and aspirations shapes your digital strategy and gives you a competitive advantage. Social media is a goldmine. You can easily track and get insights about your potential customers, the buying process, their interests, their feedback on your products or competitors, and what they like or don’t like.
A typical interaction with your product
Understand the real problems for your customers, when they occur in their daily lives, and why they appear. Understanding the reason why people have these needs helps you target better and tweak your positioning.
These two steps guide your marketing messages and give insights about:
The tone of voice you should use in communication
What photos you should use in your digital campaigns
What colors you should use in your social media messages
Where you should first invest your marketing budget
What other products your buyer personas are using, and how they communicate
3. What the buyer persona reads and how the buyer persona is rewarded
Complete your buyer persona template with what they read online and offline. Also include how they are motivated at work: compensation, bonus, commission, or other forms of recognition.
Final thoughts
Marketing in a digital world is always a challenge. Online marketing moves at the speed of light, and we should always be packed with the best tools and instruments for maximizing the ROI and improving the digital strategy. Building a customer persona can be a strong first step.
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