Buyer personas are a critical component of any marketing effort. From content to Facebook ads, you need to use a buyer persona of some sort!
There’s no denying that 2020 has been challenging which has only made the importance of using a buyer persona that much more important.
I can’t stress it enough. It will help you focus your efforts and provide you with a larger return on investment (ROI) than if you don’t use one.
What Is A Buyer Persona?
First things first, what’s a buyer persona? It’s a semi-fictional person with traits closely aligned to your target audience or ideal customer(s).
An ideal buyer is typically a person who would use the brand, item, or service that’s being marketed. Think of who your dream or perfect customer is. What does that look like to you?
Sometimes building a buyer persona can feel like stereotyping but it’s anything but that. Building this ideal person is done by detailed information gathered from multiple sources, which we’ll get into in a little bit.
How Do Buyer Persona’s Work?
Every consumer goes through a buyer’s journey. There are 3 basic stages of this journey.
Stage 1: Awareness
This is the beginning of the buyer’s journey. At this stage, a consumer is starting to realize that there is a problem or issue.
This is where buyers are starting to do their Google searches to gather information.
Let’s say, for example, a person notices that there is water leaking from their ceiling. We’ll name this fictional character “Leaky Larry.” During the awareness stage, Larry would most likely start trying to learn more about the problem.
Is it a leaky roof? Is there a leaky pipe? Is this a priority? These are all questions a persona would ask in this situation.
Stage 2: Consideration
In stage 2, the buyer has a clearer idea of what their problem is.
Sticking with the leaky roof, Larr now knows that the leak is coming from a pipe in the second-floor bathroom. He is also now researching where the leak might be coming from and determining if he can fix it himself.
Stage 3: Decision
During this stage, the buyer is deciding who would be the best fit in solving their problem. This is typically done by looking at social media reviews, Google reviews, and friend referrals.
At this point, Larry is looking at who has the better reviews, who can fix the leak the soonest, and what the potential cost of the repair is and comparing all this information to find the best fit for him.
Buyer’s Journey and Buyer Personas
So how does the buyer’s journey play into how buyer personas work?
Well, by knowing your buyer, you can more effectively guide that person through the buyer’s journey and turn them into a lead or customer.
Consider if you were a plumber that had valuable content on your website that helped Larry identify that the leak was actually from his plumbing and not his roof. He also saw that your website had reviews of which he noted were genuine after scoping out your social media accounts that were listed on the website.
Larry, during the decision process, saw that you offer a free consultation and assessment. Because your site helped him by informing him of the problem, offered potential solutions, and temporary patch jobs when he saw that you offer a free consultation he called.
Getting the picture? Providing education and value builds trust and carries a buyer throughout the whole journey. You want to reach your buyer personas on each level of this stage so that when they’re ready to purchase there’s no question in their mind of where to go. But you do this by really knowing your buyer.
How To Make A Buyer Persona For Your Business
FREE Buyer Persona Template
Download your FREE template to start your marketing success.
Before you can create a buyer persona for your business you need to look at your target audience. You can do this by gathering data from your Google Analytics (GA4 if you’ve upgraded) as well as from any and all of your social media accounts.
I like to gather information on gender, age, location, and device (mobile or desktop) which is easily done by using Google Analytics.
You’ll find that this information will provide the foundation of your target audience. Both platforms will be able to provide insights on gender, age, and location.
Google analytics can break it down further and you can analyze which pages or content people are spending the most time on. This tells you what your target audience is wanting from you.
Social media is similar, however, you will be reviewing your most engaged posts and which posts received the highest number of shares to determine what your audience wants.
Need help creating a buyer persona? Use our free buyer persona template! Just click here.
How To Gather Consumer Data Without A Website Or Social Media
What if I don’t have a website or social media yet? Don’t worry. There is more than one way to skin a cat.
If you don’t have any data on your audience you can research your competition.
- Look at their social media accounts.
- Look at their follower list to get an idea of gender dominance.
- Look at who engages with their posts the most.
- Look at which posts are receiving the most engagement
- Take a look at their reviews on social media, their website, and on Google.
- This will give you a deeper understanding of their audience’s wants, needs, likes, and dislikes. (Focus on the low ratings to know how you can be more appealing to others)
- Look at their Facebook ads.
- You can go to the Facebook Ads Library to see what ads your competitors are currently running. (This will give you an idea of what’s working for them)
It’s in your best interest to do this even if you have an idea of your buyer persona so that you can compete and improve your business.
How To Use Your Persona To Improve Your Marketing
I use my buyer personas every time I consider any marketing move.
Why?
Simple. It narrows my focus to those who are more likely to purchase a product or service. Thus it effectively decreases the amount of money spent on acquiring sales or leads while simultaneously increasing the number of sales and leads.
Win, win.
Here’s a look at how to use buyer personas effectively to market products and services.
Social Media
When it comes to social media, there are different demographics for each platform available. Knowing where your audience is key to being effective. If your buyer persona spends most of their time on Twitter that’s where you should also be focusing your efforts.
Your buyer persona(s) will help you narrow your focus and be more effective. It should be the foundation of your every strategy.
Content
If you create content or have a team of creators, your buyer persona(s) will prove to be invaluable in the process. With the buyer in mind, you can provide the content that matters. We’ve already covered the importance of providing valuable content: it helps carries a person through the buyer’s journey.
Email (segmenting your audience)
Segmenting your email campaigns and customizing them based on buyer personas can dramatically improve your email open rate. The more people that open your emails the higher chance of conversion, right?
Increase ROI
Ultimately, using a buyer persona can improve your ROI because you’re focusing on valuable customers that have a true interest in your product and fostering trust.
CONCLUSION
Key Takeaways
- Buyer personas improve your marketing across all channels (social media, email, content, ect.).
- You can narrow your focus to your ideal buyer and improve the quality of the content you create.
If you’ve learned anything from this article I hope it’s that buyer persona’s matter. If you provide the customer with the right information and keep them in mind during every marketing decision, you will ultimately see your ROI soar.
Your marketing will be more successful in the long run if you keep your customer in mind.
