Every entrepreneur will agree with this: customers are the kings and queens of any service provider for without them, any business wouldn’t flourish. Every decisions done by the founder will involve the idea of maximizing the traction and engagement with customers.
Aside from developing good marketing and content strategies, many companies create their own buyer persona to further improve their overall marketing plan. Now what is a buyer persona and how will it affect your business?
A buyer persona can be defined as your portrayal or representation of the expected customer. It is created by combining relevant data such as consumer demographics and your own understanding of your product and services. Albeit a fictional character , a buyer persona can help you come up with the best decision for your business.
It is never easy to develop your product and marketing campaigns if you do not know exactly who your customers are. If you’re well-versed of your target market, you will have a good advantage over your competitors because you know exactly how they will respond For instance, if your business relies heavily upon an online content, having a buyer persona can help you target specific topics you need to be writing about to target your niche. Creating a buyer persona doesn’t involve a huge amount of cash, but it can give you good results.
Now that you know what a buyer persona is, let us find out the steps in creating one.
How to create your Buyer Persona:
1. Conduct interviews, research or surveys
If you already have existing customers around your circle, you may ask them relevant questions pertaining to the details that you want to acquire. If you are a startup with no customers yet, reach out to your potential customers and ask them about the information that you need.
There is no limit to the number of persona that you have to create. Organized your interview questions ahead before disseminating them . You may start your interview by asking for basic demographic background information such as age or details about their job. Once you’ve feel like you have already established a good rapport with your interviewee, you may proceed in asking them about their professional goals and challenges.
These days, the number of information available on the internet is endless. Whether it’s all about a specific location or a particular business industry. you may also seek experts on specific fields. Check out professional websites like Linkedin. Professionals and experts who are open for service will most likely post their contact details online.
You can do your own research online, but always remember that it would be better if you can get to know your potential buyers in their ‘natural habitat’. Familiarizing where they live and work will give you a clear picture on how they make decisions.
You may conduct surveys online as well. Surveys are good alternative especially for those people who are not comfortable disclosing personal information. There are free online survey form makers like google forms you can utilize.
2. Analyze Your Data
Synthesize all the data you have gathered from your interviews and research. Identify the common grounds among the answers from your recipients . You may start forming a single buyer persona out of your synthesized data and create more as you go further with your marketing development plan. You may organize them using a persona template which you can create on your own. Some websites like Hubspot offers free downloadable persona templates which you can use for free.
3. Share
Gather all the members of your team and share the results of your analysis. Everyone must be able to familiarize your potential customers well so they can also design, market and sell your products efficiently.In return, this will strengthen your company and unite all members into focusing in one goal.
Do not defeat the purpose of your interview and research by making an initial assumption about your customer demographics. Attach your unbiased decisions based on a real and reliable data you have gathered rather than on your personal perception.
Once you are completely done you have to work on creating a buyer’s journey next. Mapping out the path of the buyer’s decision-making process enables you to develop a better strategy that will speak directly unto them regardless of their stage in the buying journey.
The time you spent creating your buyer persona will pay off a hundred-fold growth. If you haven’t created one for your business yet, now is the time to do it.
