Your Business Needs a buyer persona - here is why...

Do you need better leads and better advertising campaigns? You might need to spend time on your Buyer Persona.

The State of Social Spending: 2018 Survey Report shows that 68 percent of marketers intend to spend more on social media ads in 2019. This exciting trend shows that, more than ever, developing Buyer Personas should remain an essential step in your marketing process that no one should neglect.

       Before spending time on content creation and rushing to spend more money on advertising, consider spending some time on your Buyer Persona to help clarify who you are trying to attract.
 
It seems pretty basic and yet very few companies spend time on this important exercise. 
 
If you understand your client or prospective clients better, you increase your chances to attract the right people through all of your marketing assets.
 
Here are a few steps to get you started.
 
What Is a Buyer Persona?
 
A Buyer Persona is a semi-fictional character that you create based on real data collected from the market to better understand your target customer. 
 
A Buyer Persona offers insights to help you structure your offer and develop your marketing strategy and tactics. It often includes essential elements about demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals. 
 
You will have a greater chance of understanding how to adjust your marketing strategy with a more detailed Buyer Persona. 
 
Any business, small or large, can benefit from this foundational activity. Based on your data collection, start with a list of characteristics of your current customers and go from there. 
 
You can have as few as one Buyer Persona to as many as 10-20. It all depends on the market you target and what you are trying to offer.
 
Where to Start?
 
1)   Dig into your current customer demographics and find data that unites them: Location, age, gender, spending habits. Understand how different demographics consume your content. Find similarities and use them to begin the creation of your Buyer Persona.
 
2)   Survey current customers with online surveys or face-to-face conversations. The responses will help you gain better insight into their thinking process, behaviors, etc.
 
3)   Hold small focus groups with current customers. Let them speak frankly about your product and/or the purchasing process. Gather this feedback to help you create your Buyer Persona.
 
4)   Encourage your customers to recommend people from their network to use your product or service and give feedback.
 
5)   As you progress collecting input for your Buyer Persona, take the opportunity to establish your Negative Persona, typically by gathering the attributes of what should be excluded. A Negative Persona will be the type of Persona that should ultimately not be your target. 
 
Does this sound like marketing fluff? 
 
Well, it’s not. Even though it looks more complicated than it is, it is essential to do this exercise properly so you don’t spend money in the wrong places.
 
It may seem useless to create this semi-fictional character and go through this process. Keep in mind that larger corporations use this exercise to help focus their marketing campaigns. 
 
Why should your business not do the same?
 
Think in terms of budget control and how you can optimize your promotional campaigns.
 
Buyer Persona is an effective way to stop spending your marketing budget on the wrong people.  It is also useful to gain insight on how to keep your marketing and advertising laser-focused on the right people.
 
What to Expect from This?
 
Developing Buyer Persona allows you to create targeted content and focused messaging that appeals to your target audience. It is the most basic application of your Buyer Persona. 
 
Imagine the impact you could have if you can tailor and personalize your message for the different segments of your audience that you target.
 
Some Benefits from Using a Buyer Persona:
 
1)   Improve your overall Branding by aligning your brand and targeting your Buyer Persona.
 
2)   Change your content to speak directly to your Buyer Persona addressing their pain points.
 
3)   Re-allocate advertising dollars to focus on channels your Buyer Persona uses.
 
4)   Segment your email database and send targeted messages to those contacts who fit your Buyer Persona.
 
5)   Rearrange your social media personality to speak directly to your Buyer Persona using the most appropriate social media networks.
 
By creating a Buyer Persona, you can easily target your ideal customer and increase sales, saving precious marketing dollars in the meantime. 
 
What Now?
 
Get your team together and start the process. If this exercise seems too complicated, give us a call to walk you through it and help. Get in touch with us.