What is a buyer persona and why is it important?
20th February 2023
Unlock the secrets of your target audience by creating a buyer persona
As a marketer, you know that targeting the right audience is crucial to develop effective marketing campaigns. But how can you work out who your target audience is? In a way which can help you dig into the minds of your audience? One of the most strategic ways is through creating a buyer persona.
What is a buyer persona? Why is it important?
A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of a target customer. Based on real and personal data, a buyer persona constructs a comprehensive profile that’s beneficial to your business.
When focusing on a buyer persona, you can design marketing, sales and product development specific to your intended audiences’ requirements and preferences.
How to create a buyer persona
- Start by digging deep into your customer data to learn as much as possible about your target market. Use surveys, focus groups, consumer interviews, social media monitoring, and website analytics to get this information. Your buyer personas will be more accurate and comprehensive the more data you have.
- Once you understand your target market, you can bring your buyer personas to life. View these personas as fictionalised characters who represent specific objectives, difficulties, and interests. Give your buyer personas names, backgrounds, and personalities. Ensure to include information about their motives, behaviour, and psychographics to make them accurate and relevant.
- Then, use simple terms to match your buyer personas’ behaviour and psychographics when labelling them. For instance, you might have a character called “The Innovator” who is constantly searching for the best goods or services or “The Solution Seeker” who is trying to find a solution to a specific issue.
- Sharing your buyer personas with your team is also crucial. Encourage feedback from your team members to refine and improve your personas, ensuring they accurately reflect the needs and preferences of your target audience.
How we used buyer personas to drive sales
When Aequus Construction, a BANES council-led commercial entity, came to us to help build a brand to push the sales of Kenysham’s riverside site, we knew we needed to develop a buyer persona to target.
After learning about the high-end residential scheme, we targeted young professionals looking to relocate to the Bath or Bristol area, looking for their first home. Once we had nailed the buyer persona, we could target them directly in advertisements, making advertisements more focused.
Here are some of the Facebook advertisements we created:
The project’s overall results were impressive, with 80% of apartments sold in the first 6 weeks of launch! Without creating a buyer persona, we wouldn’t have been able to target the right audience.
Conclusion
In summary, developing buyer personas is crucial to any successful marketing campaign. By thoroughly researching your target audience, creating accurate and relatable buyer personas, and continually refining and updating them based on new data, you can create highly targeted, personalised marketing campaigns that drive business growth and success.
So, begin now and witness the transformative impact that creating distinct and relatable buyer personas can have on your marketing strategies.
Get in touch if you want help elevating your marketing strategies to the next level, and see how we can help you.
Buyer personas are essential to any marketing strategy, customer experience included. But what else should you consider to optimise your customer experience strategy? Read our blog post to find out.
