Professionals across industries agree that good marketing is a necessary element for the success of any business. It means in addition to figuring out what to say to the audience, when and how to say it is equally important. This makes it imperative for brands to understand their audience in order to craft a refined message and communicate it effectively, as well.
A research on consumer patterns reveals that over 61% of global internet users review products online before making their way through the purchase decision and engaging with a sales representative. The way customers want to connect with brands has evolved over the years. Moreover, with industries rapidly advancing, marketers are in a position to sell to the people they have never sold before.
That’s where buyer personas come in!
The process of creating buyer personas helps brands analyze trends, behaviors, patterns, and similarities amongst their target audience, which helps companies create marketing as well as sales strategy built around their objectives, everyday challenges, and/or other concerns.
Buyer personas are not just critical for business success but also for market segmentation. They enable companies to divide their customers into various groups. Knowing customers’ various motivations and purchasing habits will allow marketers to target different groups effectively.
In today’s digital era, brands and marketers must rely on ‘inbound marketing’ strategies to convert leads.
Creating Buyer Personas
While the information brands want to know for their target personas differs according to businesses and industries, some of the key insights will be the same. A concept called “5 Rings of Buying Insight,” serves as an excellent guide when determining what information is (and isn’t) required to know.
Priority Initiatives: What motivates some buyers to invest in new solutions and what distinguishes buyers who are content with the status quo?
Success Factors: What operational or personal outcomes does the target persona expect from this solution?
Perceived Barriers: What concerns make buyers believe that one solution or company is not the best option for them?
Buyer’s Journey: This insight reveals specifics about who and what influences buyers as they weigh their options and choose one.
Decision Criteria: Which aspects of competing products, services, solutions, or companies do buyers consider to be the most important, and what do they expect from each?
Relevance is Essential
When business owners simply guess the answers to target persona questions or even assume that they already know the correct answers, they frequently go astray. If the company begins its inbound marketing journey in the wrong direction (due to a faulty assumption), it will never arrive at its destination (good leads!).
Getting sucked into irrelevant information can also derail efforts. Demographic information (age, gender, location, socioeconomic status) is usually not very important when it comes to B2B products and services; it should only be considered if you know that this is material information. The answers to the questions in those five bullet points above contain the relevant information in the majority of inbound marketing scenarios.
Conclusion
There are good reasons why a company might need more than one target persona, but keep in mind that the goal is to narrow the focus, so don’t have too many. If marketers believe they have more than three key target personas, determine which two or three are the most valuable and concentrate efforts on them.
Faisal Abidi
