What is the definition of a Buyer Persona? Have you often heard this term, but still don’t know what exactly it is? If you have a business or are thinking of creating it, stay very attentive, because today you will know everything you need to direct all your actions just towards your potential buyers.

And, knowing how to guide our campaigns and, therefore, our Digital Marketing Plan to those who could be much more interested in our products and / or services, can save us more than a headache from the moment we start our idea. of business.

For this reason, I have prepared a complete guide where, in addition to revealing what the Buyer Persona is and the advantages of focusing our professional efforts on him / her, you will learn how to define it for your own project .

What Is The Buyer Persona?

The Buyer Persona is a semi-fictional representation of who would be the potential customer or ideal buyer of our business. In this case, we go beyond the demographics and needs that determine the target audience and make a much more specific and emotional definition, as if you were talking about a “real person.”

Many people often confuse this concept with the target or target audience , and although we can say that they have a certain similarity or, better said, that they complement each other, the Buyer Persona is more than just a set of demographic data with which to identify our public in general.

In a way, it is a bit like creating a character’s profile for a novel or movie, defining their personality and character according to their: behavior, tastes, motivations, routine, personal needs, level of education, profession, family or personal situation, etc.

We would thus form a person who, although fictitious, can very well represent any individual that we come across on a daily basis, and more importantly, a potential client of your company .

Let’s See a Practical Example of Buyer Persona

Let’s see a practical example of this concept, so that you can clarify yourself a bit more, since sometimes the dry definitions tend to be somewhat meaningless without something that illustrates it:

I present to you Carlos, an ideal client of our pastry business

Carlos is 39 years old and lives in my city, Barcelona. He has a degree in Business Administration and has had his own event organization business for 5 years. In addition to this, he is the father of two children of 6 and 9 years respectively, that is, a very busy person.

Usually, he doesn’t have much free time, although he tries to coordinate his professional and personal life with the help of his wife Carolina, who has a degree in Accounting and her partner in the events company.

Most of his free time on working days is reduced to brief moments of rest during his working hours, which he uses to browse his social networks, mainly LinkedIn and Instagram , where he also promotes his company.

ocial media marketing vector concept illustration, happy woman and men give like comment on Instagram,

Even at work, these two networks have become Networking platforms for Carlos, since he uses them to search for companies like mine, which he can subcontract for the events he organizes, this being the medium in which the first contact between him and my company.

It is seldom enough to enter Google, unless it is to search for something specific, and you prefer to learn what is necessary through quality professional training , signing up for courses, workshops, Online conferences and reading books on the subject.

He enjoys what he does, since his passion has always been organizing parties , even more than participating in them. But, to get a better service, Carlos needs the support of third parties for issues such as lighting, sound or catering, among others.

So, whenever you are looking to contract a service, you want that pastry business in question to be accessible, quality and have a wide variety of products or creative options.

Being so busy, you do not have the possibility to go find the order yourself or send someone, so you need the company you work with to have a delivery service available (and obviously this is efficient).

You also need a 24-hour customer service that can solve any problem that arises, because during the day of the event, if something goes wrong, you should be able to solve it almost immediately.

In short, this is Carlos, my Buyer Persona and a professional event organizer, who requires a confectionery catering service. In short, a semi-fictional representation of what could be my ideal client .

Is it possible to have more than one Buyer Persona?

The truth is that yes, in general there is no Buyer Persona limit , whether you have 1, 2, 4 or 8 different, there is no rule that restricts you, and that, depending on the type of business, these can vary as much as would your potential clients.

Therefore, it is impossible to encapsulate so many individuals in a single ” character “, for this reason, it is even recommended that you have more than one or two.

Why Is Creating A Buyer Persona So Important In A Marketing Strategy?

Practical example to understand what a Buyer Persona is

Since its use began, the segmentation of the target or target audience in Inbound Marketing has managed to give excellent results, due to these reasons:

»Focus our actions on potential clients

It allows us to focus our strategies on an audience that “presumably” is going to be interested in what we are offering, as I have previously mentioned.

The vast majority of companies that create their personalized Buyer Persona affirm that, year after year, they have discovered that the more we segment and the more specific we are, the more chances of success we will have by focusing our campaign.

This is precisely what this concept that concerns us today allows us to do: create a profile that is much more specific than our client or potential consumer would be.

»Achieve more conversions

By focusing our strategy on this potential client, we will undoubtedly have a better chance of turning an Internet user into a new client.

Therefore, we are not only creating an archetype of person, we are creating a base on which we are going to build our strategies , which is going to give us guidelines on how our actions have to develop, what message we want to give and even how to do it.

»More information about your consumers

During the creation process, which I will tell you about later, we usually carry out surveys, questions and interviews with our consumers.

This type of action generates a profit in the form of information about our consumers: what are their tastes, what are their needs, their problems, etc.

This will allow us to get closer to them and above all, to their specific needs.

»Know the platform in which they move the most

Have you ever wondered how to know if your next client is more than Facebook or to search for things on Google?

As I imagine yes, I will tell you that the creation of the Buyer Persona is the best way you have to know what digital media your potential clients are moving in, in order to work the different online advertising platforms.

By analyzing your current consumers and developing an archetype based on them, you can determine which is the medium where there are more possibilities to get a client.

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»Optimize your investment

I bet more than once you will have felt that the investment you made in any of your Digital Marketing strategies did not have the impact you expected, much less the desired results.

And it’s normal as this sector has a lot to do with the trial / error, still there is a way to minimize the damage.

What Differences Are There Between The Buyer Persona And The Target?

business manager businessman with graph data document calculator money vector graphic illustration

As I was saying, although they are not exactly the same, this term and the concept of the “target” basically complement each other.

However, they do have a very marked difference in terms of the approach we give to each one.

  • Throughout the article, you have already seen how the Buyer Persona offers a very specific description , which focuses much more on describing an ideal client in a more personal and emotional way, thus forming a  “Character or Avatar” who can represent or reflect our potential client.
  • In the case of the target, on the other hand, this is different, although not opposite, and is that it focuses on analyzing demographic, sociocultural data and the behavior of a more general public , from a collective and much more superficial perspective than in the Buyer Persona case.

As you can see, although there is a difference, both complement each other, because you will understand that our “Buyer” will be within the individuals that present the parameters defined in our target.

How To Create The Buyer Persona Of My Business Step By Step?

Now is the time to teach you how to create your own and for your business step by step. Do not worry if it is the first time you do it, as it is a process that, while it may be a bit long and complex, is far from impossible.

And if you do it calmly following the steps that I will give you, you will see that it can be a quite fun process with which you will learn a lot about your consumers and potential clients.

1. Collect data

We enter the first stage of creation, and perhaps the most important stage: data collection , since the data we are going to extract are what will allow us to determine which are our potential clients.

There is a lot of data that you can collect, and in general, the more data you collect the better, so it is recommended to extract all the information that you have stored in your databases, SWOT analysis , market studies, surveys carried out and others.

Among the essential data that you will need are:

  • Demographic and geographic data

Factors such as age, sex, family status, what their income is, what they work for, etc. would enter this field.

More or less like the analysis you read above in the Buyer Persona example.

  • Sociocultural data

Sociocultural data is also important, as it will help you get an idea of ​​what the data may be based on the information you get from your existing consumers and leads.

This information is usually: beliefs, social status, customs, languages and even the own values ​​that your consumers possess.

  • Digital Profile

In it you must collect the behavior that your consumers have on the Internet, how they distribute their time, what media they use, what preferred social networks they have access to, how and why they use social networks, how active they are on the Internet, and other data that you can access.

In this part you will also need to append information about the visits you receive, where your web traffic comes from , in which media your brand receives more attention, what is the average time they interact on your website, among other data.

  • What are your needs and problems to which we can provide a solution

To create a Buyer Persona it is important that we succeed in identifying the existing needs and problems of our potential clients to whom we must provide a solution.

It is also recommended to include objectives and goals that your consumers may have.

There are many ways to get this information. Some of them are surveys, social media interactions, interviews, frequently asked questions, sales analysis and general market research.

2. Analyze and organize the collected data

The next step is basically to take the data you have collected and analyze it, for which you will have to organize the information you have accumulated point by point.

What places are they from, if the majority of your consumers are professionals or not, what are the networks they use the most, what are the demographics that are constantly repeated, etc.

All of this should be analyzed, organized and, if possible, I recommend that you create individual profiles with the help of the results that you obtain .

They don’t have to be very specific profiles, but rather as drafts of what your Buyer Persona could be.

3. Start creating your Buyer Persona, bring it to life

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Now that you have collected and analyzed all the data you will need, it is time to start creating the X-ray of your ideal client. This third step, although it is not as long as the previous ones, yes what is important, since it is where you are going to give it life.

To make it easier for you, you must go part by part, this way you will avoid getting confused as you create their profiles:

  • Identity

The first thing you will need is to give this person an identity , what do you need for it? A photo and a name.

Although they seem not to be essential, the photo and the name will help you give that semi-fictional person a face, as well as an identity.

Creating it and giving it this face is the first step to start and one of the most important, since it helps us to stick to it, helps us to feel empathy that, in the long run, will be transmitted even to our clients.

  • What segment of your audience does it belong to?

You already have an identity and a face with which to recognize it. Now you need to know who your Buyer Persona is and what segment of your target you belong to. To do this, you will need to specify their demographic and sociocultural data :

Where it is? How old are you? Is it male or female? What is your sexual orientation? Has family? Are you married or single? Do you practice any religion? He is professional?

  • What is its history?

Make him a biography , in which you don’t have to specify dates if you don’t want to. Just take a tour of her life:

    • How has it been?
    • How I grew up?
    • Where did you grow up?
    • How was your relationship with your parents?
    • How have you gotten to where you are today?

And more importantly: how did you find your company? What related it to her and how has this relationship been?

This part is important, because it is our history that makes us what we are today, and that helps us define our personality and how we act according to circumstances.

  • Create your job and professional profile

In this part you will focus on merely professional aspects , such as:

    • What specializations have you done?
    • Do you like constantly updating yourself in your professional area?
    • Where do you work? Are you self-employed or work for a company?
    • How is it in your work? Do you have goals or objectives in your career?
    • What is most difficult about your job?
    • How much money does he make?

All this should be added to your notes. It is also recommended that you enter data such as things you like or dislike about your job or that you would change about it.

  • How is it on a personal level?

After finishing your job profile, it ‘s time to focus on the personal :

    • Do you have a goal or objective that you want to achieve?
    • Do you want to learn an instrument?
    • What are your tastes?
    • He does not like? How do you carry your personal relationships?
    • What topics interest you? How do you distribute your free time?
    • These data will help you give life to your Buyer Persona , so that it is not just a conglomerate of other information in your database.

You will have passions, a personal life of your own and you will relate to other people. This is why you must be specific, since the more specific you are, the more real he is going to be.

  • What is your emotional and psychological state?

Continuing with their profiles, it is time to talk about their psychological profile .

This is where we usually analyze carefully what is his emotional and psychological state, what are his fears, what worries him, how he behaves in his day to day, if he is happy, if he has a problem at home, with what values has been formed, etc.

  • What do you do when you are on the Internet?

This part is very important for us, because it is what determines how our Buyer Persona behaves within the Internet , and this is something that is vital when creating our strategies.

Find out if you prefer to watch a video, listen to a podcast while in the car, or read information on a blog; Know how much time you spend on social networks, what are the social networks you use the most, what are your interests and what type of content do you consume, know if you prefer to buy on the Internet or go to a physical store after having informed yourself on the Internet.

All this information is what guides us when creating our digital marketing campaigns , since we precisely create our strategies based on our Buyer Persona and their customs on the Internet.

  • How is their relationship with your company or brand?

To finish, you must specify how your Buyer’s relationship is with your company or brand , that is, answer questions such as:

    • How did you find out about your product or service?
    • Have you ever bought it?
    • Do you feel that he shows interest in your brand?
    • Do you think that I would be able to recommend you to a family member, friend or colleague?
    • What doubts do you have? Do you know what has prevented you from making a purchase?
    • Do you have a complaint or have you had a bad experience?

Conclusion

As a finishing touch, I advise you, when you are doing your own Buyer Persona analysis, to reflect all the information I have given you in a template, in whatever format it may be.

In this way, you will take a control of the “x-ray” carried out on your ideal client, to get an idea as exact as possible of how to accommodate your product or service to him / her.

Source: josefacchin.com