A Buyer Persona or Avatar is one of those confusing marketing things that seems to be really important, but no one ever explains why or how you can make one. Buyer Personas are especially valuable in this digital age where you can’t see your customers. They can help make your digital presence and marketing more personal.
It’s a lot easier to market to one single person than to a crowd. We’ve talked in the past about social media (and email) feels like a personal one-on-one conversation between brand and consumer. Building a buyer persona connects with that thinking. Therefore, having a buyer persona helps you to hone in on who you are reaching and who you want to reach.
What are Buyer Personas or Avatars?
In the simplest terms, a buyer persona is exemplification of all of your customers. The most common way to do this is to create a fictional person that has the most common demographics and interests of your customers. Ask yourself: What are your customers common denominators? What do they want? What are their pain points? Once you have this information, it can be combined into a person you can picture makes it easier to connect with the crowd. Also a lot of marketers recommend giving your buyer personas names. When you name your persona, it helps you picture them and makes the whole process more fun. 😉
Jim Edwards from Funnel Scripts explains buyer personas as the main character in the story of your company’s customer journey. Although your company already has its own personality, (or brand) in order to success the narrative you’re telling haws to focus on what the customer wants and needs. You are there to help them get to where they want to go. Jim Edwards example buyer persona was for a weight loss company. Their buyer persona is a middle-aged unicorn named Fred who needs to lose weight if he wants to be successful at his quests. Fred is the main character in the story. The weight-loss company is there to help him.
What information do you need to create a buyer persona?
Like any good main character, your buyer persona needs to be well rounded. It needs to have a purpose, interests, goals, and struggles. It’s especially important to know what motivates them so you can help them.
Here’s some common buyer persona attributes.
- What are their basic demographics?
What gender to they identify as? How old are they? Where do they live? What is their relationship status? Are they educated? - What do they do for work?
What’s their job title and description? But more than that, are they a decision maker? What do they influence at work? - What are their interests?
Do they have hobbies or interests? What do they do in their free time? Are they part of a community? - What do they want and why can’t they have?
This a big thing for figuring out what you can do to help them! What are their goals and dreams? What are their pain points? Like, what keeps them up at night? - Why wouldn’t they buy from you?
What’s stopping them from buying from you? What objections may they have? - What ways would they prefer to interact with you?
Do they use social media? Do like a particular social media? Is a phone call the best way to reach them?
Once you have that all that information, you will have a very clear image of who your customer is!
A lot of companies create multiple buyer personas. Which is a very good way to segment out different sections of your business. It is also helpful to create a buyer persona for your ideal customer as well! You can take the information you’ve learned about your ideal customer and use it to go and get those customers.
Do you have a buyer persona for your business? And more importantly: what did you name them? 😜
