Understanding your target audience is pretty crucial to ensure that you communicate the right messages, in the right places, at the right time. A really effective way to get to grips with this is to create a buyer persona - a a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer. The strongest buyer personas are based on market research coupled with insights you gather from your actual customer base.
Buyer persona template
To help complete your buyer persona complete the following template as best you can. The more information you can include, the stronger your persona will be.
Background:
- Basic details about persona’s job role/job title
- Key information about the persona’s company
- Relevant background information such as education or hobbies
Demographics:
- Gender
- Age range
- Family status
- Income
- Location
Goals:
- Primary goals
- Secondary goals
Challenges:
- Primary challenges
- Secondary challenges
How you help:
- How you solve your persona’s challenges?
- How you help your persona achieve goals?
Objections:
- What are the most common objections your persona has to your sales approach?
Quotes:
- Include real quotes from your customers
When you have completed your buyer persona give it a name. We recently did this exercise with a client and came up with three buyer personas for their services - Ian, Piers and Alphonse! We even added representative photos to really bring the persona to life!
Once you've completed your buyer persona you will have a much clearer understanding of who you are marketing to and will be able to adapt your marketing messages and accordingly. Your marketing will be far more effective as a result.
If you'd like some help creating your buyer personas give us a call, we'd love to assist. It's great fun and very revealing.