Why creating buyer personas is so important to a new business

A "buyer persona" is a partially fictitious depiction of your target audience. This is based on market research and accurate data about your existing customers.

When you create your buyer persona, you give it an imaginary identity and create "the character". The more you refine this character, the more likely you are to define your target. You should include information such as name and age, demographic data, patterns of behaviour, motivations and interests.

Buyer personas will give your new business a very valuable structure. They'll help focus your time and guide you in developing your products or services. As a result, you'll be able to attract visitors, entice prospects, convince leads, and convert them into customers.

So let's look in more detail at buyer personas and why they are vital to any new business.

What is a buyer persona?

Defining a buyer's personality is the cornerstone of any marketing and sales strategy. Your actions will be more successful if you can hone your buyer persona as precisely as possible.

If you know, for example, that your ideal clients tend to use LinkedIn as their social network, you need to focus on this social network and rule out others.

You might also know that your ideal customer loves productivity and stays up to date with several blogs on this topic. So, you could make the most of a guest blog opportunity and post so your ideal clients can get to know you.

On the other hand, defining your buyer personas means you can customise your marketing strategy for each. For example, you can issue different messages according to your buyer profiles instead of sending the same email to everyone on your database. That means you're adapting your content for each customer based on the information you've gathered about the different personas.

So, your marketing email will have two benefits: capturing your leads and segmenting them. By knowing exactly who to target, you can give your messages more impact and finer detail.

Why is defining a buyer persona so crucial?

Inbound marketing is a sophisticated and non-aggressive strategy. It's also focused on the customer. So, before you create a short-term campaign, you need to define your target audience and the people you want to attract.

Your goal is simply to attract potential customers – people who need your product or service. Consequently, it's essential that you do a good job and precisely define your buyer persona.

Watch this webinar to learn how to identify and connect with your ideal target audience:

How do I create a buyer persona?

You create your buyer persona through research, analysis and observing your current customers. This will help you understand the mindset of your potential customers and take the appropriate action to approach them.

Here are the three aspects to remember when creating a buyer persona:

Research

It's very important to keep in mind that your buyer persona must be based on market research rather than assumptions. Yes, research takes time, but if you make assumptions that later prove incorrect, you won't identify your ideal customers. So, make sure your research is thorough.

When carrying out research, you must ask questions about demographics, goals and challenges. Here are some examples:

• What's your position in the company?

• What's your role in the company?

• What industry does your company mainly do business in?

• What are your work objectives?

• What are the most critical challenges you face?

• Where will you go to get information?

• Do you use the internet to find new suppliers or customers?

• Do you use social networks to find new customers? If so, which ones?

The above questions are an indication of what to look for. Focus these on your industry and your current customers, then gather concrete answers. These interviews will help you understand your buyers' goals, behaviour and motivations.

People don't always find it easy to describe this on their own. Consequently, it's important to delve into the answers. Focus your questions on why your buyers behave in a specific way. The solutions will help you design a strong marketing strategy.

Identifying trends

The easiest way to carry out your research is to first interview your current and former customers. Your current customers will give you the feedback you need to build your personas. They've already bought your products or services, so you can ask them the following:

• What motivated them to choose your business rather than a competitor?

• How did they find out about you?

• How can you improve your products or services?

After several interviews, you'll notice similar answers. These responses are what we call trends.

Creating profiles

Once you've identified these profiles, all you need to do is collect the information and start creating your profiles. At the end of it, you should have a very clear idea of:

• who your potential customer is

• what their interests are

• what their work goals are

This is highly valuable information to create your marketing strategy and attract your ideal customers.

Buyer personas are essential for any new business. Indeed, they're the foundation on which any marketing and sales strategy is built. Distinct personas can mean the difference between generating sales or losing them.

Relevant resources

• Buyer personas: A guide to reaching your target customers

• Target customers: How to identify your small business's target audience

• Lunch and Learn: How small businesses can create buyer personas