Your business may seem to have everything it needs to be marketable; an appealing logo, attractive brand colors, and a dynamic product or service. Yet, you may still find it hard to attract clients. The key to attracting clients is knowing who you want to serve. This is where a buyer persona comes in.
A buyer persona will help you define exactly who it is you want to serve and help bring those people to your business.
Here is how to create a buyer persona for your business.
What is a buyer persona and why do you need one?
According to questionpro.com, a buyer persona is an imaginary person or character you create from market research, data, customer insight, and behaviors.
This is important because it helps you create marketing material around the type of clients or customers you want for your business. Have you ever seen an ad or Instagram post that you feel was written precisely for you? This is because that business created a buyer persona similar to your personality.
Benefits of creating a buyer persona
A buyer persona helps you present your business in front of people who are most likely going to buy from you. Without a buyer persona, you are trying to sell hot dogs to vegetarians. You end up trying to sell to people who aren’t interested in your product.
In addition, a buyer persona will provide insight into where your ideal clients spend time online or in the physical world. That way you’re not spending your time making Instagram reels when your ideal customers are on LinkedIn.
Lastly, a buyer persona will help you to identify your customers’ needs and wants. Most people make purchases to help them solve a problem or to satisfy an emotional desire. If you can identify those desires and problems, you increase your chances of people wanting to buy from you.
How to create a buyer persona
There is a ton of information on the internet about creating a buyer persona and some of it may seem overwhelming. Here is how you can create one in five simple steps.
Identify demographics
What is the age, income level, gender, and education of the people you want to serve? You can also include professions, hobbies, and general interests.
Zero in on their behaviors
Where do they spend most of their time online? What publications do they like to read? What are their buying habits? What podcasts or shows do they watch?
Identify their challenges
This is a crucial aspect, and it’s important to identify their pain points. What challenges are they facing? If you are a makeup artist, what are some of the challenges people face when looking for a makeup artist for their event? What mistakes do people make when applying foundation?
How you can help
Identify how your product would solve their problems or make their life easier. It doesn’t matter how shiny, advanced, or fancy your product or service is, it needs to have an emotional connection to your audience. For instance, does your product, make their lives easier, make them more money, or even help them show off for their coworkers and family?
Personalize the persona
Give the person a name. Focus on specific qualities or professionalism. This way when you are creating content, act as if you are writing or speaking to this exact person.
Once you have your persona, the key is to create marketing material that is focused on that particular person. Your newsletters, your blogs, and your social media posts should all targeted to that one person. This might seem counterproductive or that you are limited in your results, however, imagine this scenario.
You are a vegan pizza business and you are at a concert full of different people. If you had a chance to speak to everyone at the concert you wouldn’t just announce that you have pizza for everyone. Instead, you would specifically say that you offer vegan pizza to those that don’t eat meat. That way vegetarians and vegans will know to buy from you because you have what they are looking for.
