Before getting into the subject, you must know that the buyer persona refers to the ideal or archetypal customer. In essence, it consists of developing a profile that fits with a group of potential clients who have similar characteristics.
But, although the buyer person must coincide with a series of qualities that different individuals can have, it must not be abstract. The more specific our description, the better.
So why is it so important to define your buyer persona? It’s simple, in the sales funnel there are many types of prospects, and we lose most of them during the process.
Only a small part provides us with conversions that materialize in sales. The fundamental issue is that, if you have a well-defined buyer persona, the leads that most closely resemble him will be the ones most likely to buy. In a process of qualification of leads, they will receive a higher score, or at least allow to prioritize some leads over others.
How to define your buyer persona?
There are different ways to define your buyer personas, but it mainly consists of asking some questions about the type of customer we should address, and answering them.
The most certain way to do this is by conducting a small study among your customers, which you can carry out, for example, through surveys.
The questions that you can ask to draw the profile of your buyer persona may vary depending on the sector, your sales process, etc. Below I show you a model form so that you have an idea.
Buyer persona: Demographics
- Sex
- Age
- Education
- Civil status
- Purchasing power
Buyer persona: Personal profile
- What is his hobby?
- What does he need to be happy?
- How does he measure success?
- What people influence his life the most?
Buyer persona: Professional profile
- What is his position within the company?
- Does he have dependents?
- Who does he report to?
- What are his responsibilities in the company?
- What are his career goals?
Finally and after having answered all these questions, you can now develop the profile of your buyer persona with more clarity.
Why create a Buyer Persona?
The creation of a Buyer Persona is practically a fundamental step within a Digital Marketing strategy for results. We create the Buyer Persona to send the right message to the right individuals and thus generate greater chances of success.
Without a defined Buyer Persona, in some cases, your strategy may be lost and you are not in tune with your potential customers.
What is the difference between buyer persona and target audience?
It is common for there to be some confusion in the concepts, but there is one thing we can say for sure: Buyer Persona and target audience are not synonymous. Let’s go to a practical example:
Target audience: Men and women, 24 to 30 years old, single, graduated in architecture, with an average monthly income of $ 3,500,000 who plan to increase their professional training and like to travel.
Buyer persona: Pedro is 26 years old, a recently graduated and autonomous architect. He plans to develop professionally by doing a master’s degree abroad because he loves to travel, he is single and he always wanted to do an exchange. You are looking for an agency to help you find universities in Europe that accept foreign students.
At first glance, they may even sound very similar. But it is different to think of a Digital Marketing strategy directed to Pedro and not to a large target audience.
Also, if you think you’ve segmented very thoroughly, you don’t have to limit yourself to just one Buyer Person. It is common for businesses to have more than one defined Buyer Persona. But don’t overdo it. If just one can limit your audience too much, many can cause your strategy to lose focus.
