What Is a Buyer Persona?

Who is your target audience and what is their name?

A buyer persona is a full profile of what your ideal customer look like; what they do for a living, where else they shop, and what their purchasing process look like.

For example, let’s say you own a brick-and-mortar pet supply store and run an e-commerce website for it as well, so obviously your customers are pet owners. Your buyer persona will help you identify their background information. Do you know what matters to them? Do you know their economic and household makeup? Do you know their level of education or what they do for a living?

It is also very likely that any company will have multiple personas that they sell to. And if we use the Pet Store example again, each pet category would require a different buyer persona as snake owners will have different needs and will respond differently to advertising than dog owners.

These profiles not only help your team develop marketing strategies that match their needs, but they also help with product development, create a roadmap as to when and how to launch new products, help your sales team become more authentic by being able to effectively address the needs of your consumers, and even how your accounting department creates a pleasant and efficient payment process.

Creating a buyer persona also helps to identify who is part of your Negative Buyer Persona. Your negative buyer persona is who you determine is NOT your ideal customer. This will be helpful to know how to avoid wasted efforts and resources from your marketing, sales, and customer service teams.

So how do we create these profiles?

One of the best ways to create a buyer persona is to complete a customer study that includes surveys and interviews. However, this may be overwhelming and expensive for a lot of companies. If interviews are not possible, there are several ways you can still create a demographic and psychographic profile from your current client database. The easiest way is to work with an agency, like DMS, that can help by running your current client database through their data tools to create a full profile report. A full customer profile report is over 20 pages that include all sorts of information about your top 3 buying personas!

With our buyer persona guides and in just 7 easy steps your marketing, sales, and customer success teams’ can create your personas and will have what they need to begin helping your customers in a bigger way.

1. Describe your target customer image and give them a name.
2. Elaborate on their demographic traits and what are their motivations and issues.
3. Describe their home, what roles they play, what are their motivations to look for your services, and what issues can your services solve.
4. Describe the business they work for or own.
5. What is their Career, what are the characteristics of their job, what are their motivations to look for your services, and what issues can your services solve?
6. Identify the type of multi-media they consume.
7. Identify the type of tools they use to communicate.

With these 7 steps and our buyer persona template, your teams will have a good understanding of your target audience. And once your Buyer Persona template has been organized with your audience data, your team can consider the marketing tactics you will want to use and write the content you will use to reach these people.

Why Are There Different Types of Buyer Personas?

While no two people are the same, building a marketing strategy can be a little more universal. However, depending on your product and service some templates fit better for some than others.

We prefer to use templates based on the end-user or the target user for the company, meaning the people who will ultimately purchase your product or service, whether they are a company or a consumer. Separating your Buyer Personas into these two distinctions is important as they allow you to help align the language you use, the pain points you can help address, and which types of marketing will be most effective.

For example, here are companies DMS works with, and one of our buyer personas for each of them.

Companies Targeting Companies

While no two people are the same, building a marketing strategy can be a little more universal. However, depending on your product and service some templates fit better for some than others.

• CBD and Marijuana Companies:
  • Demographic: Owners, CXO, Marketing Professionals
  • Business Profile: $3+ Million in annual revenue
  • Business Need: Increased in-store traffic at their brick-and-mortar stores
    Marketing Strategy: Email marketing, Linkedin, streaming podcasts, sponsored ads
  • Messaging: Case studies

• Automotive Companies:
  
  • Demographic: Owners, GM, Internet Manager, Marketing Professionals
  • Business Profile: United States, major manufacturer brand, minimum of 100 new and used vehicles in their inventory
  • Business Needs: Increase preorder sales
  • Marketing Strategy: Referrals, Facebook, and Streaming podcasts
  • Messaging: Referrals, Case studies, and Video content

Companies Targeting Consumers

• CBD and Marijuana Companies:
  • Demographic: 40 years +, Lives within 3 miles of a location that sells their product
  • Personal Needs: Looking for natural pain relief that will help them sleep at night
  • Marketing Strategy: Email marketing, TxtTkr, and Geofencing
  • Messaging: Discount with purchase.

• Automotive Companies:
  • Demographic: 700 Credit Score, $50,000 household income, in-market for a new SUV
  • Personal Needs: Family is growing and needs a bigger vehicle
  • Marketing Strategy: Facebook, Instagram, email marketing, SEM, and direct mail
  • Messaging: Highlighting safety features, size capabilities, and the latest in green technology

When reviewing the buyer personas above, you can see that each persona requires a unique opportunity for the company to be able to highlight their benefits in a manner and in the mediums that help to foster an authentic relationship between everyone. And by understanding the motives behind why someone is searching for your product or service you are able to craft your Facebook ad so it addresses those issues and provides the solution your potential consumer is looking for.

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