"Hello. My name is Paige and I’m an internet marketer who values relationship, organization, and checking off my to-do list while quickly sipping a cup of coffee, chasing a toddler, and checking Facebook…all while enjoying life’s demands as a writer, wife, and mom."
Wouldn’t it be great if when we met each other we’d have thought bubbles like this above our heads? We would know so much more about each other from our initial interactions. It would make our jobs easier too. How? Keep reading today’s internet marketing tips to find out. But first, answer this question:
You come in contact with a variety of people day in and day out, would you know your buyer personas if you met them?
Do you know who your buyer personas even are?
A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on real data and some select educated speculation about customer demographics, behavior, patterns, motivations, and goals. (Source: HubSpot)
What buyer personas ARE NOT:
It’s important to understand what buyer personas are not. They aren’t real people. They aren’t influenced by technology, but able to stand the test of time. Your buyer personas aren’t always in a professional role in your identified target markets either.
Instead, your buyer personas are a compilation of qualities that you would want in an ideal customer. It’s finding out their common behavior patterns, shared pain points – both professional and personal – and understanding their universal goals, wishes and dreams. (Source: HubSpot)
Where to find your buyer personas
So now that you know what a buyer persona is, you’re probably wondering how to nail down the information about them. Here are some suggestions for researching, questions to ask, and how to get started.
Learn about your current customers:
- Interview your current customers by setting up face-to-face meetings, focus groups, phone interviews, or even sending out questions via email.
- Survey your current customers.
- If you have a sales team, ask them to describe the people they are talking to.
Make sure you are asking detailed questions such as:
- What is your job role?
- What is a typical day like?
- What is the size of your company?
- In your role, what does it mean to be successful?
- What are your biggest challenges?
- Where do learn about new information?
- How do you prefer to interact with others? (in person, email, phone)
- What is your personal background? (age, family, marital status, education, likes & dislikes)
Now you’re ready to start building your buyer personas
Remember, you’ll have more than one buyer persona. You might have 4 or 5. You want to tell a story about each one. Consider building each one out like this, describing:
- Job and demographic information
- A day in the life
- Challenges or pain points
- Their source(s) of information
- Common objections to products or services
(Source: HubSpot)
For example:
Meet Virginia. She’s been working for a health care benefits provider for 15 years and has worked her way up from being a sales rep to being the VP of Business Development. She is comfortable with using the computer and with technology terms but would not describe herself as very tech-savvy. Virginia is responsible for every aspect of growing the company, a provider of tailored healthcare benefits for small to medium sized businesses. Like most executives, her days are spent meeting with people and helping equip them to be successful. While she loves working, as a wife and mother of two high school children, she is committed to ensuring that her job doesn’t become her life. She finds herself in a position that demands organization, attention to detail, clear goal setting and accountability. Despite her “job role,” Virginia‘s values are more relational and free flowing than they are methodical and planned.
Virginia is one example of five different buyer personas we’ve identified here at Half a Bubble Out as our dream customers.
How can buyer personas be used in your internet marketing strategy?
Everything you do or think about for your business should be done with your buyer personas in mind because it will bring alignment across your company and help you relate to customers. Internet marketing is based around the creation of valuable content that speaks to your buyer personas. This content can then be used in your overall strategy to:
- Write blog articles
- Create downloadable offers
- Design landing pages
- Implement email nurturing campaigns
In turn this will translate into you getting the right visits, leads and customers for your business.
So, if you were walking down the street, would you know if you passed your buyer personas? Maybe – maybe not. Most likely, you’d need some basic information about a person before knowing whether or not you would be a good fit for each other.
Building your buyer personas is setting yourself up for success by using internet marketing and only reaching out to the people that are your ideal customers to read your blog, visit your website, try your product or service, etc. In a sense you are having a virtual cup of coffee with someone who is truly interested in your company and someone who you are truly interested in becoming a customer.
If you'd like to find out how we can help you with your internet marketing, contact us! We never pass up a coffee break!
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