Buyer personas are an important part of inbound marketing success, especially for sales and marketing departments. After all, the marketing team and the sales team both need to know who they’re marketing to and who they’re selling to. However, if you sit down to create your buyer personas, you might find yourself looking blankly at a white screen for a while, unsure where to begin.
Part A: Questions on Background
1. Give an overview of your personal demographics
Because demographic data is easy to get and begins to build a clearer, more personal image of your consumer, it’s an excellent spot to start creating your personas. Are they a couple? How much money do they make on a yearly basis as a family? What city do they call home? Is it a man or a woman? What are their ages? Do they have any kids?
2. Give an overview of your educational background
What was their educational background? What schools did they go to and what subjects did they study? Here’s where you should get particular. Better than “liberal arts college” is “Boston University.”
3. Describe your professional path
What happened to get them to where they are now? Did they major in a subject that is related to or dissimilar to their current position? Has their work path been quite typical, or did they make a career change from another field?
Part B: Questions on Company
4. Does your company work in a certain industry or industry?
The department in which your buyer persona works, or the service he or she personally delivers to his or her organization, are not the answers to this query. The type of service your buyer persona provides to their clients is their industry, and knowing this can help you quantify your company’s influence in the markets you’re targeting.
Depending on the issues your buyer persona is facing, it may be worthwhile to obtain information about the sectors that your client’s company serves, rather than just the service they provide.
If your customer provides environmental services, for example, their industry is exactly that: environmental services. However, if their principal customers are schools and hospitals, a good response to this question may be: They work in the environmental services industry for educational and medical clients.
5. How big is your company (in terms of sales and employees)?
When you’re creating the fields for your landing page forms, knowing facts about your persona’s firm, such as industry, size, number of employees, and other details, will come in handy.
Part C: Questions on Roles
6. What do you do for a living? What is your job title?
How long have they been in this position and with this title? Are they a one-person operation or do they supervise others?
7. To whom do you answer? To whom do you report?
The value you place on your buyer persona’s position and seniority level is obviously determined by the product or service you’re offering. If you’re a B2C firm, this information can simply be used to better grasp the complexities of your persona’s life.
If you’re a B2B organization, this information is much more important. Is your persona management or a director with a thorough understanding of the intricacies of your industry? They’ll need less training than someone starting off, who may need to consult with other decision-makers before making a purchase.
8. What criteria do you use to evaluate your work?
Which metric(s) is/are your persona in charge of? Every day, what figures, charts or waterfall graphs do they glance at? This can assist you to figure out what makes them successful and what concerns them when it comes to “reaching their statistics.”
9. Describe a normal day in your life
When do they arrive at work and when do they leave? When they’re at their most productive, what do they do? What does their “busy work” entail?
This should contain both work-related responsibilities as well as what happens during the day outside of work. Is it at work or at home that they spend the majority of their time? What place would they choose to be? What are their favorite pastimes? Who are the most important individuals in their lives? What type of automobile do they drive? What shows do they watch on TV? What are they wearing, anyway? Here’s where you can get personal.
10. Which talents are required to execute your job?
What would they say in a job description if they were employing someone to take their place and had to write one? What are the most important talents for this position, and how well does your persona perform in each of them? Where did they pick these abilities? Did they pick them up on the job, at a previous employer, or through a class?
What’s Next?
After you’ve completed this activity and answered any remaining questions about what makes your character tick, look through some stock photography to select an actual image to identify with your identity. This activity requires you to clarify an image of your target audience in the minds of everyone in your business, which will help you keep your messaging consistent.
Another important exercise is to practice identifying your buyer persona so that your communications may be tailored. How would you know you’re conversing with this character? Is it the title of their job? Is there something about the way they speak or carry on a conversation that appeals to you? What are their aches and pains? How did they come across your business? Your staff will be able to keep a constant voice that is nevertheless unique to each person they speak with once you’ve determined not only who your personas are, but also how to recognize them when you come across them.
Conclusion
The biggest plus with market research is staying on top of trends and of course – the market! If your vision is to beat your competition, market research should be at the top of your list and Maction can help you with that. Book a call with us today to explore what a market research partner can do for you.
