When you’re a company who is marketing a commodity or selling a service, then buyer personas, or ‘avatars’, are extremely useful tools to work out exactly what kind of customer you’re looking for. We’re taking a closer look at what the buyer persona is, and how it can be useful for a company.
What is a buyer persona?
When we talk about buyer personas, it’s not always obvious what we mean. The buyer persona is a fictitious representation of the values, characteristics and behaviors of the ideal customer which companies look to attract when they sell their service or market their products. The avatars can very simple or quite complex, depending upon the type of quality you’re trying to explain. These personas are things which are usually common behaviours of the ideal person, as well as other qualities like their universal values and desires when it comes to the product. As well as this, it will tell you a good deal about the demographic of the people that you’re trying to sell to.
So why do we need buyer personas?
Buyer personas can be very helpful for understanding who it is you’re trying to market your services to. If you’re aware of the types of people that are going to be purchasing your goods, then you can also maximise how you market them as so to appeal to that demographic as much as possible. The avatars help you to understand your customer base and potential customers on a much deeper level, which means you can tailor your content, marketing strategies and services you offer to match the desires of a particular group of people.
So wait, how do I make a buyer persona?
To make an avatar, you should first look at the customers which you already have. You need to focus on the ones who are frequently using your services or buying multiple goods from you. This will give you a good indication of the types of people that you want to make your avatars. Once you know this, take the time to do your research and ask questions to your customers. What do they want to see more of? What did they find to be particularly engaging when you marketed the services to them to begin with? Communicating with them as much as possible will help you to be able to understand why they want to buy from you, and how you should tailor your services to get as many customers as possible.
Overall, the buyer persona is very useful for companies who want to establish exactly who their ideal customers are, and how they can best change their services as so to be as appealing as possible. Talking to your existing customers can be really helpful here, as it can help to provide a real testimonial from customers as to what they want from you as a company, so the avatars you do create can match that, and can then be used for cultivating the best possible service for customers.