the marketing bit How To Create Buyer Personas for B2B or B2C

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1 the marketing bit How To Create Buyer Personas for B2B or B2C

2 AUTHOR PAGE: Sheila Hibbard I am President of the marketing bit and serve as your marketing guide online and off. As a seasoned marketing pro with over 35 years of hands-on experience in all things marketing, I help clients with marketing strategy, communications, research, public relations and social media. Feel free to connect, follow and friend! Or you can always feel free to me directly and you are always welcomed to visit the marketing bit for more marketing information. All rights reserved. Copyright 2012 Sheila Hibbard, the marketing bit, div. of H&V LLC Sheila, your marketing guide

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS What is a Buyer Persona?.. 1 Questions for B2B Personas. 3 Questions for B2C Personas.. 5 Getting Answers to Questions 7 Persona Description Persona Name Photo of Persona.. 10 Conclusion.. 11

4 CHAPTER 1: What is a Persona? A buyer persona is a marketing method that helps business owners narrow their focus and tailor all of their marketing efforts to meet a specific audience s wants and needs. In so doing, business owners increase their chances of success. For an excellent online example of B2B personas in action, your should review Forrester s website. It is a perfect example of how personas work in identifying a customer and in providing them exactly what they want and need. Page 1

5 How To Create A Persona Once someone selects a particular discipline (e.g. IT, Technology or Marketing), they are then presented with various titles that help further refine Forrester s product offering and allows the website visitor to select the role that best describes their function. Persona Profile Sample Persona page from Forrester s website This approach demonstrates the company s understanding of its audience, users and their needs. This is the same understanding you will have once you ve completed your Buyer Persona. Page 2

6 CHAPTER 2: Questions For B2B Personas In B2B (business-to-business), audiences vary widely. There is the Initiator, the Influencer, perhaps several Decision-makers, the actual Buyer, a variety of Users and the Gatekeeper. Each of these audiences have different wants, needs and criteria they use in selecting your product or service over someone else. You need to have a deep understanding of each of these unique audiences to achieve success. Page 3

7 How To Create A Persona For each audience, you want to flush out a profile, their attitudes and their role in the purchasing process. You also want to know what wants, concerns they have that can color the way they view your product or service. Here are a few questions to get you started. Feel free to tailor this list to fit your products and services. Profile Title, Time in the job Works directly with / Reports directly to Daily tasks and responsibilities Attitudes Likes/dislikes about job Frustrations, Pressures, Concerns Career Drivers, Motivations Relative to purchasing your offerings What is their role in buying process What problems or desire are they solving with your offerings? What rewards do they associate with the feeling of success? What could serve as a barriers to your offerings What is their buying process? What criteria do they use in their decision process? Page 4

8 CHAPTER 3: Questions for B2C Personas? Consumer product offerings vary widely and so do the Buyer Personas of each be it fashion, cars, food or shoes. Each has a different audience profile or persona and some products may have several personas. The better able a business owner is in describing the ideal customer persona, the more successful they will be in reaching and converting that person into a customer. Page 5

9 How To Create A Persona You ll see these questions are similar to B2B, but somewhat different. At the core, the motivations to purchase anything revolves around finding solutions to problems and satisfying wants either personal or business. Again, feel free to tailor this list to fit your unique products and services. Remember to answer these questions from the audience s perspective, not yours. Profile: Gender, Age, Education, Income, Size of Household, etc. Role in Family, Career Location (e.g. region, urban, rural, suburban) Most likely to read, watch, listen to Attitudes Frustrations, Pressures, Concerns Motivation in life Attitudes and usage of technology Religious and/or political affiliations Relative to purchasing your offerings What problems or desire are they solving with your offerings? What rewards do they associate with your offerings? What could serve as a barriers to purchasing your offerings? What is their buying process? What criteria do they use in their decision process? Page 6

10 CHAPTER 4: Getting Answers to Questions You have five options: How do I answer these questions? 1. Observe, Ask and Listen Identify a couple of customers who are most representative of your audience. Observe how they are making their purchasing decisions. Need more information? Ask and listen. Explain what you are doing and ask for their participation. They ll be flattered. 2. Online Slumming Google several representative customers to see which social media platforms they have joined, articles they ve written, associations they ve joined and collect information that way. You can also check the social media profiles of these customers for more information. 3. Let Logic & Data be your guide Lots of research is available online about who uses what. Find the good stuff and use it. Couple the data with your logic and your experience with the audience. 4. Intuition You already know a lot about your customers. You just need to spend the time to think about it and record your thoughts. 5. Brainstorm Get your staff engaged in thinking about your ideal customers. They ll have some great input. Page 7

11 CHAPTER 5: Persona Description What do I do once I answer all of the questions about my audience? Use all of the answers to craft an overall description of each audience. In the process, you may discover problems or barriers to purchasing your offerings that you ll need to address. Over time, you will need to refine your buyer personas. There may be aspects of your persona that are serving as barriers to your offerings or aspects you didn t realize enhanced your offerings. You need to add this additional knowledge to your Persona Description to keep it up-to-date. This is a natural part of the marketing process. Your buyer personas are dynamic. As your audiences attitudes shift so too should your understanding of them. Page 8

12 CHAPTER 6: Persona Name Now, you should name your persona. Why? Giving your persona this personal touch helps to make your persona real It identifies one individual for whom you do everything possible to reach, to and satisfy and to build a longterm relationship. Have some fun with this part. You can use an actor, a fictional character, a relative or a real person. You want a name that clearly and quickly communicates the key characteristics about your audience. Sister Teresa Lady Gaga Katie Couric Martha Stewart Betty White Uncle Charlie George Burns Charlie Sheen Bill Gates George Clooney Curious George Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man) Name Examples Page 9

13 CHAPTER 7: Photo of Persona Again, selecting a photo of your buyer persona helps to make this individual more real, more alive. This is the person you will think about when you re writing your communications, your blog posts or your ad copy. When you re thinking about enhancing your product offerings, you ll ask: Is this something Betty will appreciate? You ll know which media to use to reach Martha because you know where she hangs out online and what she likes to read. Select a photo you feel best depicts your personas. Page 10

14 CHAPTER 8: Conclusion Don t underestimate the value of Buyer Personas. It may seem simple on the surface, but this is a serious marketing exercise the Big Boys use to guide their marketing efforts. It is all about the lifeblood of your business your customers. Use it. Share it with your employees. Share it with your agency and vendors so they understand who you are servicing. Keep it updated. Attitudes shift. The marketplace will change. You need to keep on top of those changes. Let it guide your business decisions relative to promotions, advertising, social media, and even product development. You will find Buyer Personas to be an invaluable marketing tool. Page 11

15 FREE OFFERS Want more help? Need objective input? Use the link below to your Personas to me and I ll be happy to provide objective input no cost. And sign-up for the marketing bit weekly Marketing Action newsletter where I provide a lot of great information each and every week. FREE Persona Review Send Me Marketing Action Newsletter