Any startup founder knows that customers are the key to success, which is why buyer personas are a critical part of marketing efforts. You need to understand what your average customers look like, what’s important to them, where they are, and how they might find you. Building buyer personas means digging into demographic data and anecdotal feedback as well as behavioral insights, which can be applied to use cases and real-life scenarios. Learn how to build buyer personas and use them to guide your overall marketing strategy. 

1. BUYER
PERSONAS
Ali Schwanke, Marketing Strategist
@alischwanke
SimpleStrat.com
Lincoln Startup Week

2. WHAT
• Fictitious representations of your ideal
customer.
• A composite sketch of a segment of your target
audience.
• A foundational element of your marketing
strategy
• Also called a “customer avatar”

3. KNOW THEM
BETTER THAN
THEY KNOW
THEMSELVES.

4. TONS OF
EXAMPLES
LIKE THIS
ONLINE

5. WHEN ONE BRAND KNEW ME BETTER
THAN I KNEW MYSELF.

6. EMPATHY
• Understanding what’s important to your
customers and potential customers.
• How they think & how they view the world
• What matters to them and why
• Goals, wants, needs
• How their lives work, habits & routines

7. MARKETING
• Product Creation
• Copywriting
• Content Marketing
• Sales
• Email Marketing
• Social & Paid Traffic

8. AN EXAMPLE OF A FRUSTRATION
TURNED INTO MARKETING VALUE

9. INCLUDES
• Demographic Data
• Values & Behavioral Insights
• Pain Points
• Anecdotal Feedback/Their Words
• Applied Use Cases/Real-life Scenarios

10. LET’S
BEGIN
BUILDING.

11. DEMOGRAPHICS
• Age
• Gender
• Income
• Education
• Roles
• Certifications
• Years of Experience
• Industry
• Anything you can
gather as fact

12. VALUES & INSIGHTS
• Values
• Job/role
responsibilities
• Motivations
• Habits
• Trusted sources
• Favorites/Hates
• Online communities
• What they read
• Goals
• Desires
• Buying triggers

13. PAIN POINTS
• Frustrations & Problems
• Objections & Obstacles
• Example:
• Looking for an energy bar that tastes
great and provides nutrients so I don’t
have to choke it down.

14. IN THEIR WORDS
• Develop a persona “phrase” or series of
phrases that are straight from their feedback
• Example:
• “I know there are a million websites I can
go to where I can learn Wordpress, but I
just need someone to do it for me.”

15. REAL LIFE
• How does this play out?
• How does your product enter into
their daily routines?
• When does this problem become
bad enough they go looking for a
solution?

16. EXAMPLE OF USE CASES AND REAL
LIFE SCENARIOS

17. HOW
• Surveys
• Interviews – individual & groups
• Observation – primary & secondary
• Online Tools* – Facebook, GA, GSC,
• Good old fashioned research
*Don’t confuse data with evidence. It tells the what, not the why.

18. THE END
(NOT REALLY)
Ali Schwanke, Marketing Strategist
@alischwanke
SimpleStrat.com
Lincoln Startup Week
Now the hard work begins!