Buyer personas are a useful tool to have in any marketer’s toolbox, as they help you understand your customers better. However, many marketers don’t know how to develop a buyer persona or even how to get started.
This article will provide you with an overview of what a buyer persona is, and outline the basic steps needed to develop a buyer persona.
Are you struggling to create content that engages your audience? Content marketing success relies on your ability to understand and target the customer context. This guide helps you do just that.
Are you struggling to create content that engages your audience? Content marketing success relies on your ability to understand and target the customer context. This guide helps you do just that.
Many small business owners confuse the disciplines of Sales and Marketing, in this presentation, we look at how they differ, and why companies should align both.
Affiliate marketing offers a flexible approach as well as a cost-effective method to promote your brand and generate new leads. It also lessens the amount of money wasted on advertisements.
Introducing Affiliate Marketing Master Plan - Cash in Now on Passive Income Success. In here you will discover the topics about affiliate marketing intro, affiliate marketers survival tips, what are these three tactics, how to become a super affiliate, affiliate programs and which one to choose, which networks to choose, why participate in an affiliate program, easy profits using PPC in your biz, using recommended products to increase bottom line profit, using Camtasia video to generate more clicks, boost commissions overnight and avoiding common affiliate mistakes.
Today small businesses are facing a number of unique challenges when trying to grow business.
From shorter attention spans, higher expectations, and a need for instant gratification amongst customers ― even down to market clutter from the waves rising competition.
Here's a few big tips every small business should know to help you rise to the challenge and grow business.
Are you considering building Buyer Personas and Journey Maps? In this comprehensive guide on how to research your Buyers, you'll learn:
- How to get started
- How to organize your research
- How much work is involved
- The best practices for Buyer Personas, Journey Maps and conducting interviews
The Seer Agency - Transformational Marketing eBookThe Seer Agency
Transformational Marketing - it's time to re-think tactical marketing planning and start bringing together insight, audience understanding, creativity, content and measurement.
Affiliate marketing master plan - cash in now in passive income success .inside this book, you will discover the topics about affiliate marketing intro, affiliate marketing survival tips.
The mergence of Marketing and eMarketing - Dan RoseCorporate College
Dan Rose, President of Precision Dialogue, discusses the mergence between traditional marketing and eMarketing at the eMarketing Techniques Series at Corporate College. Brought to you by the Key Entrepreneur Development Center.
Introducing Affiliate Marketing Master Plan - Cash In Now on Passive Income Success. Inside this e book, you will discover the topics about affiliate marketing intro, affiliate marketers survival tips, what are these tree tactics, how to become a super affiliate , affiliate programs - which one do I chose, which networks to choose, why participate in an affiliate program, easy profits using PPC in your biz, using recommended generate more clicks, boost commission overnight and avoiding common affiliate mistakes .
Introducing affiliate marketing master plan cash in now passive income success. Inside the book, you will discover topics about affiliate marketing, how to become success in marketing and many more.
Customer Journey Maps and Buyer PersonasGoodbuzz Inc.
Today’s buyers have more ways to interact with businesses than ever, but this increase in communication channels and platforms doesn’t necessarily translate to a positive customer experience: Only 22 percent of consumers say the average retailer understands them as an individual, and only 21 percent say the communications they receive from the average retailer are “usually relevant.”
Many small business owners confuse the disciplines of Sales and Marketing, in this presentation, we look at how they differ, and why companies should align both.
Affiliate marketing offers a flexible approach as well as a cost-effective method to promote your brand and generate new leads. It also lessens the amount of money wasted on advertisements.
Introducing Affiliate Marketing Master Plan - Cash in Now on Passive Income Success. In here you will discover the topics about affiliate marketing intro, affiliate marketers survival tips, what are these three tactics, how to become a super affiliate, affiliate programs and which one to choose, which networks to choose, why participate in an affiliate program, easy profits using PPC in your biz, using recommended products to increase bottom line profit, using Camtasia video to generate more clicks, boost commissions overnight and avoiding common affiliate mistakes.
Today small businesses are facing a number of unique challenges when trying to grow business.
From shorter attention spans, higher expectations, and a need for instant gratification amongst customers ― even down to market clutter from the waves rising competition.
Here's a few big tips every small business should know to help you rise to the challenge and grow business.
Are you considering building Buyer Personas and Journey Maps? In this comprehensive guide on how to research your Buyers, you'll learn:
- How to get started
- How to organize your research
- How much work is involved
- The best practices for Buyer Personas, Journey Maps and conducting interviews
The Seer Agency - Transformational Marketing eBookThe Seer Agency
Transformational Marketing - it's time to re-think tactical marketing planning and start bringing together insight, audience understanding, creativity, content and measurement.
Affiliate marketing master plan - cash in now in passive income success .inside this book, you will discover the topics about affiliate marketing intro, affiliate marketing survival tips.
The mergence of Marketing and eMarketing - Dan RoseCorporate College
Dan Rose, President of Precision Dialogue, discusses the mergence between traditional marketing and eMarketing at the eMarketing Techniques Series at Corporate College. Brought to you by the Key Entrepreneur Development Center.
Introducing Affiliate Marketing Master Plan - Cash In Now on Passive Income Success. Inside this e book, you will discover the topics about affiliate marketing intro, affiliate marketers survival tips, what are these tree tactics, how to become a super affiliate , affiliate programs - which one do I chose, which networks to choose, why participate in an affiliate program, easy profits using PPC in your biz, using recommended generate more clicks, boost commission overnight and avoiding common affiliate mistakes .
Introducing affiliate marketing master plan cash in now passive income success. Inside the book, you will discover topics about affiliate marketing, how to become success in marketing and many more.
Customer Journey Maps and Buyer PersonasGoodbuzz Inc.
Today’s buyers have more ways to interact with businesses than ever, but this increase in communication channels and platforms doesn’t necessarily translate to a positive customer experience: Only 22 percent of consumers say the average retailer understands them as an individual, and only 21 percent say the communications they receive from the average retailer are “usually relevant.”
RiseFuel's Beginners Guide to Inbound MarketingTony Shannon
By now, we've all heard how valuable—even essential—inbound marketing can be for growing sales and finding new customers. Whether your current sentiment leans more toward enthusiasm or trepidation, there's no way around the fact that inbound marketing is far more complex field than it first seems.
Diving in without a sense for what it's like can be overwhelming, and building a marketing strategy that provides real value takes both savvy and hard work, but fear not—we're here to help!
The term “buyer persona” refers to an all-inclusive representation of a group of people’s psychographics, demographics, requirements, and irritants. You can use the buyer persona you create for marketing purposes and unearth previously unknown details about your customers. Since you’re planning to move your business online, you have to contemplate the necessity of buyer personas.
Source: https://www.moontechnolabs.com/blog/create-buyer-persona-to-your-grocery-business-to-beat-your-competitors/
Using Growth Hacking & Inbound Marketing To Grow On A BudgetKennedy Andersson AB
Low cost & high impact inbound marketing can ignite growth on a limited budget, if you a start-up or feel like giving-up there are opportunities with a comprehensive inbound marketing program to grow your leads and business.
The idea of this presentation is to create a current snapshot of the ongoing development of the discipline of buyer persona modelling. As a consultant for customer centered marketing I do buyer persona interviews for clients and I personally believe, that persona modeling is an indispensible fundament of every kind of customer centered marketing no matter if it is outbound marketing oriented or inbound marketing focused. This presentation gives an expert view on "best practices" for buyer persona development, the insights are coming from an interview with the leading subject-matter experts for buyer persona modeling.
A quick presentation for startup teams willing to experiment with new marketing tools.
Teams who are trying to sell to B2B need to implement scalable ways to sell to their clients. Inbound Marketing is entirely based on content creation and allows team to create a process to generate more qualified leads.
In this presentation you'll find some explanation on how to implement inbound quickly and what are the needs for your team.
My name is Aziz Morsly - you can contact me @azizmorsly
Over the years B2B marketing has evolved and it has become more difficult to attract, engage and convert your target audience using digital.
How do you ensure that you build a solid B2B marketing plan that converts in 2023?
On Monday, February 6th, 2023, our Key Account Manager, Onyinye Chukwudi talked through the significant changes we have seen in the role digital marketing plays in your B2B marketing strategy in her Lunch and Learn Session titled - “The Essential Guide To B2B Marketing in 2023.”
Watch the replay of this insightful session with our Key Account Manager.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Kindly drop your questions in the comment section if you have any, we will attend to them swiftly.
Generative AI, aka tools like ChatGPT and Google Bard, are the latest shiny object in the tech space. As such, they’re getting a lot of attention right now, so the potential exists for a lot of great ways to use them. This article will discuss one area, marketing, and how marketing professionals might be able to use generative AI technology in their jobs.
Why All Marketers Should Work in Sales (part 1 of 2)Richard Hatheway
In the first part of this article I discuss how marketing has a visibility and credibility problem – they’re not seen as critical to business success and the results they present often don’t reflect business relevance. Due to this, marketing is primarily viewed as a support function to sales.
Everyone in business – and in marketing especially – knows that you need to have a value proposition (aka, value prop). But yet, no one really seems to know why, it’s just one of those things that if you’re in business, you’re supposed to have.
What’s worse, many marketers don’t know what a value prop should include or how to develop one. In Part 2 of this blog, we’ll explain how to quickly and easily craft an effective value proposition.
Everyone in business – and in marketing especially – knows that you need to have a value proposition (aka, value prop). But yet, no one really seems to know why; it’s just one of those things that if you’re in business, you’re supposed to have.
This blog will explain what a value prop is and why you need one.
Marketing, like any other aspect of business, requires careful planning to be effective. However, depending on the type of business, there are many different types and styles of marketing, ranging from traditional marketing to digital marketing that can be used to help a business grow. However, regardless of the type of marketing used, there are several basic steps that must be followed in order for it to be successful.
This blog will briefly highlight the basic steps that all marketers should follow before beginning development of any marketing activity.
In the COVID-19-influenced world, a company’s digital presence is typically the first thing a customer turns to or discovers when they seek information about your products or services. That’s why the use of digital marketing is critical to business success. This article will provide an introduction to what digital marketing is, some items to consider when developing a digital marketing strategy, and some of the different digital marketing channels that are available for you to use.
Within the world of marketing there are numerous areas of specialization. One of the most critical, and often one of the most confusing and least understood, is Product Marketing. This blog will help you quickly and easily understand what product marketing does, where product marketing is located within the organization, and why product marketing provides such a critical marketing function.
Recruiters & Hiring Managers: Remember Professional Courtesy in the Hiring Pr...Richard Hatheway
This blog is addressed to all Hiring Managers, Recruiters, HR personnel and anyone else involved in the job screening and interviewing process. It addresses the lack of professional courtesy that many job seekers experience on a regular basis. It also explains several very good reasons (that are often forgotten or overlooked) why the hiring manager (et al) should act more professionally and follow up with candidates that they've spoken with about potential jobs.
Sales enablement and content marketing are both critical components of any effective marketing strategy. But they’re often viewed as completely separate functions that are done independently of one another. The reality though, is that for them to be most effective, they need to work together.
This blog will provide an overview of both to help you understand the value of using them together in your business.
Marketing is a business necessity, but should marketing be done during times of crisis? And if so, how?
This blog will provide you with a few ideas and Do’s and Don’ts to consider.
The Realities of Implementing a Remote WorkforceRichard Hatheway
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses large and small are stating they're encouraging their employees to work remotely, but have they considered what needs to be done to make that happen? This article highlights several areas across the business that need to be considered in order for remote working to be effective.
Remote Employees - Are They Right For Your BusinessRichard Hatheway
Employers are beginning to realize that the COVID-19 virus will not only impact their business operations today, but it will also continue to impact them into the foreseeable future. Due to this, the standard employer-employee business model needs to change and new options, such as remote workers, need to be considered.
This blog provides a few things for businesses to consider about using remote employees.
Companies today take many approaches when it comes to growing their business and marketing their products, but there are two primary forms that most of the others can be combined into: whether the business is Sales-driven or Marketing-driven. Knowing which approach your business uses helps you understand what needs to be done to get your product in front of potential customers.
This blog will provide a brief overview to help you understand the differences.
Sales and Marketing Alignment - The Secret to More RevenueRichard Hatheway
This article will explain what Sales and Marketing alignment is, explain the benefits of Sales and Marketing alignment, and provide best practices to help more fully align your Sales and Marketing departments.
The Complete Guide to Developing a Marketing BudgetRichard Hatheway
Marketing budgets are a business critical tool, as they help you determine what the costs will be for the various campaigns, programs and activities that the Marketing Department runs throughout the year. Unfortunately, most marketers don’t know how or where to begin creating a budget. While business courses in college may have touched on the subject, the reality is that most marketers learn how to develop a budget on the job, often through trial-and-error.
This blog will provide an overview and outline of the basic steps needed to develop a marketing budget from scratch.
It's Sales AND Marketing, NOT Sales OR MarketingRichard Hatheway
Sales and Marketing departments are critical, integral functions to businesses. As such, they need to work together to ensure that the desired outcome for both functions - sales - occurs. Unfortunately, that often does not happen.
Do you use Calls To Action (CTAs)? Do you know what a CTA is? This blog will give a quick, concise overview of what they are, how they can be used and why you really should be using them.
Monthly Social Media News Update May 2024Andy Lambert
TL;DR. These are the three themes that stood out to us over the course of last month.
1️⃣ Social media is becoming increasingly significant for brand discovery. Marketers are now understanding the impact of social and budgets are shifting accordingly.
2️⃣ Instagram’s new algorithm and latest guidance will help us maintain organic growth. Instagram continues to evolve, but Reels remains the most crucial tool for growth.
3️⃣ Collaboration will help us unlock growth. Who we work with will define how fast we grow. Meta continues to evolve their Creator Marketplace and now TikTok are beginning to push ‘collabs’ more too.
Digital Money Maker Club – von Gunnar Kessler digital.focsh890
Title One is a comprehensive examination of the impact of digital technologies on
modern society. In a world where technology continues to advance rapidly, this article delves into the nuances and complexities of the digital age, exploring Its implications across various sectors and aspects of life.
When most people in the industry talk about online or digital reputation management, what they're really saying is Google search and PPC. And it's usually reactive, left dealing with the aftermath of negative information published somewhere online. That's outdated. It leaves executives, organizations and other high-profile individuals at a high risk of a digital reputation attack that spans channels and tactics. But the tools needed to safeguard against an attack are more cybersecurity-oriented than most marketing and communications professionals can manage. Business leaders Leaders grasp the importance; 83% of executives place reputation in their top five areas of risk, yet only 23% are confident in their ability to address it. To succeed in 2024 and beyond, you need to turn online reputation on its axis and think like an attacker.
Key Takeaways:
- New framework for examining and safeguarding an online reputation
- Tools and techniques to keep you a step ahead
- Practical examples that demonstrate when to act, how to act and how to recover
In this presentation, Danny Leibrandt explains the impact of AI on SEO and what Google has been doing about it. Learn how to take your SEO game to the next level and win over Google with his new strategy anyone can use. Get actionable steps to rank your name, your business, and your clients on Google - the right way.
Key Takeaways:
1. Real content is king
2. Find ways to show EEAT
3. Repurpose across all platforms
Top 3 Ways to Align Sales and Marketing Teams for Rapid GrowthDemandbase
In this session, Demandbase’s Stephanie Quinn, Sr. Director of Integrated and Digital Marketing, Devin Rosenberg, Director of Sales, and Kevin Rooney, Senior Director of Sales Development will share how sales and marketing shapes their day-to-day and what key areas are needed for true alignment.
The session includes a brief history of the evolution of search before diving into the roles technology, content, and links play in developing a powerful SEO strategy in a world of Generative AI and social search. Discover how to optimize for TikTok searches, Google's Gemini, and Search Generative Experience while developing a powerful arsenal of tools and templates to help maximize the effectiveness of your SEO initiatives.
Key Takeaways:
Understand how search engines work
Be able to find out where your users search
Know what is required for each discipline of SEO
Feel confident creating an SEO Plan
Confidently measure SEO performance
Come learn how YOU can Animate and Illuminate the World with Generative AI's Explosive Power. Come sit in the driver's seat and learn to harness this great technology.
The digital marketing industry is changing faster than ever and those who don’t adapt with the times are losing market share. Where should marketers be focusing their efforts? What strategies are the experts seeing get the best results? Get up-to-speed with the latest industry insights, trends and predictions for the future in this panel discussion with some leading digital marketing experts.
SMM Cheap - No. 1 SMM panel in the worldsmmpanel567
Boost your social media marketing with our SMM Panel services offering SMM Cheap services! Get cost-effective services for your business and increase followers, likes, and engagement across all social media platforms. Get affordable services perfect for businesses and influencers looking to increase their social proof. See how cheap SMM strategies can help improve your social media presence and be a pro at the social media game.
It's another new era of digital and marketers are faced with making big bets on their digital strategy. If you are looking at modernizing your tech stack to support your digital evolution, there are a few can't miss (often overlooked) areas that should be part of every conversation. We'll cover setting your vision, avoiding siloes, adding a democratized approach to data strategy, localization, creating critical governance requirements and more. Attendees will walk away with actions they can take into initiatives they are running today and consider for the future.
In this presentation, Danny Leibrandt explains the impact of AI on SEO and what Google has been doing about it. Learn how to take your SEO game to the next level and win over Google with his new strategy anyone can use. Get actionable steps to rank your name, your business, and your clients on Google - the right way.
Key Takeaways:
1. Real content is king
2. Find ways to show EEAT
3. Repurpose across all platforms
Unleash the power of UK SEO with Brand Highlighters! Our guide delves into the unique search landscape of Britain, equipping you with targeted strategies to dominate UK search engine results. Discover local SEO tactics, keyword magic for UK audiences, and mobile optimization secrets. Get your website seen by the right people and propel your brand to the top of UK searches.
To learn more: https://brandhighlighters.co.uk/blog/top-seo-agencies-uk/
A.I. (artificial intelligence) platforms are popping up all the time, and many of them can and should be used to help grow your brand, increase your sales and decrease your marketing costs.In this presentation:We will review some of the best AI platforms that are available for you to use.We will interact with some of the platforms in real-time, so attendees can see how they work.We will also look at some current brands that are using AI to help them create marketing messages, saving them time and money in the process. Lastly, we will discuss the pros and cons of using AI in marketing & branding and have a lively conversation that includes comments from the audience.
Key Takeaways:
Attendees will learn about LLM platforms, like ChatGPT, and how they work, with preset examples and real time interactions with the platform. Attendees will learn about other AI platforms that are creating graphic design elements at the push of a button...pre-set examples and real-time interactions.Attendees will discuss the pros & cons of AI in marketing + branding and share their perspectives with one another. Attendees will learn about the cost savings and the time savings associated with using AI, should they choose to.
1. The Complete Guide to Buyer Persona Development
Overview
Buyer personas are a useful tool to have in any marketer’s toolbox, as they help you understand your
customers better. However, many marketers don’t know how to develop a buyer persona or even how to
get started.
This article will provide you with an overview of what a buyer persona is, and outline the basic steps
needed to develop a buyer persona.
Note: this blog focuses strictly on developing buyer personas for B2B, but most of these directions can be applied to B2C
persona creation as well.
Introduction
Developing a buyer persona, a.k.a., a marketing profile, is something that all marketers should know
how to do and all marketing organizations should be engaged in. Why? Because it helps you understand
your buyers and your customers better.
In today’s world there are so many ways to connect and engage with buyers, both in-person and in the
digital world that many marketers forget they must have an in-depth understanding of them prior to
beginning any marketing activity.
While that sounds obvious, the fact is that many marketers forget that step. Due to that, much of what is
created by marketing misses the mark when delivered, as it is not optimized for or relevant to the buyer.
This in turn creates problems for the business, as marketing is not delivering what is required to help
move the buyer through the various stages of the buying cycle.
This is where the creation of a buyer persona comes in.
The Who, What and Why of Buyer Personas
Before we begin developing a buyer persona, we need to understand a few basic facts:
Who
A buyer persona is a fictional character, developed by marketing, to represent the cumulative
characteristics and behaviors of a typical buyer at a company in the targeted audience for a product or
2. service. In other words, a buyer persona represents the average targeted buyer and his/her behaviors
and influences that a sales person might encounter.
What
A buyer persona is a tool used by marketing to drive greater in-depth understanding of the targeted
customers and the buyers who work for those companies. In short, it’s a compilation of all the research
that marketing has done about target markets, market opportunity, buying preferences, behaviors,
biases, etc., distilled into a representative fictional character. The persona can be created, modified, or
discarded as needed. Depending on the need, there may be one or more personas developed.
Why
A buyer persona is needed because it forces the marketer to develop a deeper knowledge and
understanding of the buyer’s motivations and behaviors. This enables the marketer to develop marketing
that optimizes how the product or service being sold is positioned. However, before developing a
persona, the marketer must do the necessary research across several areas.
The marketer has to not only understand the product or solution being sold, what it does, what
technology is used (if that information is relevant to the customer), and what the characteristics and
features are. He also has to understand the value and benefits that his product provides, what the
competitive products are (including pricing, positioning, features, capabilities), and how his product is
different/better than the competition.
Of course, that’s only the starting point. That level of detail is just the basic information that any marketer
must know and understand before beginning the development of any marketing activity.
The marketer then has to dive deep into the targeted customers to research, discover and understand
what their problems, issues, pain points, motivations and challenges are. He must know about the
customer’s industry, buying and approval cycles, and more. He must also know and understand what
the objections might be and how to respond to them, as well as all other factors that might influence a
buying decision. This includes additional items such as: what is the existing technology infrastructure,
are there issues with backwards compatibility, and are there any other technology issues. In short, the
marketer needs to know everything and anything that could affect or impact the purchase decision.
This depth and breadth of knowledge is part of the effective development of any marketing activity, so
that the desired outcome is achieved. It’s also critical to the development of a buyer persona.
How to Develop a Buyer Persona
This is where the real fun begins.
A buyer persona can be as superficial or as detailed as you make it; that choice is up to you. Just
remember that the more detailed the persona is, the more likely you are to use it, as it provides much
greater insight into the buyer’s motivations, biases and behaviors.
The key point to remember when developing a persona is that buyers are motivated by a business need.
More specifically, the buyer needs to make a purchase that will solve some sort of a problem that affects
or impacts the business.
The easiest way to illustrate that point is by recalling the old adage, “A customer doesn’t buy a drill
because he needs a drill, he buys a drill because he needs a hole.”
3. That motivation is what must be remembered when researching the characteristics to successfully
create a buyer persona. In the business world, buyers are not looking for your product or service
because they like your company. There is some sort of business issue or problem that your product or
service can solve for them. That’s the real reason for the purchase.
So how do I start?
Getting Started
If the target market for your product or service is segmented, you may find it useful to create more than
one buyer persona. This allows you to accurately reflect the different buyer behaviors and
characteristics of companies in the various segments of your target market. If market is not segmented,
you may need to only create one buyer persona.
When developing a buyer persona, it should represent as accurately as possible all of the various inputs
that are considered by or could influence the buyer when making a purchase decision. That’s also where
it gets a bit more complicated, as there are numerous factors that can affect that decision.
Regardless of how many personas you need to develop, begin the process by gathering the relevant
details that are representative of the targeted buyer. Depending on the product or service, you may
begin with basic demographic information, such as:
Industry
Location
Title
Job function
Age
What role does the person hold in the buying process
o Decision maker / Authorizer / Influencer
Is the person technology- or process-focused
From that point, you continue to broaden the scope of your research as needed.
You may also want to include personality traits (whether the buyer is detail-oriented, process-oriented,
focused on numbers, driven by cost, driven by saving money, wants the latest technology) or other
characteristics that help the persona become more reflective of the targeted buyer.
Note that a lot of the demographic information that is typically used in B2C customer persona
development (such as gender, income, education, whether they are married, whether they have kids,
how old the kids are, where they go to school, etc.) is not relevant in the B2B world. Those factors do
not impact the business buying process, so they are not typically included in the buyer persona
development process.
However, in the B2B sales cycle there are typically many more inputs and influences than there are in
B2C, so you may need to include additional information, such as:
Who makes the final purchase decision
What department is the person in
How many people use the product and are they all in the same department
How large is the department
Do all the people work in the same location or are they a distributed or remote organization
Is the person making the decision a people manager
4. What is that person’s focus area
Is the person a gatekeeper
What is the company type
What is the company size (personnel, revenue, locations)
What is the existing technology infrastructure
Are there any system or technology compatibility issues
What is the typical buying cycle
What are the typical approval and authorization processes and timelines
Does the customer follow a fiscal or calendar year
Where does the targeted customer typically go to do research
What social media channels do they use
What industry events do they attend
What publications do they read
What professional organizations do they belong to
And so forth…
It will take some time to gather this level of detail, but it will be worth it.
Developing the Buyer Persona
After you’ve done the necessary research and gathered all the information, then you can begin to
develop the buyer persona. This is done by incorporating as much information into the character as is
needed to accurately represent the typical targeted buyer for your product or service.
During the development of the buyer persona, many marketers find it useful to give their personas
names, as that helps them become more “real” and easy to understand and relate to when developing
marketing materials and activities.
It’s also helpful to remember that depending on the company, the buyer might or might not be in a
traditional Finance department or role. Instead, he might actually have a completely different function
and is responsible for making the purchase for his department. Because of that, the name chosen for
the persona should indicate the representative characteristics of that type of buyer to help you easily
remember them.
Here are a few examples of how this can be done, using some of the information that might have been
gathered:
Buyer Persona 1: Bernard the Buyer. Bernard is motivated by saving money, so price and cost
savings are both a huge influence on his buying decision. He tends to scrutinize every expense
very closely and is also a stickler for following the approval process. This means all justifications
for purchase must include an analysis of the selected product compared to the potential others, it
must be provided on the required form, every signature is required, every “i” dotted and every “t”
must be crossed before he will move the purchase requisition along to final approval. His
company uses a fiscal year that doesn’t align with the calendar year, so any purchase requests
that come to him in Q4 may, or may not, be approved as he may be involved in year-end closing
activities. Bernard is known as a gatekeeper, because he sees it as his responsibility to ensure
the company funds are spent wisely.
o This persona indicates that Bernard is an extremely detail-oriented individual. As he is
also a potential gatekeeper, he will take as much time as he believes he needs. Bernard
will require a lot of detail about the product being purchased, but not at the technical level.
The marketing materials he requires will provide information on costs, ROI estimates, how
fast the product will provide a productivity increase, etc.