Big brands often craft buyer personas so that they can clearly identify the types of people who will be purchasing their products or services. Unless you are selling electricity, there are generally a limited amount of consumers who will be interested in purchasing your products. For this reason it is a good idea to create buyer personas that clearly identify who your target demographic is so that you can always refer back to the types of people you are selling to.
Who are Your Consumers?
This question is the basis for forming the profiles for your buyer personas. Not every person who visits your website will be making a purchase or becoming a customer, therefore you should not waste time trying to create buyer personas for browsers. If you have been in business for a while, you can likely dig up enough demographic data about who is making purchases at your business so that you can create an effective buyer persona profile.
Think of the answers to the following demographic points for your buyer persona profiles:
Age: A consumer’s age can tell a lot about them, including what they may be interested in, what they relate to, and how they view purchasing decisions.
Gender: Gender, like age, can reveal a great deal about the consumer. For example, a doctor’s or dentist’s office would be wise to know that most of the purchasing decisions are done by women (and moms). Therefore it would make sense for them to target their marketing to this demographic.
Purchase Factors: Why do your consumers buy your products or services? Some products, like a cell phone for example, have varying purchase factors that might win over your customers. For example, apps might be most important for your buyers which is they might favor the Apple store over the Google Play store. Knowing what your customers use your product for will allow you to sell it or market it more effectively.
Income: A consumer who makes $100,000 a year is more likely to buy a luxury car than one who is making $30,000. Although this does not mean a consumer who makes $30K is not willing to pay the same monthly car payment as the person making $100K, it is more likely that your product is positioned to attract the wealthier client.
Education: How much education does your typical consumer have? A typical Pinterest user is a female with a college education or better. This is an important marketing factor for a company who is looking to target to this type of demographic.
Selling Points: The selling points of your product should cater to what your consumers think about when they are making a decision to buy. Consumers look at things like price, specifications, colors, functionality, customer service, reputation, reviews and more. Understanding why your product is chosen over the competitors is an important piece to the buyer persona that is essential for getting your marketing to succeed.
Buyer Persona Example
Take the company Dollar Shave Club for example, a monthly resource to buy razors online that are shipped directly to your door. They are reaching out to men, likely in the 22-35 age range, who are looking for a good shave but without the price tag that tends to come with the razors of the other major brands. These consumers are web savvy, appreciate convenience, and like the idea of having varying price points for the product. They aren’t interested in all the technology that is available in a razor, they just know they want a clean shave and don’t want to pay an arm and a leg to do so.
This buyer persona is brief, but is a good example of what a buyer persona is. You can of course get much more detailed and talk about your consumers other habits, other purchasing decisions they make, and how much you think they’d be willing to pay for more premium products.
To learn more about crafting buyer personas and how we can help your brand more effectively market online, contact Success Agency today.
-Drew Larison
