In Inbound Marketing, defining your Buyer Personas helps you better understand the concerns and needs of your customers (current and potential). This way, it is easier to offer your product or service as a solution, since you know how to help your Personas and provide value to them. In addition, it facilitates the task of creating relevant content and makes the choice of the channel/format more accurate.
Getting started with Buyer Personas
Buyer Personas are based upon real customer data (taken from your database), information provided by the sales and customer service team, and forms or interviews. You can also use market research to investigate your potential buyers.
In our post about the importance of segmenting Buyer Personas, we compare a Buyer Persona to a friend. This is because, when someone close to you has a problem or challenge, you are not only interested in knowing about it, but you also try to help however you can.
The same goes your customers. In traditional Marketing, segmentation was mainly based on demographic and geographical aspects. Although these elements are still relevant today, we need to take a more contemporary approach: Inbound Marketing. With the Inbound methodology, you should not only be interested in knowing what your customers need, but why they need it.
What are their motivations?
What series of events led them to purchase your product or service?
When collecting information on your Buyer Personas, you should not simply use generic questions; the key is to delve deeper and use "why" and "how" questions as your guide.
HubSpot, the leading platform in Inbound Marketing, recommends these Buyer Persona questions to guide you:
List of Buyer Persona Questions
1. Who?
- General Profile:Information about their current role, work, and family life.
- Demographic Information: Age, sex, geographic location, income.
- Unique Identifiers: How they express themselves, what vocabulary they use, their personality, preferred channel of communication/social media.
- Stage in the Buyer's Journey: What is the purpose of their visit to your website or blog? Read about the Buyer's Journey.
2. What?
- Objectives:What are their main objectives?
- Aspirations: What are their aspirations?
- What can we do to help them?: How can we help them achieve the previous two points successfully?
3. Why?
- Comments/Feedback: Examples of real feedback about their challenges and objectives. This information can be obtained through active listening by your commercial and customer service departments.
- Common Complaints: Reasons why they would not buy your product or service.
4. How?
- Marketing Message:Taking into account all the above, how would you describe the solution that your product or service offers to your Buyer Persona?
- Sales Message: How would you sell your solution to your Buyer Persona?
Finally, and taking into account the four types of Buyer Persona questions above, it is important to give a face and name to your Buyer Persona. It is a way of providing humanity and credibility, which is one of the basic principles on which Inbound Marketing is based.
To complete your Marketing Strategy with the best tactics, read this post. If you still have doubts about Buyer Personas or anything else in Inbound Marketing, contact us and we would be happy to have a conversation with you!
Alexandra Martín
Alexandra is a true Marketing enthusiast. Her aspirations inspired her to leave her native home in the Canary Islands and move to Madrid. She enjoys all the great cultural and professional offerings that this city holds. Alexandra also loves the sea, her dogs, and music.