Buyer Persona

What Is a Buyer Persona?

A buyer persona is an archetypal representation of who your ideal customer is. Typically, the buyer persona will be based on in-depth market research, so while the persona itself is a fictional character, it’s still grounded in reality.

For example, if your business sells yoga pants, you may have several buyer personas. One may be Jenny, a 26-year-old female who works in marketing and goes to the gym three times a week. Another persona could be Eileen, a 45-year-old stay-at-home mom who has three kids and shops at Whole Foods. Of course, your real buyer personas would be more in-depth, but they would follow this general idea.

Why Are Buyer Personas Important?

Buyer personas are important because they help guide a business’s marketing and sales activities. Without an idea of who you’re selling to, it will be hard to tailor your marketing messaging and make it effective.

For example, if you sell yoga pants but don’t have a clear buyer persona in mind, you could end up unintentionally directing your marketing materials towards the wrong demographic.

How to Create a Buyer Persona

Creating a buyer persona starts with doing in-depth research about your target market and your current customers. In many cases, you’ll want to start your persona by looking at who your current customers are – what trends can you pick out? What age do they tend to be? What gender?

You can also start developing a buyer persona by conducting surveys that ask specific questions that you want more information about. Of course, you can ask these questions when customers make purchases as well.

How to Use Buyer Personas

Buyer personas should serve as a guide to direct your sales and marketing efforts. So, if you’ve determined that one of your buyer personas is a 26-year-old woman named Jenny, try to conduct marketing campaigns that would realistically interest someone in that demographic. Similarly, you should use this persona for sales as well.

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