Who is your ideal customer? Have you taken the time to think about it? You should. Businesses who don’t pinpoint their buyers are losing big in the online marketing game.
Creating buyer personas can help you identify your ideal customers in order to sell directly to them. What is a buyer persona? By definition, it’s a description of the specific person most likely to need and want what you have. The “imaginary friend” of the marketing world, so to speak.
Describing this person is key to marketing success. When done correctly, the process of determining your buyer persona targets only interested consumers. It eliminates time and effort spent chasing people who don’t want to be bothered. With your buyer persona in place you can create a content plan and marketing strategy that offers greater return for dollars spent.
Why Do Buyer Personas Matter?
Shrinking marketing budgets mean one thing—now more than ever, it’s critical for businesses to efficiently and effectively connect with customers. With buyer personas, you’ll be able to address the exact needs of your audience in order to trigger the desired response from them.
Developing your buyer persona involves asking the right questions, and using the answers to improve your conversion rate:
1. What are your buyer’s responsibilities? Do they relate to your products or services? How?
2. What are your buyer’s challenges? How can your product/service address him?
3. What is important to your buyer’s success? How can your product/services help her achieve success?
4. What has kept your buyer from purchasing your product/service in the past? How can you prevent this from happening in the future?
5. What is your buyer’s background? What is his age and level or education? Does your product/service appeal to his demographic?
6. How does your buyer gather information? Does she attend trade shows? Is she active on social media?
7. What is your buyer risking by purchasing your product/service? What could a potential failure mean for the buyer?
The picture of your ideal customer will come into focus when you start to see him as a human being with specific needs, wants and goals. Only by targeting this buyer will you be able to use your marketing resources efficiently and effectively, to gain more sales for less investment of time, money and human resources.
After all, if you’re marketing to everyone, then you’re pretty much marketing to no one.
