The 3 Keys for Developing Killer Buyer Personas

The following is an excerpt from IMPACT's ebook, "26 Ways to Generate More Inbound Customers in 2013." For more expert tips on developing accurate buyer personas to execute a more targeted marketing campaign, Generate More Inbound Customers in 2013">be sure to check out the full ebook. 

Do you know who your ideal prospect is and what their challenges, goals, and needs are? Where can you reach them?

Not only should you have a detailed picture of your target audience is, you should also know the personality traits of your prospects. What affects their purchasing decisions?

Personas are fictional representatives of your ideal prospects based on real data and information regarding customer demographics and online behavior.  So how exactly do you go about creating one?

3 Keys to Creating Profitable Buyer Personas

Segment by Demographics

Research your existing customer base in order to identify the most common buyers of your product or service.

You probably have several types of buyers, so be sure to create buyer personas for each of them. Create detailed descriptions about each buyer, including:

• Name

• Job title or role

• Industry or company information

• Demographic information

Identify their Needs

Based on the profiles you’ve created of each type of buyer, you can now work to outline their goals, needs, and challenges.

• What are their biggest challenges?

• What problems are they trying to solve?

• What information are they looking for?

• What current trends are influencing their success?

Develop Behavior-Based Profiles

The last step is developing a profile of each personas typical online behavior. Now that you know who they are and what their needs are, think about how they’re researching potential solutions.

Ask yourself what their online experience looks like.

• What do they do online? Read blogs? Download ebooks? Interact on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest? What search terms are they using to find solutions?

• What types of information do they consume online? Educational? News? Industry trends?

• What product or services are they spending the most time researching?

After completing this process, you should have a detailed description of your personas’ needs, demographics and behavior.

Continue reading the full ebook...