The Inbound Marketer's Template for Creating Buyer Personas

As a business owner or marketing manager, you know how important it is to understand and start creating buyer personas. However, you might be wondering how they're developed or even where to start. These are questions asked by many business owners and marketing managers every day.

If you ask your prospects the right questions, it's not difficult to define your buyer personas.

That's why we created this guide to outline the necessary elements of building your buyer personas. The information in this guide will allow you to quickly and easily break down the key characteristics and qualities to identify who your buyer personas are.

Background

Basic Details About Persona's Role

The little details about your prospects role or job title can be an indicator of the type of person who is visiting your website and buying from your company.  As a marketing company, our ideal prospects tend to be marketing managers or business owners who need help generating leads.

Consider:

• What is their role at the company?

• Are they a decision maker?

• What is their title?

• What knowledge and tools are used in their  job?

Key Information About the Persona's Company

Knowing where your ideal prospect works can determine if they are a good fit for your company. If you sell your product or service to companies that fit into a certain criteria, you want to ask questions that will determine how well they fit.

Consider:

• How large is the company? (Employees)

• How long have they worked there?

• Annual revenue?

Relevant Background Info

Understanding your ideal leads background can tell you how much disposable income they have based certain criteria. A person who loves kayaking or is single and loves to travel probably has a higher disposable income compared to someone who is married with four children.

Consider:

• What associations and social networks do they belong to?

• Educational background.

• Are they married?

• Do they have children?

• What are their hobbies and interests?

Demographics

 Gender

Who is buying your product or service? Does your ideal prospect tend to be male or female? Determining the gender of your prospects can also dictate how you market your product or service.

Age Range

Determining the age range of your ideal prospects can help you gain a better understanding of their interests and needs.

Consider:

• Younger, less established audience?

• More mature, financially stable audience?

Household Income

Understanding the average income of your customers will help you determine their social class, and as a result, how much money they have to spend.

Consider:

• Dual income

• Single income

• Single parents

Urbanicity

As a company it is important to know where your customers and prospects live. Their geographical location can play a significant role in the type of services and products they would be interested in. I mean ...would a person living in a city really need a lawn mower? 

Consider:

• Is your ideal prospect a homeowner in the suburbs?

• A renter in the city?

• A property owner in a rural area?

Identifiers

Are there certain characteristics or qualities that your ideal prospect possesses? Understanding their mannerisms can allow you to better target those prospects. No one wants to target the wrong audience.

Consider:

• What is their overall demeanor like? 

• What affects their buying behavior?

Goals

Persona’s Primary Goal

Everyone has goals, when selling a product or service to your ideal prospects, they most likely have similar goals they are trying to attain. As a marketing manager, a goal you might be trying to achieve is aligning your sales and marketing teams to promote more lead generation.

Consider:

• What are they responsible for?

• What does it mean to be successful in your role?

Persona’s Secondary Goal

Challenges

Challenge to Persona’s Success

As a company you want your product or service to help your prospects overcome any challenges they're facing. It is important to identify the challenges of your ideal prospect to learn how you can help overcome those challenges.

Consider:

• What are their biggest challenges?
  
  

• What is keeping them from being successful?

• What type of solutions are they looking for?

How We Help

How You Solve Your Persona’s Challenges

Once you know what challenges your prospects are facing, you can see how your product or service can solve those challenges.

Consider:

•  How does your product or service help address the challenges your prospects are facing? 

•  What can your service or product do that no other company offers?

How You Help Your Persona Achieve Goals and Challenges

Quotes

Understanding and developing your prospects pain points can make it easier for your employees and sales team to relate to and understand, helping them develop a better approach to finding a solution and improving their campaign.

Consider:

• What are some of their pain points?

• Why would they be hesitant to use your product or service?

• What are some of their past experiences?

Common Objections

Identify the Most Common Objections

When implementing a new product or service there could be common objections or even hesitation to committing to you, your company, and your product/service.

Consider:

• What are the most common objections your sales team hears?

• The questions and concerns found through social media and other avenues.

Marketing Message

Describe Your Solution

Your prospects want to know how your product or service can be a solution to their problem(s). You want to craft a marketing message that describes how your company can help them.

Consider:

• How would you describe your solution to your prospects?

Elevator Pitch

Create a Consistent Value Proposition

It is important to make sure that everyone in the company is describing your product(s) or service(s) as a solution to your customers problems that remains consistent.

Consider:

• Does everyone in your company follow the same value proposition?

• Are you providing the same value that is outlined in your value proposition?

Creating Buyer Personas

Start asking questions from your customers and prospects. Get more personal.

Conduct surveys. Crowdsource on social media in order to find out more about your ideal prospects.

Take whatever approach is needed to paint as detailed a picture as possible of your target audience. This will make both your marketing and sales teams job much easier and more targeted.