The Buyer and The Persona:

So you’ve just opened your business and are ready to start marketing. You’ve established your company’s design to your liking and product to perfection. You’re ready to get out there, and start selling, but where do you start? Before a product gets on the shelf, think about the type of store it’s going to be placed in… the type of person that shops at that store and the type of person that walks passed and moves along. The same way a store has it’s ideal customer base, is the same way you have to decide what type of buyer your product attracts and what type of buyer you want your product to attract. This is the basic concept behind finding your perfect “Buyer Persona”.

Creating a persona for your business helps you understand the consumer you are trying to engage, how you can support them better, and what brings sales. You spend less time receiving “No, thank you!” and more time focusing on “How can I get more information?” or “Sign me up!”.

Today, I’ve included some tips for you to help you get started on that persona.

Pro tips to creating the ideal “Buyer Persona”:

1) Weed out the stragglers. By this I mean, would you waste your time promoting your night club’s guest hip-hop DJ to your grandma who lives three states away and listens to gospel on Sundays? First step is to make a list of the type of person your service or product doesn’t attract and isn’t aiming for.

2) Now that you know your grandma can’t make it to show due to back problems, a long flight, and just generally not being into hip hop, visualize the difference in party-goers that are showing up for the event. Make an extensive list of what your potential consumer is (including age, where they live, what they do for a living, their behaviors etc.) and how you can improve an experience for your consumer through your service or product! This gives a more personalized experience for your customer making you more memorable in the long run!

3) Last but not least, is to continuously collect data. The strongest personas are typically a mix of quantifiable data, which you can get by tracking trends, patterns, demographics, and averages among your customers. If you are just starting out, you can always begin by reaching out to the public with surveys, interviews, product sample reviews, and much more!

While every brand or company is going to go about it slightly different, some basic information most companies are going to include and some questions you may to ask when creating the “perfect buyer persona” are the following:

• Background (What is their career, position, or family life like?)
• Demographics (Include information like gender, age, location, education, location)
• Identifiers (What is their demeanor? How do they prefer to Communicate?)
• Goals (What are their wants, needs, and desires?)
• Challenges (Are they any issues, annoyances, pain points, or pet peeves?)
• Opportunities (What can you do to make their life better?)
• Sales Objections (What makes them hesitate before buying?)
• Actual Quotes (Include data from surveys or interviews)

Creating a buyer persona for your company gives you a better understanding of your consumers, guiding you during the process of product development to the brand voice to the social channels you use.

Remember as your company begins to develop and progress, you may need to update your buyer persona periodically to stay up to date and best serve your clientele.