Buyer personas

What is a buyer persona?

A buyer persona is a detailed profile of an example buyer, that represents part of your target group. They are characters who mimic real customers, guiding you to create content & campaigns that your audience finds attractive. The more insights you have into your target audience, the more you can help your buyers. How? By creating buyer personas.

The reason to work with buyer personas

In B2B the buying process can be long and complex. The more you know about your target audience, the better you can address their needs and achieve more sales. 

Based on the insights of this buyer persona and its buyer journey you can develop your content and campaign. It will also help you make better decisions on investments, content promotion and the choice of channels.

Buyer personas serve as your B2B marketing compass. They allow you to understand your potential customers in depth. B2B marketing decisions often involve several individuals with distinct roles and perspectives. By crafting detailed buyer personas, you gain a clearer image of these players, learning about their specific needs, challenges, and decision triggers.

How to bring your personas to life? Let’s get started!

B2B marketing success starts with a genuine interest in your buyers. With insights and knowledge about them, you can better engage with your buyer and increase your pipeline. With a buyer persona, you have a better understanding about:

• What triggers them to buy
• What information your buyer needs
• What are the relevant contact moments
• Which success factors, goals and challenges the potential buyer has
• What are their challenges
• What questions do they have in their buying process
• What channels are they active on

Creating a buyer persona is one of the most impactful activities for a company’s success. See the ROI buyer personas can bring to your business in this interview with Buyer Persona expert, Adele Revella.

Your buyer personas in 4 steps

1. Listen to your target audience and ask questions

Together we step into the shoes of your target buyer. We use the ‘5 rings of buying insight’. This is how we gain an understanding of their priorities, we uncover what their success factors are, and which barriers they perceive. In essence, we look at their buying process and we get to understand what drives their decisions. Obviously, we use digital data as part of our research, we use tools such as Google Alerts, Twitter and LinkedIn. But personal interviews are the real key to success. This way we uncover deep insights into our buyers.

2. Analyse, cluster and unite the needed information

After collecting the information we search for patterns and similarities in the behaviour of the buyers. We cluster the data on which we base buyer profiles. Above all, we create the buyer journey map. This is the foundation for your content marketing strategy.

3. Select critical buying criteria and contact moments

We create a vivid story of each persona and include a photo, name, attributes, challenges, and goals. We map their ‘digital body language’. What does your buyer do on the Internet for both their work and personal life? How does he use a smartphone? Then we validate and refine each persona at least once a year. By using personas as a guide, you can create relevant content that fits each stage of the buyer’s journey, from awareness through decision.

4. Launch your marketing campaigns

Introduce your personas in your organization, ensuring that everyone in sales and customer support understands the buyer and their needs. This can improve marketing and communication at every touchpoint. Working with personas is a dynamic process; marketers must maintain, enrich, and change them as new information about their buyers becomes available.