Define Your Buyer Persona in 5 Easy Steps

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The persona or “buyer persona” in marketing that refers to the definition of a fictional character that will be endowed with the characteristics representing your target. 🏹

Discover how to find your buyer persona easily. Simply follow the 4 steps in this article, for amazing results!

What is a buyer persona?

The idea is to personalize your target to better visualize the typical person to whom you will sell your product or service. ✍️

For example, if you are a software development company that sells software for accountants, your persona could be: “Pascal, 43 years old, self-employed, single with no children, likes to read and works late at night and on weekends”. 

Pascal’s problem is that he is from the old school, computer tools are not his thing, so he needs a very intuitive tool to help him in his professional activity, as well as extremely reactive customer support. 🤔

That’s good, that’s exactly what you offer (or at least, what you hope to offer)! 🌟 Now that you have an idea of the type of person you’re going to sell your solution to, you’ll need to find those customers!

 

Why should you do a persona marketing?

When you want to set up an offer, you are in the need to create a persona. You’re not going to sell a word processor to a farmer 🐮. So, it’s important to have a profile in mind so that you can meet the needs of your prospects.

 

It is essential to develop your fictitious customer to generate leads. With this in place, you will be able to answer:

  • His or her needs.
  • His or her expectations.
  • Any pain points or frustrations.
  • Know the user journey.

You will thus complete what is called a marketing pipeline. The marketing pipeline is a process in which your potential lead will become a real new customer. It is to know the needs of your target 🎯 that the persona is set up.

 

Step 1: How to create a buyer persona? Identify your prospect

Your buyer persona should be based on real-world data and realistic goals, not just on people you want to hang out with. 🙊

Here’s how to create a fictitious client that will be a perfect match for your real-world business. 💘

The persona’s personal information

  • His name.
  • First name.
  • The age.
  • His/her sex.
  • The family situation 💍 or marital status.
  • The place where he lives.
  • The social networks he uses.
  • The behavior of internet use.

Professional information

  • His profession.
  • The sector of activity.
  • His salary.
  • His function in the company (if you are aiming at a BtoC target).
  • His typical day at work.
  • His user preferences ❤️

Product information for your persona

  • His reasons for turning to your product.
  • His specificity or specificities.
  • His buying behavior.
  • Does he buy online 💻 or in a store?
  • Why does he like the product?

 

Step 2 : Conduct extensive audience research

It’s time to get down and dirty. ⚡

Who are your current clients? What is the demographic of your social audience? Who are your competitors aiming for? Check out our comprehensive guide to achieve the product-market fit for a more in-depth look at these principles. 👈

But, in the meanwhile… 😏

Compile audience data from your social media analytics, customer database, your CRM Dashboards 🚀 and Google Analytics to focus on specifics such as:

  • For B2C: check the age, location, language, spending power and habits, interests, challenges, lifecycle Stage, etc. of your prospects.
  • For B2B: add the size of the company and who determines the purchase choices.

 

Step 3: Determine the customer’s goals and pains

Depending on the items and services you provide, your audience’s aspirations may be personal or professional. What inspires your customers? What is their ultimate goal? 🎯

On the other hand, they have pain spots. 😖

What issues or annoyances are your prospective consumers attempting to resolve? What’s preventing them from succeeding? What obstacles do they confront in achieving their objectives? 🚩

Your sales staff and customer service department are excellent resources for answering these inquiries, but another important alternative is to participate in some social listening and sentiment research, or via online reviews. 👂

 

Step 4: Recognize how you can assist

Now that you have a better understanding of your clients’ goals and challenges, consider how you may assist them. This entails looking beyond the features and examining the actual advantages of your product or service. 🤔

A feature is what your product is or does. A benefit is how your product or service makes your customer’s life easier or better. 🙌

Consider your audience’s key purchase hurdles, as well as where your followers are in their purchasing path. Then ask yourself, “How can we help?” Capture the answer in a single, straightforward statement. 🏅

 

Step 5: Make your buyer persona

Gather all of your information and begin looking for commonalities. When you combine those traits, you’ll have the foundation for your distinct costumer personas. 👍

Give your buyer persona a name, a work position, a house, and other distinguishing features. You want your character to appear genuine. 🤡

Assume you define a core client group as 40-year-old, professionally successful city-dwelling women with no children and a love of superb restaurants. 💅 “High-Achiever Haley” might be your buyer persona:

She was born in 1971 and is 41 years old. She attends spin class three times a week. She resides in Toronto and runs her own public relations agency. She drives a Tesla. She and her boyfriend take two overseas trips every year and prefer to stay in boutique hotels. She belongs to a wine club.

Jennifer Lawrence Wine GIF by Omaze

You get the idea: this isn’t simply a list of traits! ⚠️

This is a thorough, one-on-one description of a potential consumer. It helps you to think of your potential consumer as a person, rather than just a collection of data points. These characteristics may not apply to every customer in your target market, but they do assist to portray an archetype. 👫

Aim for approximately the amount of information you’d expect to see on a dating site 😍 (but don’t forget to add pain areas… which might not fly on Bumble). Just in case you want to learn how LinkedIn can make you a better lover, follow this link!

When developing your consumer personas, make sure to express both who each persona is today and who they hope to be in the future. This helps you to begin thinking about how your products and services may assist them in reaching their goals. ⌚

So now, let’s take a look at the different types of buyer personas there are to help you to build yours! 👇

 

Buyer Persona Examples Here!

Example #1: Typical BtoB marketing persona

So that you can establish your own persona, we’ll take a fictitious example that you can later adapt to your own offering. 🛍️

You are a company specialized in ergonomic office chairs. So you want to sell in France to professionals who work in offices, or even to Coworking spaces. You are then going to have to find the right person (the one who is in charge of managing the supplies) and therefore target it as well as possible.

  • We will therefore need the personal information of this potential target:

 

  • We have the basic information, let’s move on to the professional information:

 

  • Now we’ll need the company’s information:

 

Here we only have basic (but still important) information. 🤔 We can start with this info and then expand on it.

 

Example of a B2C marketing persona

We have seen the BtoB target, we will now move on to a B2C target. The process of creating a BtoC persona is much the same as a BtoB target. 🏹 The term B2C stands for “Business to consumer” and it means that you are going to sell 💰 a product or service to an individual.

Without further ado, let’s move on to an example of a B2C persona.

 

Example #2: Creating a B2C persona profile

You specialize in selling socks online. 🧦 You’ve just started and your target audience / audience is in France. So we will start with the personal information of the potential lead.

 

  • We will also need her professional data:

Well, making your marketing persona like we just did is possible, but it’s not very graphic and not aesthetically pleasing 👀. So we’re going to show you the tools you can use to create your persona. 🖌️

 

How to create a marketing persona?

Create a buyer persona HubSpot

You can totally use this tool to create your persona. We show you what it looks like:

When creating a persona, all the interest will lie in the visual of it. The closer it is to reality, the more your product will match the expectations of your potential prospect.

Of course, you can create as many personas 🤯 as possible if it remains in your web marketing strategy.

Let’s get into the nitty-gritty of creating a persona on HubSpot:

  • Go to the site and click on “create a persona”.
  • Select an avatar (the one that will be closer to your target visually).

  • Don’t forget to name it.
  • Then select the age range and the level of education.
  • Choose the sector of activity and the number of employees of the company in which the target works.
  • Fill in the job title, performance indicators and supervisor (if any).
  • Fill in the objectives, challenges, and responsibilities.
  • Add the tools the target uses as well as their means of communication.
  • Include professional sources of information.

You will have a summary of your persona when finished. 🌟

 

Benefits of HubSpot

Using HubSpot has several advantages: 👇

  • It’s free.
  • The tool is very intuitive.
  • It is a good base to start with.
  • You can add sections.

The disadvantages of HubSpot

Still, there are a few minor drawbacks regarding creating a persona with HubSpot: 👇

  • You can’t put a picture, a photo of a real person (putting a real photo helps you target your potential prospect even better).
  • So you are limited in terms of personalization.

For a start, using this tool will be perfect for creating your persona. You won’t have to worry about writing everything down, you’ll just have to fill in ✒️ the different information.

 

Create a marketing persona with Illustrator

Illustrator is an integral part of the Adobe suite. 💻 So, basically, it’s not for the purpose of creating personas that it was designed, but you will have the chance to let your imagination run wild.

There are no stopping points, since you can really start with whatever you want. Here’s my method, but one that you can largely use as inspiration if you have the Adobe suite. ✍️

  • Start by logging in and opening the software.
  • Create a new file, you can choose the sizes (I like the square format, so I choose a 1500 x 1500 format).
  • Once you are on the white page, you will have to choose a portrait for your ideal client on a free image site (you have Pexels).
  • Import your photo.
  • Add the information you need.
  • Use pictograms for social networking.

creer-persona-illustrator

💡 The more visual and personalized your persona is, the more you can use it.

 

The benefits of using Illustrator

The biggest advantage ❤️ of Illustrator is that you can customize it to the extreme. You will be able to:

  • Choose the font on your persona.
  • Draw your persona yourself if you feel like it (but we advise you to choose a photo of a real person).
  • Put the colors you want to put forward.

Illustrator’s drawbacks

Despite its great advantages, it remains to be taken into account that :

  • Illustrator is not free, you need a license (and not a cracked software).
  • You need to know your way around to get the hang of the tool.

 

Buyer persona template free with Canva

We’re not going to describe to you what Canva is. 🤩 Well, ok, it’s the ultimate tool for Community Managers. You can quickly create small visuals for your networks or presentations (templates) for your professional appointments, for example.

To make a persona on Canva, you can very well start from scratch. Or you can use a template. For this, you will have to:

  • Log in to Canva ✅ (nothing illogical yet).
  • Type persona in the search bar.
  • Choose the one you like the most.
  • Fill in the information if it’s a template.

 

Benefits of Canva

If it is the preferred tool of Community Managers, it is for several reasons:

  • The tool is super intuitive 🤯.
  • All you have to do is fill in the fields for the persona.
  • You can very well customize it to the extreme.

Disadvantages of Canva

If you want the templates, you will have to upgrade your account and take a paid plan. Otherwise, you will have to do it yourself from scratch. 🎶

 

Create a persona online with UXpressia

There are many tools that help you create a persona, and one pretty cool tool is UXpressia. 😊

All you’ll need to do is create an account (you can sign up using a Google account) and then you can enter all the data about creating a relevant persona.

So you will need to: ⏬

  • Click on “Add New” for the creation of your sample customer.
  • Select “Make my Persona” then “Blank persona”.
  • Fill in the name and surname of the persona.
  • Add the photo.
  • Fill in the demographic data.
  • Fill in his goals, objectives, motivations

💡 You can, of course, change the information on the tool.

 

The advantages of UXpressia

  • Great possibility of customization to make your persona with UXpressia.
  • You can also create other documents (like the user journey, an empathy card).

The disadvantages of UXpressia

👉 Even though you can change your persona information, the tool is still only available in English for now.

 

Buyer persona canvas

Finally, you can use an already-made buyer persona canvas, to get inspired and fill-in all the information you need to create your persona correctly. 👌

Here is a very complete buyer persona model, that I found on Pinterest (you have around +30 buyer persona canvas to download for free!). ✨

I’m sure this canvas will help you ask yourself the right questions:

  • Their first and last name.
  • Age, title.
  • Level of education.
  • Personal situation.
  • Number of children.
  • Place of residence.
  • Favorite book.
  • Personal goals.
  • Size of the company.
  • Professional situation.
  • Sector of activity.
  • Department in which he works.
  • Etc.

buyer persona

 

Why is buyer persona important?

Buyer personas keep you focused on the needs of your customers rather than your own. 💡

Consider your buyer personas whenever you decide on your social marketing plan (or overall marketing strategy). ✅

Is a new campaign meeting the needs and objectives of at least one of your customer personas? If not, you should reevaluate your idea, no matter how thrilling it seems. 😬

Once your buyer personas are developed, you can produce organic posts and social advertising that speak directly to the clients you’ve identified. Social advertising, in particular, provides highly sophisticated social targeting possibilities that may put your ad in front of the exact individuals you want to see it. 🧲

If you want to learn more about this, here’s the complete guide with everything you need to know about LinkedIn Ads! 👈

Nick Bonitatibus lead pull magnet leads GIF

 

Build your social strategy on assisting your personas in achieving their goals, and you’ll develop a relationship with the genuine customers they represent. It all comes down to building brand loyalty and trust to expedite your sales process. 🙏

 

Different Types of Buyer Personas

When you first start working on your personas, you may wonder, “What are the different sorts of buyer personas?” It should be straightforward to adapt one for your company from there, right? 🧐

That is not precisely how it works – there is no predefined list of globally recognized buyer personas to pick from, nor is there a standard for the number of personas you require. This is because each firm (regardless of how many rivals it has) is unique — and as a result, their buyer personas should vary as well. ✍️

Brad Pitt Oscars GIF by The Academy Awards

 

As a result, identifying and building your various buyer personas might be a little difficult at times. In general, organizations’ buyer personas may fall into the same or comparable categories (e.g., a marketer, an HR rep, an IT manager, etc.). 🤓

However, the different personalities your company has and the amount of them you need will be adapted to who your target audience is and what you provide your clients. 💡

Are you now ready to begin constructing your buyer personas? 👇

 

What can a B2b buyer persona be used for?

Perfect! 👏 Now you know all the steps to create your buyer personas, you will also find that the act of creating a customer persona is illuminating in and of itself.

To create a character, you must first ask yourself detailed questions about your potential consumers, and this exercise will help you see aspects you hadn’t noticed previously. 😮

You may then compare your responses to those of your colleagues, which will reveal any discrepancies in your viewpoints and encourage talks to address them. 💡

the beatles GIF

As a result, one of the most obvious advantages of creating a buyer persona is that it allows you to get consumer insights and cross-departmental alignment. ⚖️ This ensures that marketing, sales, product development, and customer service are all on the same page when it comes to your ideal consumer

This is important because you may then utilize your personas in order to direct the course of your B2B sales strategy! 👈

 

Here are some examples of marketing persona’s advantages:

🚀 Buyer personas may be used in product development to create product roadmaps. Personas will assist them in identifying and prioritizing adjustments to your product based on the most pressing needs of your consumers.

🎯 Buyer personas may be used as a marketing term to develop effective tactics. Personas, for example, are essential for developing content marketing strategy. They aid in the focus of keyword research efforts and serve as a reference while writing material. They can also assist in identifying and prioritizing promotional initiatives.

🤝🏻 Buyer personas may also assist your sales staff in developing relationships with prospective consumers. Your sales staff will be a lot more productive if they understand what the prospect is going through and are prepared to solve their worries.

👩🏻‍💻 Finally, personas may be used by customer support teams to better serve your consumers. Your support crew will be able to exhibit greater empathy if they are taught about the difficulties your customers are attempting to address with your product and the frustration they experience when things don’t work out. When dealing with an irate consumer, a little sympathy may go a long way. 👌

Here It Is Season 6 GIF by Friends

 

Who is my buyer persona?

Okay, previously you discovered what is a buyer persona, why it’s important for your business prospecting and how to find them via LinkedIn, using tools like Sales Navigator and Waalaxy, of course! 🌌

Now, let’s see who is your buyer persona and what are the different types there might be, so you can create their identity more easily. 👇

 

What is User persona vs Buyer persona?

Wait a minute… 😥

Before we look into who is your “buyer persona”, we need to make sure you’re not confusing it with its cousin: “user persona”. 🚫

Haha, just kidding! 😹

They’re not cousins, but here are the key differences between these two terms:

  • Buyer personas are not always users, although they may be.

  • User personas concentrate on specifics such as usability.

  • Buyer personas are more concerned with long-term objectives.

  • Remember that a buyer persona might be a group of decision-makers with varying aims and expectations.

  • Determine the impact of user personas on the final choice.

  • When building user personas, keep skills and customer experience in mind.


Okay, I hope this helps clarify what a user persona is. 👇 Now let’s have a look at the customer journey!

 

Buyer persona and customer journey 

Buyer personas provide you with insider information on how your most qualified prospects operate. You know a lot about these characters, from their preferred social media sites, like LinkedIn, to the way they communicate to their job ambitions, and you can utilize that knowledge to your advantage and theirs. 👌

Work on developing digital content strategies that those personas desire to read, as well as sales and marketing methods that highlight the aims and difficulties of your buyer personas. 🤗

When you write, promote, and sell with actual people in mind – your most qualified leads — you’ll start to notice some significant growth in your prospecting funnel

There you have it! 🤗

Now let’s do a little recap of this article, to see what you learned about buyer personas, shall we? ✌️

 

Conclusion: What is a Buyer Persona?

👉 Every time you make a choice regarding your social media content or overall multichannel marketing plan, keep your customer personas in mind. If you treat these personas well, you’ll develop a relationship with the real consumers they represent, increasing sales and brand loyalty.

👉 Create buyer personas to better understand your target consumers and ensure that everyone on your team understands how to effectively target, assist, and collaborate with them. This will help you enhance reach and boost your conversions.

👉 Buyer personas are research-based profiles that reflect your target audience and may assist you in optimizing important parts of your sales and support. It is vital to define the sorts of individuals who benefit from your solutions and the problems you assist them address.

 

FAQ Buyer personas

How to find sales leads on LinkedIn?

Let’s start at the beginning, to look for sales leads on LinkedIn you need to define your marketing persona first. 

You can use filters in your LinkedIn search in order to make it more accurate, and even use Sales Navigator if you want to have qualified results. 🔥

In this article, you will find all the details on how to do this!

Happy Lets Go GIF by HBO Max

Let’s take a look at how to find them by using accurate search filters on LinkedIn. 👇

 

Using filters to find your buyer persona on LinkedIn

You can use the filters offered by the Sales Navigator to highlight only those profiles that match your persona. We know that Pascal is an accountant, so in the “title” filter we select “accountant”. 🔎

Take note that with Waalaxy works with all types of LinkedIn accounts, premium or not. But to really maximize its potential, it is highly recommended to use a Sales Navigator account. ⚡

  • 👉 You can do it ike this:

select title job on linkedin sales navigator

 

  • Pascal is self-employed, so we set the filter “company’s workforce” to “self-employed”:

select self employee linkedin

 

  • Finally, you are targeting the French market at first, so you are only searching for people working in France:

select geography on linkedin search engine

  • There you have your list of more than 1500 prospects that you can now contact via LinkedIn thanks to Waalaxy:

Please note that Sales Navigator searches only provide access to the first 2500 search results. If your search contains more than 2500 results, and you want to access all of them, you will need to split your search into several smaller searches using exclusive filters to find your customers on LinkedIn. 👌

Finally, to maximize your conversion rates and get new clients, don’t forget to optimize your LinkedIn profile as mentioned earlier! 😉

I hope with this article you will know exactly how to define your buyer persona and how to find it on LinkedIn! 🚀

 

Amandine

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