Brand Strategy Series P2: Buyer Personas

In Brand Strategy Series P1 we spoke about vision and mission statements and how to create them when developing your brand. For Brand Strategy P2 we will define and explain the importance of a buyer persona.

What is a Buyer Persona?

A buyer persona is a character profile based on your ideal customer. Who do you want to sell to? Who do you create your product or service for? The character information comes from them and how they use your product or service. You should give this character (your buyer persona) a name, get to know them extremely well, and you should always refer to them when deciding on a marketing plan, or future products/services. For example, “Would this campaign align with “Terry’s” values? Would “Terry” identify with this campaign? Would “Terry” love this new product?” 

In this scenario “Terry” is the name given to the character that embodies your ideal customer and we’ll get a little deeper into what profile information should be assigned to Terry in a moment.

Depending on your products or service, you could have two buyer personas or as many as twenty. It all depends on the range of your business and who you want to sell to. Your set of personas is a living document—as you learn more, your personas will update.

There are also other types of buy personas such as ‘negative personas’ (people who you don’t want to sell to), but that type of persona is to be explored once your buyer persona is fully developed.

Why Are Buyer Personas Important?

A buyer persona is a tool. It will help you as a business better understand what your customers are thinking, feeling, concerned about, and expecting based on that buyer persona. It will help you create targeted content, give you behavioural insight, help identify needs and wants, and help you understand their buying habits.

Personas are what your content, messaging, product development, and services should be based around. This will help meet the specific needs, behaviours, and concerns of your ideal customer. Once you have this information ironed out, you can then customize different marketing campaigns to speak directly to the different segments of your set personas. 

For example, Let’s pretend your business sells outdoor equipment in Ontario, Canada and is trying to push kayaking equipment. 

The buyer persona is named Amber. She is 20-30 years old, is single, loves kayaking, works in a professional service industry (so we can calculate an income range) and lives in the Kawartha Lakes. Amber is tech-savvy and uses the internet to learn about the newest kayaking equipment. She is a part of kayaking groups on social media and is always looking for new locations to paddle. She purchases a pass for Algonquin Park every summer. Amber goes out to the lake at least once a week in the summer months. She is always looking for ways to make transporting her kayak easier since most times she goes out on the lake on her own. 

From the information we know about Amber, we know she needs kayak accessories such as a kayak transportation cart. At this point, Amber might not even know she needs a transportation cart, but using the information above we can create targeted ads on social media and google to make her aware we sell the carts. Then, we might have an influencer she follows, who is also a single kayaker, post a review on one of the carts we carry. As one more point of contact, the outdoor equipment store could sponsor a water safety program at Algonquin Park.

By this point, we have made our brand known to Amber, along with our values and products. We have now convinced her that we have the products she needs to travel with ease alone, and that we have her best interests at heart. We did all of that without being annoying or using invasive marketing techniques (unwanted phone calls, random emails, etc). 

Developing your buyer persona is a very effective way of understanding your target buyer.

How to make your own Buyer Persona

There are a few different ways to create your buyer personas, but they all come back to communication and research. Ask your repeat clients why they love you! How does your product or service improve their life? What job do they have? Where do they live? How do they consume content? How do they follow you/see your content?

Ask your sales team who they interact with most. What generalizations can they make about the different types of customers you serve best? What age range? What point of life are they in? Are they getting married, do they have kids, do they drive a hybrid or a minivan?

Look through your contacts, do you see any trends? It could be anything from their location to what they purchased that day. This helps you find how customers find your store/location and consume your content.

Now that you have identified key trends, it’s time to write them down. Here is a guide to creating a buyer persona profile:

1. What is their demographic?

   1. Age

   2. Income

   3. Location

   4. Gender 

2. What is their background?

   1. Do they have a family

   2. What is their job/career path

   3. What is their general lifestyle — Outdoorsy or City dweller

3. How do they prefer to communicate?

   1. Through social media (Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram)

   2. Text

   3. Email

4. What are their pain points? Where do they struggle?

   1. Depending on your business this could be life or work based pains.

5. What can you offer to help solve those pains?

Buyer personas might seem complicated now, but once you have a solid set of personas you’ll be amazed at how it will change the way you market your brand - for the better! Contact Sunday Roast to develop your buyer persona(s)!

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