Are you having difficulty creating your buyer persona? We help you better visualize what a well-developed persona can look like.
In the world of marketing, knowing your target audience is essential to success. This is where persona marketing comes in. By creating a detailed profile of your ideal customer, you can better understand their needs and purchasing behaviors. In this article, we will present you with some examples of marketing personas to help you better apply this essential method. You can take inspiration from our models to build your own.
Buyer journey: understanding the persona’s purchasing journey
How can we talk about persona without mentioning the importance of the buyer journey? It's just impossible. The buyer journey, or the persona's purchasing journey, is a crucial element to analyze. As a company, you must build this journey, but above all understand it. This will allow you to track the different stages the persona goes through as they move forward with your brand. How did he become an ambassador for your brand from a simple visitor to your website ? How did this simple visitor become a loyal customer to the point of recommending you to others? All these elements must be analyzed and understood.
Afterwards, you will be able to offer content adapted to each stage of the buyer journey intended for your potential customers. You will thus be able to improve the reach of your message, but also its impact and effectiveness. Understanding the buyer journey is one of the first fundamental steps if you want to establish a strategy adapted to your audience.
Modeling your persona: what to do?
The first step is to collect as much relevant information about your persona as possible. There are several ways to do this, but here are the most common methods.
1 – Collect information from your internal teams
Internal teams, such as customer service, sales and marketing teams, often have direct interactions with customers and prospects . They can provide valuable information on the behavior, preferences and needs of customers.
For example, customer service can provide information on the most common problems encountered by customers and on the most often asked questions. The sales teams can provide information on the characteristics and decision -making criteria for prospects that have bought or refused to buy. Marketing teams can provide information on customer's favorite communication channels and the best advertising campaigns
2 – Question prospects and customers directly
Their comments, opinions and behaviors can provide valuable information about their needs, motivations and preferences . You will thus be able to gather several very important pieces of information such as:
- Client goals, challenges and motivations
- Customers’ preferred communication channels
- Frequently asked questions from customers
- Prospects' purchasing decision criteria
- Customer product and service preferences
- Sources of information used by customers and prospects
This information, in addition to helping you build your persona, can help you from several different angles. This helps you, for example, to improve your product or service . But this information can also help create more targeted and effective marketing messages.
3 – Use the data collected on your website
If your business has a website, you can use specific tools to collect information about your persona . Google Analytics or Google Search Console, for example, can provide you with data on users who interact with your business. These tools allow you to collect, analyze, and even download relevant data on your audience. You can for example know what searches they have done before going to your website. How did they find your business? By social networks? By filling out a contact form on your website? The possibilities are multiple. You can also analyze their socio-demographic characteristics and much more.
After collecting the data, the second step is to gather all the information on a persona sheet. This is a document that describes in detail the typical profile of your ideal client. It usually contains information such as the name, age, gender, occupation, interests, purchasing habits, communication preferences, goals, challenges and motivations of the user or the ideal customer . It can also include a photo to personalize and humanize the description.
Examples of persona (Digital business manager)
Let's take the example of a company specializing in digital marketing and web SEO. This company aims to develop its business by selling its support services to other companies. In addition, the company helps VSEs/SMEs to make themselves known and increase their turnover.
One of the Buyers Personas that could suit this company is a manager of a small e-commerce business that sells cosmetic products.
1 – Presentation of the persona
Pierre is an entrepreneur aged 35 to 45. He graduated from a large business school and has several years experience in the field of digital marketing and e-commerce . He founded his own business 2 years and runs a team of 10 people . Pierre is ambitious and passionate about his work. He is constantly looking for new opportunities to develop his business and increase his turnover.
2 – What does his typical day look like?
Pierre usually starts his day around 8 a.m. by consulting his emails and having coffee. He then spends a large part of his day supervising his team and planning projects. He attends meetings with his employees and his business partners , and can also meet potential customers . At the end of the day, he took the time to respond to his late emails and plan the tasks to be accomplished the next day.
3 – How does he obtain information?
Pierre uses a variety of tools to collect information on its market and competitors. He is also very active on social networks such as LinkedIn and Twitter . He follows the news of his sector by reading specialized blogs online publications . It also uses data analysis tools to monitor consumer trends and behavior
4 – What are his professional priorities?
Pierre's professional priorities are focused on the development of his business. He seeks to constantly improve the quality of his products and services. But in parallel, he also seeks to increase his turnover and strengthen the notoriety of his brand . Advertisements on large e-commerce platforms like Amazon or Cdiscount interest him enormously to promote his products. He is also very attentive to the satisfaction of his customers and the loyalty of the latter.
5 – What are its biggest goals?
The major stone objectives are to become a leader in its field, to develop in new markets, to expand its range of products and services, and to considerably increase its turnover . Pierre wants his brand to be known to a wider audience, even from the international market. He wants to embark on the world of Amazon Advertising .
6 – What are its problems?
The main issues facing the increased competition on its market, the need to remain at the cutting edge of technology and innovation , and the management of its team to achieve the objectives of the company. At the same time, the stone company lacks visibility, which makes him lose many opportunities for sales .
7 – How can you help him?
The company can help Pierre providing it with information on the trends in its market and competitors. It can also offer training to allow it to stay on the lookout for new products related to its business. Finally, the company can offer it tailor -made solutions to meet the needs of its business and help it achieve its objectives. The company can offer Pierre its advertising services, different marketing watches, and even offer it automation tools that could facilitate its daily tasks.
