Buyer Personas 101: How To Maximize Inbound Marketing - Banner Image

As much as it hurts to hear, customers are a lot less concerned about your company and the products you offer and much more concerned about their needs, interests and desires. To reach them through inbound marketing, you will need to give them content they actually care about. And the best way to do that is by developing buyer personas, also known as audience personas.

Asking the Right Questions

These detailed descriptions of your target audience go beyond just identifying your customers demographics and instead create a story around your typical buyer, addressing relevant details that influence their purchasing decisions. To put together effective personas, you will need to find out the answers to questions like:

  • Who is this person?
  • What does his or her typical day look like?
  • What types of needs does he or she have?
  • What are his or her pain points as it relates to our company?
  • What does this person value most?

 

Youll want a separate buyer persona for each type of customer you create content for. For instance, If you work for a university, you likely have several stakeholders that you regularly distribute content to, such as students, faculty, alumni and community influencers. All of them have unique informational needs, requiring separate personas.

In addition, audience personas help when you have a variety of people developing content for your brand. By working to get everyone on the same page, personas equip all your content creators to put together purposeful content with a consistent voice.

Ways to Get to Know Your Buyers:

In order to keep up with whats going on, good reporters set up listening posts. You will need to do the same to understand your buyers. A few ways to get started include:

  • One-on-one conversations – The best way to get to know your customers is to talk to them. Try setting aside 20 to 30 min. each month to interview your buyers, asking them the process they went through to purchase your product.

  • Keyword research – Sign up for Google Alerts to find out about trending topics related to your industry.

  • Web analytics – Utilize an analytics tool to discover what types of content are resonating the most with your website visitors.

  • Customer surveys – Get to know what your customers think about your industry and products by sending out a survey. SurveyMonkey offers excellent tools for companies looking to do just that.

Now its time to put together your own buyer personas using all the information youve collected. Check out these examples of buyer personas from HubSpot to help you on your way.

Make Inbound Marketing Work for You!

Buyer personas are an essential element to a successful content marketing strategy.

Many people make mistakes when creating them, such as assembling too many, focusing on irrelevant data, and conducting scripted interviews. By hiring an experienced digital marketing agency, like Horton Group, you can avoid these problems and benefit from the expertise of a team of marketing professionals.