A buyer persona is essentially your target audience wrapped up in a fictive person. You might have heard different names for this, such as marketing persona, customer avatar etc, but they're all describing the same core thing.
You can't get to know all of your customers individually, that would take too long, but you can get to know the mean of them all, which is what you do when you create a buyer persona.
It is based on thorough data and research of your current customer base, answering questions like:
- How old are they?
- Are they male or female?
- Where do they live?
- Where do they work?
- Do they have kids? If yes, how many?
- Are they a dog person or a cat person?
- Do they live in a house or an apartment?
- What language(s) do they speak?
- Do they eat corn flakes for breakfast or hard boiled eggs?
...and on and on.
The point when making your buyer persona is to understand your customers better than they understand themselves. That includes figuring out their desires and their problems.
Ask yourself: What is it that they want to get from using your product/service? What would great look like to them? What frustrates them and what problems are they facing that your product/service might be able to help solve? The more nitty gritty you get here, the better.
Once you've done all the possible research that you can, you'll have a base point to return to in your search for answers for the rest of your business. Your buyer persona will tell you:
- What you should be offering
- How your website should look
- What your product page copy should sound like and include (& how it should NOT sound like)
- What your marketing and all content that you create for paid ads should talk about
- What your organic content on your social media channels should focus on
The goal is to describe your customers problems back to them, BETTER than what they are able to describe themselves. That'll make them feel like you truly understand their needs and that you have the solution to their problem. Who wouldn't want to feel that way when shopping around anyway?
To help you, we've created a free buyer's persona template that you can download here (excel file). Use it how many times you like. Let it be your northern star in everything you do in your business.
Oh yeah and if you want to pay it back, just share this blog post with your friends that might also need a buyer persona template, and we'll be forever grateful. 🤗