How to Create Powerful & Effective Buyer Personas

Knowing your target audience is a complex business, not least of which, because people are naturally multi-faceted and multi-interested in a variety of subjects. For instance, you can be a sports junky but also be an Opera aficionado. You can love the great outdoors, but also be knitting enthusiast. And those are just a few examples of seemingly different interests. Most people are far more intricate in their interests than this. They like a whole host of things that don’t necessary fit in a pretty little box. ​

---

That is why trying to understand your true customer requires a lot more than concentrating on their age, income, gender, occupation, job title, education, marital status, family status, and location. It even requires more than looking at their broad interests such as travel, sports, shopping behavior, etc. While all of these data points begin to paint a picture of your customer, there is still a deeper dive needed to truly understand what drives and motivates your target audience.

In order to really create an effective buyers persona that is valuable to your business, you need to gain deeper insight. You need to understand your target customers aspirations and goals. For instance, maybe their goal is to look great and feel great. Perhaps, they aspire to lose 10 pounds while still enjoying the foods that they love. You need to understand what they value and why? Do they value spirituality or faith? Do they value quality or do they value convenience above all else? You need to understand their needs as it relates to your brand. Is your target customer interested in eating better but not willing to pay a premium for healthy foods? Is your target customer needing an energy boost because they work long hours? These are the type of questions that you need to ask if you really want to understand what influences your customers to buy.

Moreover, you have to understand your customers’ pain points or challenges. Is your customer starved for time so their intentions to live a healthier life are being hindered by the demands of life? Is your customer trying to avoid certain foods that may or may not be on your radar screen such as sugar? The answers to these questions can provide the additional insight that you need in order to create messaging that speaks to their specific needs while making them feel like a brand has finally heard them.

Once you know this information, you can look into the best way to reach them. What brands do they enjoy? What websites do they frequent? Who do they follow or admire? This will tell you where your target audience is spending their time and where your marketing dollars should be allocated. You will also want to understand how they like to be communicated with (text, email, social?). This information will give you an understanding of their preferred method of communication.Pulling all of this information together provides you with a very real understanding of who your customer really is and how best to interact with them. While you are focused on understanding the individual, once you understand them, you can apply it to other people with similar interests. After all, there is more than one person out there with similar interests, and more likely many, and now you fully understand your tribe.
​
We recommend that you secure this information by interviewing your customers or potential customers. It doesn’t take an enormous amount of time, and it provides authentic insights that you can use to drive your business. More importantly, it eliminates the guess work. To truly know your customers is one of the most valuable assets you can have as a business. Don’t shortcut the process. Put in the work, and reap the rewards.Your revenue will undoubtedly reflect the effort. Interested in learning more about this and other topics, check out our other blogs.