How Manufacturers Can Systematically Develop Buyer Personas

If you develop buyer personas, you will create more effective marketing strategies and make the best use out of your marketing budget. Building buyer personas centers around knowing who tends to purchase your product, and how/where it will do the most good.

In order to be successful, you have to be able to identify the aspirations and challenges faced by your potential clients. How do you do that? Start by looking at your past clients.

1. WHO WAS YOUR CONTACT FOR YOUR TOP 5-10 CLIENTS?

Think back on the five absolute best projects and clients your company has ever had. How did they find you in the first place?

Who was your main point of contact with their company? Why did they choose you?

What type of contact did you have with those clients? Did they prefer emails? Phone calls? Texting? How did you interact with them on a regular basis?

Digital marketing strategies that are geared toward mobile users are often the best way to go if you know that your primary target audience does the vast majority of their work from their mobile devices and smartphones.

Did your most recent “gold” accounts find you through one particular social media platform? Then it might be a good idea to invest more into that platform! Make a note of it when building your buyer personas.

Start with your top five clients when creating your buyer personas and gradually add in a few traits as you move down through the next five. This will give you a good idea of what type of person you want to be working with on a regular basis.

Remember, however, that your “top five” or “top ten” clients may evolve over time. Be sure to re-evaluate your buyer persona every few months. That way, if your target audience evolves, you won’t fall behind.

2. WHO ARE YOUR TIP FIVE DREAM CLIENTS?

One of the most important things you can do when creating a buyer persona is to also take a close look at your top five ideal clients. What makes them different from your current clients?

Maybe your top accounts are currently with smaller companies…but you want to work with more Fortune 500 companies. What’s the likely job title of the person you would be working with if these companies hired you? What’s the average age of that person? What sets their goals or habits apart from your existing business partners?

For example, a CEO in their fifties may buy very differently from a fresh-out-of-college Warehouse Manager. Do they do the majority of their work on the go with a mobile device? Do they work primarily from an office setting?

Sales and marketing are a bit like hunting or fishing: you have to know the right habitat before you can be truly effective. If your ideal buyer persona probably doesn’t use the Yellow Pages, then why advertise there?

3. WHAT’S A COMMON PAIN POINT OF YOUR PROSPECTS?

Everybody has problems. And, naturally, we hate problems. But do you know what we as humans love? People who help us solve said problems.

Know what your buyers want to achieve. What are their goals? It’s also important to understand what may be stopping them from reaching their goals or ending up where they want to be. Is there a way that you can help your leads move past an obstacle? Even if that solution doesn’t involve your product, you can build strong relationships with prospects by helping them solve their problems.

When you are looking at creating a buyer persona, you need to understand both sides of the coin. Look at what your prospects have going in their favor, as well as the things that may be adversely affecting their progress. If you are able to clear away the obstacles for them so they can move forward, make sure to highlight those benefits and create a clear plan of action.

Know what your buyer persona is looking for, and try to give them exactly what they need to move forward. As Daniel Loeschen explained to us in one interview, it may even involve selling them a less expensive project than they were originally seeking.

How many personas do you have to pursue?

Most manufacturers will create one or two buyer personas to ‘define’ the demographics of all their potential clients. While you don’t want to spread yourself so thin that you lose your target audience, it’s a good idea to create at least three to five personas that fit the wider range of your buying audience. This allows you to target your primary demographic without excluding those buyers who may be just off to the right or left when it comes to certain aspects of the equation.

The key goal, when you develop buyer personas, is to anticipate what your future clients may be like. If you know where to find them, you’ll be ready to engage with them when they arrive.

 

 

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