Buyer persona: Defining your ideal customer
Published on June 16, 2022
When we talk about a definite, recognizable and individualized type of client, we are talking about a buyer persona.
Who are you offering a solution to?
Thinking strategically, critically, and ethically implies taking into consideration the inherent complexity of the people we are offering our product to.
In most cases, products are not bought by “everyone”, but by a particular group of people, some of which may be transitioning from one product to another; hopefully the one we are offering them.
This approximation to what our real customer may look like is incredibly helpful so we can define our target audience and know how we can better approach said audience and which tools to use to be convincing.
How do I build my buyer persona?
If you want to build your ideal target audience or buyer persona the following are some of the elements you must take into consideration:
1.- Sociodemographics: This element is vital for the entire analysis. It involves different variables such as age, gender, country of residence, education level, income, and other cultural aspects such as religion. These will give you a fairly good approximation to who your buyer persona is, as they will give you information about their consumption habits. As a result, you will have their status and condition; that will allow you to understand which products and services of the ones you offer may be a good fit according to the groups of people your buyer persona may interact with, or perhaps you can tailor your offer to your potential clients’ needs.
2.- Social media behavior: thanks to the new digital tools available to us, we can better understand the behavior of our clients and form a buyer persona according to their publications, likes, reactions, the content they are following, and other similar conducts. The amount of time they spend reading and interacting with content will provide you with valuable information not only about the content and products that may interest them, but also about the channels by which you can reach them.
3.- Fake name: this third element may not be completely necessary; however many studies have shown that in some cases there is a relationship between the demographic and social media variables and people’s names. In any case, putting a name to your buyer persona will help you better identify them and make your discourse a lot more appealing towards them.
Always remember to pay attention to all the demographic, social and digital characteristics you may find to better build that definition of your ideal client a.k.a. buyer persona. This way you will be able to have a better idea of their personality, aspirations, consumption habits, and verify whether your selling or marketing discourse is appealing.
Where can I find all that information?
Your own company’s databases are the first place you should look for; together with the different CRMs or any other data gathering system your company may use in all areas of the enterprise, such as sales, or customer service. Alternatively, some governments also keep public data that you may be able to use.
If the above does not work, you can try and do some thorough research on digital profiles and create questionnaires for your clients to answer. You can ask your coworkers within the organization to help you distribute the questionnaires, in case there is no special department within it to do it.
Always take into consideration that the questions asked will work better if the questionnaire is applied without an incentive, and if you keep it simple and clear.
Are there several types of buyer persona?
Normally, there is more than one person who will participate in a decision making process when buying a product; and you should always take the following two into consideration when thinking about how to design your strategy:
The decision maker (buyer persona 1): this person is the one who eventually decides whether they will buy or hire your services, and when to do it.
The prescriber (buyer persona 2): this person may not be the one who will buy your services, but they will recommend the person who will; in other words, they are an advisor. For example, think of a friend who goes to a new restaurant in a different country, and would not know what to order, but knows who would love it, and recommends it to that person.
The influencer (buyer persona 3): this is someone who has an important weight for the decision maker. They can be either close to the decision maker (such as a family member) or not so much (like a celebrity). In any case, the way in which they issue their opinion about a product (negatively or positively) will highly impact whether the decision maker decides to buy it or not.
Consumption is a complex cultural phenomenon
Whether talking about business or personal matters, thinking strategically has always been important in our daily lives. Most of the actions we take every day have to do with either the values, traditions or specific objectives we are pursuing, which become part of a strategy.
When talking about businesses, most decisions are directed towards increasing income or diminishing costs; growing and strengthening a company requires at least two ways of thinking: technical and instrumental.
Both are processes that are an essential part of a business strategy. They help us create a clear strategy, while taking into account the importance of establishing human beings as something far greater than just individuals whose main objective is consumption. Instead, with these ways of thinking, we understand that in a digital environment, we use the technological tools at our disposal to solve people’s problems, find solutions, and create a positive impact in the world.
To put it simply, we are far more than people who buy and sell; we have a status, gender, nationality, and ways in which we interact with our family, friends, and coworkers, which influence the way we behave, think, what we want out of our lives, where we are heading, and of course, our consumption habits.
At X eleva Group, we believe that every client deserves to be treated with all these complex elements in mind, and first and foremost, as a human being that wants what is best for their business, their family, friends, and society as a whole. In each of our services, we give meaning to our motto: “the human factor is the key to excellence”.
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