For any new startup or small business to be in business, you need buyers. Buyers of the service or product you offer. It’s crucial to know thy (potential) customer well, but where do you start?
It can be tricky to identify who these buyers are when they don’t exist yet. Creating buyer personas are a fun and important way to bring your target customers to life. You’re able to personalise your marketing efforts, connect better and draw the right people to you.
Step 1: Investigate and do your homework
Ask yourself the following questions -
· Who needs my product or service the most?
· Which industries or companies need these products or services?
· What are they likely missing with the current solutions available to them?
· What would motivate them to try something new?
· What would hold them back from trying my product(s) or service(s)?
Do some digging online. Try source answers to the questions based on what individuals in these industries and companies share freely online. Platforms like LinkedIn and even company social pages would be a great place to start.
Step 2: Suss out the negative personas
During your online research phase, you’ll likely come across individuals who don’t quite tick all your persona boxes. Be sure to take note of these people too.
They could temporarily be outside of your target buyer personas because of budget restrictions, niche needs and so on. Identifying what they need could help you develop and scale your offerings in future.
Step 3: Don’t chase the 'perfect' buyer
Perfect buyers rarely exist in the real world. You are much better off creating personas based on actual humans that exist in the market. Don’t build personas based on how you’d like these buyers to be.
Try to find out what’s really important to your real potential buyers. What makes them tick? What are their interests?
Step 4: Analyse persona traits
This is the truly interesting bit in my opinion. You get to incorporate some neuroscience at this stage. Don’t just look at basic demographics like age, gender and income. Identify key personality traits, likes, dislikes and interests - psychographics.
For example, does your product or service cater to the under 25s who identify as adrenaline junkies? Or is it for mellow over 25s who prefer the familiar and are more open to new features introduced slowly?
Of course, you can’t rely on just age as a factor as each individual is unique. However, it can serve as a springboard to define certain personas. You can make educated guesses on how these personas will engage with your business and how best to communicate with them.
Step 5: Use first-hand insights and refine
You can learn a great deal from your very first customers. Don’t miss the opportunity to have in-depth conversations with them. Watch for facial cues, expressions and emotions while they speak with you.
Conduct interviews to get feedback on ways you can improve. Allow them to elaborate on both the positives and negatives of their experience. Ask them for their thoughts on the ways you could serve them better.
After all, your customer is at the heart of all you do. It pays to get to know them well.
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