Understanding your buyer persona is crucial for any business.
This is especially true for b2b companies, who don’t have the time or money to waste on unsuccessful marketing campaigns. To avoid spending money on marketing to people who have no interest in your products or services, you need to focus on who you’re trying to reach.
That’s where the buyer persona comes in.
Buyer personas represent the target market as a semi-fictional individual, with personalities and key characteristics that help you understand and relate to the audience you want to market your products and services to. The buyer persona is based on market research and existing customer data, as well as some professional insight.
Here are 5 reasons why you should use b2b buyer personas:
1. Buyer personas give you a better understanding of customers: Knowing your customers’ interests, values, and motivations allows you to market more effectively, and craft a message that entices your target market into making a purchase.
2. They allow you to see who you shouldn’t market to: Determining who isn’t interested in your product or service is almost as important as determining who is, and is a great way to narrow down your target market. Why waste time marketing to people who have not and will never be interested in your product or service?
3. They help central staff better understand the customers: Your team should have a thorough understanding of your target market to support marketing efforts. Customers who feel heard and valued are more likely to purchase again or recommend your product or service to others.
4. Buyer personas allow you to understand how different individuals interact with you during the customer journey: Who is interested in your product or service before development? What about during development? Are there people in your market who might be late adopters? How do we hit all potential customers at every stage?
5. They help guide decisions for new products and services: Maybe your persona is looking for a feature that would be a great addition to the next model. Maybe your existing product or service doesn’t fulfill a need for this persona, and now you can come up with a way to improve your company.
Utilizing buyer personas will help you find the right audience for your marketing efforts, which will save you money and time. Without b2b buyer personas, how will you know the right audience for your marketing efforts, or the right messaging that will sell your product or service?
Now that we’ve learned about the importance of buyer personas, we can figure out how to target the right persona for your business. Take the time to create multiple b2b buyer personas – the more you understand your audience, the easier it will be to sell to them!
Here are some main points to consider when creating targeted b2b buyer personas:
1. Consider their demographics: Utilize information such as age, location, gender, etc. Knowing who and where your audience is is a crucial step in targeting your b2b buyer persona. If you don’t know where your target market is, how will you reach them?
2. Consider their role in the buying process: Are you engaging with the department that would be buying your product or service? Do you know who within that department has the decision-making power to influence the purchase decision? Don’t spend time engaging with people who don’t have the authority to make a purchasing decision.
3. Look into their buying behavior: What products have they purchased before? When are they most likely to buy? Do they shop online, or would they stop into your business? The easier it is for someone to make a purchase, the more likely you are to make a sale.
4. What are the challenges or fears the customer may have? What stressors do they experience within their company? What problem or challenge does your product solve? Why would they be worried about buying your product or service? Answering these questions now will help you to be prepared to answer them for the customer later on, and ease their concerns about your product or service.
5. What motivates them? Is the company trying to grow, become more efficient, or reduce costs? Could our product or service help them reach their goals faster? Determining how your product or service helps a business grow in the right direction will make selling to them easier and more effective.
6. What are the organizational goals? What type of company could benefit from implementing our product or service? Does your product or service fit within the company culture? Can you see the product or service working for this company, and if yes, how? If not, maybe your product or service isn’t the right fit.
7. Does it meet their needs? If a company already has an amazing product or service, don’t waste your time marketing to them. Find a company that has a problem that you can solve, and prove it. Gain their interest, and show them why your product or service is the best solution for their company.
When you are creating b2b buyer personas, keep in mind that there will usually be multiple personas involved in the decision-making and purchasing process. This means that when you are making your target b2b buyer personas, you should make more than one persona and understand how they interact with each other.
Remember, to effectively sell your product or service, you need to know your customer. Take the time to learn who they are, and what motivates them, and discover any pain points or concerns they may have. You’ll need to find what drives them and really sell your product to them. How will your product or service benefit them and make their life better?
Does your business need marketing support? Schedule a FREE strategy session with us and we’ll give you personalized insights on your business and be sure to ask you the right questions!
For more helpful information on B2B Marketing check out our resource library.
