You already know your B2B company needs well-developed buyer personas. They are the foundation of your content strategy, longtail marketing efforts, sales communications, and, well, everything related to knowing what makes your potential customers tick, click, and make decisions.
Buyer personas are an essential component of understanding your target audiences and their needs. That’s why it’s so important to keep your personas updated, especially when every business is adjusting to a challenging environment, and how they interact with prospects and partners amidst so much change.
If you’re just starting to develop your buyer personas or getting ready to update them, do you know what data to look for, and where?
It’s easy to look at your “targets” as business entities. But your buyers are nuanced, complex, and ever-evolving. Oh, they’re human. So that’s how you should treat them.
Yep, you’re not only selling your company’s technology to other companies; you’re selling your solutions to people. And that means you should humanize your buyers’ personas, not only display company descriptions and information.
Not sure how to organize your buyer personas? Start by gathering information in these general categories:
I touched on the importance of humanizing your buyer personas, so let’s start there. Giving your personas the necessary background and demographic details help you get in the right mindset – your buyer’s mindset.
I suggest adding information like:
You can base this information on what you already know from current clients, and finding data about prospective clients through B2B CRM tools and databases like Zoominfo, Salesforce, and InsideView. Find trends among this information and write them down.
Pro tip: Start with a current client and build from there. Say one of your personas matches an existing customer from a large retail loyalty technology company. Use some of their credentials to build out this new persona.
Example:
Your personas must have a proper profile. So name them. Give them a title, a photo, field-focus, and even an education-level. That breaks you out of the traditional way of looking at your buyers as companies and like people instead. Because that is who you’re marketing and selling to—a person.
Now that the creative work is complete, you can reward yourself by writing down facts. Well, sort of.
A lot of company information will come from the data you have about current customers and customers you want to attract.
Take note of information like:
Again, it’s easiest to start with the data you already have and work from there.
Let’s stick with our Sandra example:
You may have a good grasp on some of this information already. Other areas might draw a blank. Try to gather as much as you can with the knowledge that your personas will always be a living document, ready for edits as industry trends, markets, and customer needs evolve.
Once I have their background and company information complete, I like to jump into how my company’s services can better assist them. Typically, I start with gathering:
The above information is your lifeline when it comes to sales and marketing. I often reference this section of our buyer personas, especially when we start any new content campaign. I have also seen this information used as a complete resource for many B2B sales teams that are struggling with lead nurturing.
So, my example would look something like this:
The more information you can gather upfront, the more effective your marketing campaigns and sales communications will be in the short and longer-term.
I’ll wrap up by asking this: How are you applying buyer personas within lead nurturing and content campaigns? Are potential customers engaging with your company? Have you found the messaging that’s working best for your brand?
If not, maybe identifying the right data will help you achieve that. Remember to use this as a guide and update your personas often, as B2B buying behaviors change frequently.
