Key aspects of Buyer Persona development

Why Buyer Personas should be at the basis of your marketing strategy

In the digital revolution, the concept of customer centricity has gained relevance and is key for any organisation today. The expectations, needs and wishes of customers need to be the starting point for all marketing measures.

During the customer journey, the customer experience should be a positive one at any touchpoint. The customer is not only ‘king’– he or she has become a mighty influencer who has a say in the success or failure of a company. Herein lies the importance of Buyer Personas.

Buyer Personas should be at the basis of your overall strategy and will help you reach differentiated ‘personalities’ with relevant topics at the right time over the right channels.

Buyer Persona definition

Buyer Personas are ’archetypes’ of certain user groups. They embody the goals and needs of a user type within your target audience. As fictitious users of your product, they describe the human user as a person with all his or her relevant characteristics and preferences, making them personal, tangible and accessible.

Based on relevant data, you draw the sharpest possible image of your persona types. This is the basis for a successful and individually relevant sales and marketing communication along the customer journey.

How to develop your individual data-driven Buyer Persona

Marketing professionals working on target group segmentation and Persona creation start from very different levels. Some already have a Persona concept at hand which was created on a subjective estimation rather than objective facts. They might want to sharpen, improve or reconfirm their Persona concept. Others start from scratch. Wherever you are on this journey, you need to rely on data-based empirical facts rather than gut feelings. It is always good to start with an educated guess, however, don’t overestimate your own world view – you need to be empathic and know how to walk in another person’s shoes.

It makes sense to first analyse which factors influence the use of your company’s product category. Usually, you use existing customer data to start with (e.g. data from your CRM, marketing databases, existing market research data, data from customer online behaviour).

Of high interest is also the analysis of your target audience’s online behaviour originating from your marketing activities. The focus is on the individual context of your customers as well as their core issues, which forms the basis for further action. As an example, we provide you with a catalogue of criteria below, which – in variations – is reviewed in the Buyer Persona creation process.

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Criteria for Buyer Persona development

Socio-demographic & socio-economic data

• Age, Gender
• Education/ Training
• Profession
• Income

Socio-cultural data

• Life situation
• Cultural context

Personality traits

• Values
• Interests, preferences
• Fears, dislikes

Data related to product category

• Interests
• Experiences
• Preferences
• Behaviour
• Information-related behaviour
• Communication-related behaviour

Job Situation (B2B)

• Context of the company
• Task and position in the company
• Activities
• Current goals and challenges
• Decision-making process
• Decision-making behaviour

The art is to identify the key differentiators in the data flood

As you will see working on your Buyer Personas, there is some complexity to it. Even if you have tons of interesting data, the art is to identify the key differentiators between different personas or target group segments.

This is where professional analytics and market research helps: creating the relevant insights that help achieve the intended impact.