The best products in the world will sit on the shelf without a great marketing plan. Potential customers must first become aware that you exist, and then be convinced that your products are a great investment. However, getting to that point can be a challenge. How do you best communicate to consumers about what you offer? This can be solved by creating a buyer persona.
By now, nearly every business owner is aware of the importance of messaging. However, attempting to navigate the world of digital advertising without professional online advertising expertise can be ineffective. Many entrepreneurs and small businesses market with a focus on their products. The problem is, most people do not buy products. Consumers tend to purchase solutions to problems or tools to help them reach important goals.
That means effective marketing campaigns have to explore the customer mindset and create messaging based on their needs. Online ads must address a specific problem that can be solved with your products or services. One of the best ways to accomplish this need is by using buyer personas.
Table of Contents
- What is a Buyer Persona?
- Buyer Personas and Pay Per Click Campaigns
- Step by Step Approach to Creating a Buyer Persona
What Is a Buyer Persona?
Buyer personas are descriptive profiles of your potential customers. You will need a different persona for each market segment you want to approach. Messaging in digital advertising campaigns should be created as if it is speaking directly to one or more of these fictional people. That way, your actual audience is more likely to connect your products or services to their needs and motivations.
Buyer Personas and Pay Per Click Campaigns
Pay per click (PPC) marketing depends on quickly connecting with consumers. In this world of constant ads, we tend to scan through content quickly. The best way to connect with the audience is to create digital advertisements that directly speak to current pain points. Relevant marketing is more likely to catch the customer’s attention and get them to click through the ad.
Buyer personas can make PPC marketing effective enough to be worth the cost. The personas can guide brand messaging so that it most directly connects with potential customers before they look away.
For example, a company that sells foot massagers may create a buyer persona for a beautician who stands on her feet all day. Based on this profile, they may decide to advertise on websites used by beauty supply wholesalers. The messaging would focus on relieving foot pain and rejuvenating tired feet. This targeted approach would likely be more effective than just creating a general ad for a mechanical foot massager.
Step by Step Approach to Creating a Buyer Persona
If the idea of creating a buyer persona seems a little abstract, here is a basic explanation of the necessary steps.
Audience Research
This is a critical step that involves making sure your buyer personas are rooted in the needs and motivations of actual people. It may be tempting to create completely imaginary profiles based on who you think are your customers. However, connecting these personas to thorough audience research is the best way to make sure you actually understand your potential clients.
Among the data necessary, you will need general demographic information such as location, age group, and income level. Depending on where your customers live, you may also need to know some language and cultural cues. To make sure you don’t waste time on the wrong platform, you need to know where your audience spends their time online. Focusing time and money on expensive Instagram ads is a waste if your clients mainly use YouTube and LinkedIn.
Discover Audience Motivations and Problems
Once you have some great information about the identity of your potential customers, now it is time to figure out their motivations and problems. As mentioned above, products and services are best advertised for how they can help your clients reach their goals. People don’t spend money because holding it is uncomfortable. Your customers give you money because they have a need that they believe your offering can satisfy.
Creating relevant messaging means getting a handle on your consumers’ pain points and objectives. What exactly do they want to achieve? What business or personal goals are important from their perspective? What barriers exist to them achieving their desired outcomes?
The Role of Your Products and Services
Once you understand your customers and their goals, it is now time to position yourself as the answer. Directly connecting with your audience’s barriers is the best way to be sure that your messages connect. How can your products and services help your customers to reach their goals or solve problems?
In marketing, this is sometimes called separating the features from the benefits. Features are descriptions of what you offer, such as its functions. Benefits, on the other hand, describe the impact on the customer. Realize that people are motivated by how something will affect them, so speaking directly to benefits is a powerful tool.
As an example, people don’t buy a new mattress because it is soft or firm, or uses antimicrobial fibers. These are features. We purchase a new mattress because we need a good night’s sleep to perform well in our careers. We spend money on a new bed because of a nagging backache that keeps us from fully enjoying life.
Generate Buyer Personas For Each Category of Client
At this point, it is time to begin creating the buyer personals. It is helpful to think of these as actual people with needs, wants, and sources of aggravation.
Going back to the beautician example, you may create a Hairdresser profile. Her name is Amy, and she is a 45-year-old hairdresser from Indiana. She owns multiple pairs of walking and orthopedic footwear, and not a single pair of high heels. With two children at home, she doesn’t have the money or time to get regular massages.
The idea is to add any helpful information into the profile that would make her seem like a real person. That way, advertising campaigns could be written as if the company is trying to connect with Amy’s needs.
How Digital Marketing Experts Can Help
Professional online marketers will understand how to obtain the data necessary to better understand your customers. They can also help you to create realistic customer profiles grounded in the realities of actual consumers. At L7 Advertising we have the experience and tools you need to create marketing campaigns that matter to your business. Contact us today for a free consultation.