Building Your Buyer Personas
So…what exactly is a buyer persona?
A buyer persona is a composite sketch of your ideal customer based on the demographic information you have gathered about them. In a nutshell, a buyer persona is a thorough profile of your target audience that will help you tailor both your designing and marketing efforts in the right direction. Rather than a laundry list of demographics, characteristics, and expectations, personas provide a fictional character that will be way easier for you to have an understanding of.
How exactly will this help? And why should I care?
Well, by getting into the character of the buyer, you as a creator will have a deeper understanding of the thoughts, preferences, and buying behavior of your niche audience. These personas are an invaluable tool that will help you ask the right questions, provide a benchmark to base your new designs on, and will ultimately help you get more sales by helping you focus your efforts to the right crowd. There is no one-size-fits-all formula in designing, so you will need to learn what your customers love and dislike before you start creating your content.
In order to paint a thorough picture of your ideal customer, you should gather background pertaining to your niche. Don't feel as if this is an unnecessary step. It will save you time in the long run if you better understand your niche.
Demographics
- Age - Are there any age specific preferences of your buyer?
- Gender - Does gender influence what your niche audience will purchase?
- Salary/household income - What is the income bracket of the person most likely to buy your type of product?
- Location - Does your niche have an urban or rural flavor?
- Education - What is the educational level of the person most likely to buy your product?
- Status - Is your customer more likely to be single or part of a household? Are they a mom? Etc.
Psychographics
- What are their beliefs or viewpoints?
- Are there any common personality or attitude traits?
- What are their values?
- Can you identify what they believe in so you can make a more authentic product that they’ll personally connect to?
Interests
- What are their hobbies?
- Where do they get their news?
Buying Behaviour
- Why would they buy your product? Would they buy it for themselves or for someone else?
- Where else do they shop? (retail stores, online, discounters, etc.)
- How will your product be used?
- What functionality will be the most important to them?
- Will your products enhance their life or help them solve a challenge?
- How often will they buy your product?
- Why would they consider NOT buying it?
Facebook Audience Insights
How exactly do you get all this information about people you have never met? Where everyone gets their information of course -- on Facebook! Facebook has an amazing tool called "Audience Insights" that will allow you to analyze publicly shared information about your niche to help develop your buyer personas.
If this is your first time using this tool, head on over to https://www.facebook.com/business/insights/tools/audience-insights and choose 'Go to Audience Insights.' Then select 'Everyone on Facebook' when prompted.
You can start by using the filters on the left sidebar to start narrowing in on your niche. Let’s look at the niche ‘female firefighters in New York’ from the previous lesson (read here). As you can see, filtering only by gender and two interest groups, a wealth of knowledge is instantaneously at your disposal:
Not only will you be presented with the demographics of your niche (age, gender, location, job, etc.), but you can also use the upper tabs to learn more about their behaviors, such as where they like to shop, their favorite restaurants, how they spend their money, and even what kind of car they’re looking to buy!
Just from the demographic portion, we can start mining for some gems that will get you started. Some things to consider:
Where Does Your Niche Live?
Where your niche lives can have a major impact in your designs. A few things to consider when diving into the geographic targeting of your customers:
- Local customs or traditions
- Local foods
- Local teams
- Local sayings
What Is The Age Range Of Your Target Audience?
Your audience’s age range can certainly steer your design. Just think how different a teenager's interests and everyday language might be from their own grandparents and you can get an idea about how much consideration you should put into the age of your target audience when creating designs.
What Does Your Niche Do for a Living?
A person’s career can be a major contributor to their preferences. Understanding what your niche does for a living can really help steer your designing process, and may even provide some fresh ideas.
What Gender Makes up the Majority of Your Niche?
What gender makes up the majority of your niche? This little tidbit can prove incredibly useful when trying to decide between a more masculine or feminine approach to your designs.
Start Building Your Buyer Personas
Once you’ve gathered enough information about your niche, you’ll want to start building out your buyer persona to help you get a better grasp of who you’ll be marketing to:
Don’t be afraid to play around with the Audience Insight tool; you’ll be amazed by the wealth of information you’ll find. Also, familiarize yourself with the different features of the tool, we’ll be referring back to it when the time comes to start marketing your products!
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