Every market taps into a different section of society. Think about it: Do you create a product or sell your service to everyone you come across? Or do you have a target population in your mind? And if you do have a target audience in your mind, do you know enough about them? If not, create a buyer persona right away!
One of the significant reasons why most businesses fail is because they do not understand their audience as much as they should. They only know them on the surface. As a result, most companies experience a mismatch between their product and target audiences. And buyer personas can help you avoid this mismatch altogether.
But what is a buyer persona? How do you create it? Are there some buyer persona templates available for immediate use? Don’t worry; we are here to tell you everything about them, so keep reading.
This blog will walk you through all you need to know about a buyer persona –
- What is it?
- Who should be involved?
- What questions should you ask?
- Buyer Persona examples and more!
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What Is a Buyer Persona?
Described simply, a buyer persona is a representation of your ideal customer. It answers the following questions: Who they are, how they are, what they do, and more.
Moreover, it’s a fictional character that you create to reflect your ideal or the best customer. Also, sometimes you may even use a fake name and a face to understand them better.
To understand it better, consider it as a brief overview of an individual. It summarizes their psychographic and demographic information to understand the buyer journey or the customer journey. Also, it helps to understand consumer behavior, allowing you to tailor your products or services to meet their needs the best.
Who Should Be Involved in Creating Your Buyer Personas
Ask yourself: What all departments directly or indirectly talk to my buyers? Or who can tell me the best about my ideal buyer?
Ideally, it will be your sales and marketing team. Sales team because they are the ones who are selling your marketing. And the marketing team because they are the ones talking to your customers when your sales team isn’t.
Understand: It’s not an independent effort. It must be a collaborative effort across departments. So get your sales and marketing team in a room and discuss how your ideal buyer looks. It will give you a starting point for digging deeper.
Ask them different questions.
For instance, you could ask the following buyer persona questions to your marketing team –
- What information do you currently have about the audience visiting the website?
- What marketing strategy are you using?
- Which marketing strategies in the past have been proven successful? Why?
- How is the traffic on the current blogs? And which blogs have received the highest traffic?
- How do the customers talk about us online?
- What do the customers have to say about us online?
- What are common queries they have?
- Which platform gives us the highest leads?
- Where is our audience active? On which media platform?
Similarly, ask your sales team the following buyer persona questions –
- What type of customer base do we have?
- Which customer type do you interact with the most?
- What are their everyday problems?
- Why are they choosing us over our competitors?
- What is the reason behind their purchase?
But do you think your marketing and sales team knows it all? The answer is likely to be no. Your target audience knows itself the best. Thus, it is essential to directly get in touch with the customers for creating buyer personas. For this, you may schedule an interview or send out a buyer persona survey with all the questions.
Now, what buyer persona questions do you ask your customers? What questions will tap into consumer behavior and help you create a complete customer profile? Let’s see!
Questions for Buyers Persona
Asking questions is not enough to create customer profiles that will help you chart the customer journey map. You must be asking the RIGHT questions. And for this, you must tap into various aspects of a buyer’s life. But why? Because it is these aspects that determine their buyer journey, buying process, and the psychology behind it.
Another thing to remember is that every market is unique. As a result, the buyer persona questions for the markets will differ. Although you can start from a common point, going ahead, you will have to personalize them to your industry. If you do not do so, you will not have an accurate buyer persona. As a result, this may impact your understanding of consumer behavior and buying process.
The following is a list of buyer persona questions categorized into different groups.
Buyer Persona Demographics
Demographic information forms the basis of your buyer persona. Demographic questions lay the foundation, allowing you to judge the other possible questions you can ask. Ask them the following demographic questions without fail –
Must-Have Questions
- How old are you?
- What gender do you identify yourself with?
- What is your qualification?
- Are you married?
- Do you have any children? How old are they?
- Where do you stay? (You may need need to know the exact location. The area will do)
- Are you a homemaker or a working individual?
Optional Questions
- How many family members do you have?
- Why are you a homemaker or a working individual?
- What are the genders of your children?
Note.: Not all of these questions can be asked directly. Furthermore, you must be sensitive to your customers. Thus, questions about an individual’s gender identity will have to be asked indirectly, so they do not offend them.
Furthermore, you may not want to begin the interview by bombarding them with these questions immediately. Try to keep the tone conversational and ask these questions whenever relevant to the conversation. You could keep these questions as a checklist with you to track them.
Professional Information
Once you collect the basic demographic details, it’s time to dig a little deeper. Gathering professional information can give you an insight into the spending power. Furthermore, it also impacts their buyer journey and decision. Also, these questions provide insight into how your buyer spends their time and, to some extent, how they understand the world.
The following is a list of some professional persona questions you can ask –
Must-Have Questions
- Which industry do you work in?
- Where do you work?
- What do you do? And what is your primary role in the company?
- How long have you been in this position?
- How big is the company you work at?
- What are your future aspirations?
- What special skills do you have?
- Do you manage anyone?
- How much time do you spend at work?
Optional Questions
- What does your career path look like?
- What does your typical day at work look like?
- Are you on good terms with your manager/management?
Buyer Motivations
Buyer motivations typically tap into WHY. They answer the following question: What drives the buyer to buy – is it a necessity or a wish?
Furthermore, it answers the underlying reason for their choice. Also, it helps to understand the psychology behind their choices. As a result, it helps to predict how they will behave or what buying decision they will make in certain situations.
Goals and Challenges
Your buyer’s goals and challenges can be personal or professional. For instance, some may want to lead a healthy life. Similarly, someone’s goal may be to complete more certificate courses, invest in upskilling, or automate mundane everyday tasks.
Whether you are a B2B or a B2C, your buyer’s goals and challenges will determine whether they buy your product or service. It will also decide how they interact with your product or service (buyer journey).
The following are some buyer persona questions related to goals and challenges that you can ask –
Must-Have Questions
- What are your personal goals in life?
- What is your professional goal?
- How do you prioritize them?
- Why are they your goals? Any specific reason behind them?
- What do you think is the hardest part about this goal? And what is stopping you from achieving them?
- What kind of product or service can help you achieve this goal?
- Do you think our product or service can help you? Or How can it help you?
Optional Questions
- Do you have any interpersonal conflicts related to this goal?
- How would you know that you have achieved your goal?
- Have you tried overcoming these challenges in the past? How?
- How do you think can the product or the service become better?
Values and Fears
Values and fears are social factors influencing how your prospective customers behave in social situations. It also determines whether or not they make purchases of your goods and services. For instance, your target market may want items with eco-friendly products to support the notion of sustainability. Examples may also include the demand for vegan, gluten-free, and natural products.
Following are some questions for buyer personas that you may ask –
Must-Have Questions
- What value system do you believe in?
- List a few values that make a difference in your personal and professional life.
- Would you buy from a brand that does not align with these values?
- How do you think your belief in adding a specific value listed before impacts your buying decision?
- What worries you the most when buying a product?
- How do you think we can resolve your worry?
- What do you think before purchasing a product?
- What makes you nervous?
Optional Questions
- Which other brands in the market align with your values?
- How do you personally resolve your worries or fears when buying a product?
- Tell us about a bad buying experience. What went wrong?
- Tell us about a buy you feel happy about. Why does it make you happy?
Buyer Habits
Buyer habit questions tap into the minor aspects which impact the buying decision. For instance, some individuals buy a product only after reading reviews. At the same time, some depend on their friend’s or peer opinion. Furthermore, some people are likely to wait on the buying decision for some days to see if they need a product or service. All of these little habits determine how the search starts and how it ends.
You may ask the following buyer persona questions to tap into the habits –
Must-Have Questions
- How do you search for products?
- Do you believe in advertisements?
- What platforms are you active on?
- Do you and your friends or family members discuss the products you buy?
- Do you prefer online shopping or window shopping?
- Are you more likely to buy a product or service if you get a free trial?
- Do you actively wait and buy during discounts or sales?
- How often do you purchase luxurious items?
Optional Questions
- What type of discounts excites you the most?
- Do you have any relevant hobbies?
- Do you attend any conferences, workshops, or meetings?
- What are your networking practices?
Negative Buyer Persona Information
Recognizing customers who are a poor fit for your goods or services is equally crucial as knowing whom you should sell to. But why? Because doing this can save time and keep your company hidden from those you can’t win over.
Following are some questions you may ask –
- Which clients are too costly or challenging to sustain?
- Do some clients lack the money to buy what you have to offer?
- Is your product ill-suited to a particular market or demographic? Or is it just not intended for them?
Buyer Persona Examples
So, what does a buyer persona look like? You could gather the data, identify the main factors, and put them together in specific headings. Another way to do this is to use a buyer persona template available online for reference and tweak it to meet your needs.
One of the most simple buyer persona examples is a one-page document with multiple headings and a photo. You can then bold the critical keywords. Also, use bullet points to organize information better and draw attention to essential facts. Another easy way is to use buyer persona generator software.
Benefits of Creating Buyer Personas
You may find creating buyer personas daunting. But they play an essential role across different business functions. The following are some of the benefits of creating a persona list –
- Provides a detailed understanding of consumer behavior
- Allows you to create targeted marketing campaigns
- Lets you direct your sales and marketing efforts in the right direction
- Allows you to position your product better
- Helps to enhance product/service-market fit
- Gets you better-qualified leads
- Increases conversion rates
Conclusion
Buyer personas are integral to the growth and success of the business. They allow you to target the right audience. Thereby generating more sales for your business. But remember, a single team may not be able to create an excellent profile. Everyone must equally contribute and collaborate.
We hope these questions help you start the process of creating buyer personas for your company. But ensure you tweak them to your specific needs and industry to do it right. Because when you do it right, the benefits are significant.
