Successful small businesses (well all businesses I guess) know that happy customers are key to their growth and future. The best way to keep customers happy is to know them as well as possible and serve them in ways that are meaningful to them specifically. Whether you market B2B or B2C, your target audience groups consist of real people, with real lives, wants, pains, goals, responsibilities, challenges, and jobs, with bosses they have to answer to. The goal is to get to know them on a personal level so that you can start to deliver useful business content and messaging that will resonate with them and get them to take action.
For most of us, getting to know each one of our potential and existing customers is an impossible task. Luckily, many of them have shared traits and commonalities. By gathering these shared traits and commonalities into a single persona profile, we can create a prototype of our ideal customer. We call this a Buyer Persona.
You likely have more than one Buyer Persona type that you sell to. The idea is focus on your ideal Buyer Personas – those who represent the strongest, most rewarding business opportunities. Depending on the size and nature of your business, you may end up with a minimum of two and potentially three to five for each business division you have. It is best to keep them to a minimum remember, you are considering those who are your ideal customers because of what you are going to do next.
The next step is to use what you know about each one of your Buyer Personas in all future business considerations, including: developing content such as website copy, case studies, white papers, technical documentation, videos, social media posts, advertising copy, promotional materials, and pre- and post-sale communications; developing new products, services, events, training, and customer support channels; and even expanding your physical presence to new geographic areas.
Whether it’s delivering a specific type of content – at a certain time – to the right person via the right channel, or opening a new store in a new city, Buyer Personas give you much of the valuable insight you need to do the right things at the right time. Buyer Personas are the key that unlocks the opportunities to attract new business, make sales, and develop customer loyalty that not only sustains your business but helps it to continue to grow.
