Creating Awesome B2B Buyer Personas

Capturing a prospective buyer’s attention isn’t easy. If you haven’t locked onto the right marketing message, you might as well be shouting into the void. You have to target the buyer’s need, desire, preference or requirement. You need to build a strong buyer persona.

Creating buyer personas for business-to-consumer (B2C) is different from business-to-business (B2B). B2C requires more in-depth research. That said, even B2B personas are tough to create until you know what to ask. According to a study by ITSMA, 48 percent of buyers are more likely to make a purchase if they’ve been engaged with personalized marketing messaging. BrightTalk notes that you can double the open rate and quintuple the click through rate when a buyer’s persona is used to create marketing messages.

Let’s discuss how to craft buyer personas to create persuasive messaging that can boost sales and revenue.

1. Identify Target Customers

Every business has one or more target customers, depending on their offerings. An online mattress company might target individual buyers who have specific criteria depending on their requirements and wholesalers/distributors. They will then sell these mattresses to various consumers. In this instance, you can’t have the same marketing strategy and messaging for both the target buyers. You need to identify their requirements and needs individually.

The answer is to create two different buyer personas. A detailed persona for each target audience is crucial. If you have more than two target buyers, target the best performing buyers.

2. Initial Customer Info

Once you have identified your target customers, you need to collect data. You can capture all the important information using forms present on your webpages and social media. The data you need should be looking for are:

• Company type of your buyer
• Company revenue (approximate value)
• Company’s demographic region and industry type
• Buyer’s role in the company
• Buyer’s key problems/issues
• Keywords buyer’s using to search solutions on web
• Buyer’s purchasing pattern
• Buyer opted for competitor’s solution (if any)
• Buyer’s web activity on your website (if any)

Accumulate this information and categorize your target buyers in one, two or more categories, depending on your criteria. This can also help filter out prospective buyers who don’t fit your product or your service.

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3. Buyer Survey/Questionnaire

Another method of obtaining information on your buyer is to use a survey or questionnaire. Social media is a boon here. Add Twitter cards to your tweets to capture more buyer data. Or add forms on your webpages asking prospective buyers to fill it out. You can include multiple choice question surveys to make them a little easier.

Be sure to include questions that you are already using for your existing customers. For better engagement from your buyers, give them an incentive to finish this survey like a discount or coupon code.

4. Interview Sales Representatives

Nobody interacts with prospective buyers more than your sales representatives. They can provide you with insights on what type of buyers to pursue or what industry/market to target and which is the key criteria you need to look into when you start capturing information on your buyers. Since selling is their forte, they know what type of buyer will or will not fit the product you’re marketing. Get their advice on the questionnaires and surveys you’re sending out.

5. Analyze Contact Data on CRM

In-depth research is time consuming. That’s why we have CRMs to help organize and analyze contact information. Many businesses use CRMs because it is easier to clip and save data in a centralized system.

CRMs like Agile CRM not only offer contact data clipping from LinkedIn and Twitter, but it also provides a 360-degree contact view as well. Agile allows you to easily understand the contact’s web behavior, social presence and basic information.

Buyer personas are not static. As new information is gathered, they have to change. However, personas make it easier to market more effectively. According to a B2B Content Marketing Spotlight Report, 40 percent of B2B marketers are creating content based on buyer personas. Why? Simple: it’s easier to connect with prospective buyers when they engage with relevant content. Give them the right content, and you could find yourself a new customer.