6 Steps to Creating Buyer Personas: Learn what buyer personas are, why buyer personas are important, and how to create a buyer persona. Includes a buyer persona template!

1. BUYER PERSONAS:!
6 Steps to Creating!
Buyer Personas!
Joy Martinez, MBA!

2. !Objective!
• Learn what buyer personas are, why buyer
personas are important, and how to create a
buyer persona.!

3. !What Are Buyer Personas?!
• Fictional, generalized representations of an ideal
customer!
• Based on market research & insights – real data,
behaviors, and demographics learned through
surveys, interviews, and data collection!
• Depending on the business, an organization
may have one or two, or many, personas!

4. !Why Use Buyer Personas?!
• Help understand customers and prospective customers
better!
• Map out and create highly targeted content!
• Personalize or target marketing for different segments;
brings focus to marketing campaigns!
• Segment out the “bad apples” (negative personas) =
which can help achieve a lower cost-per-lead (CPL), a
lower cost-per-customer (CPC), & higher sales
productivity!
• Gives you the ability to send the right content to the
right person at the right time!

5. Buyer Personas bring
more of a human
touch to marketing.!

6. How to Create Buyer Personas
1. Customer Attribute Identification!
2. Data Collection!
3. Segmentation!
4. Persona Creation!
5. Content & Messaging!
6. Execution & Adjustments!

7. • 2 types of customers: those you want to do business with
and those you don’t!
• Look at your own customer database – identify trends in
how your leads/customers find & consume content!
• Interview Sales, Business Development, and Customer
Service departments!
• Write down attributes of your ideal customer!
– What they care about!
– What are their goals!
– What are their behaviors!
! ! !Customer Attribute Identification!1

8. ! ! !Data Collection!
• Collect data on your ideal customer!
– Demographic (Gender; Job Title; Job Role; Geographic
Region)!
– Firmographic (Annual Revenue; Company Size; Industry)!
– Behavioral (What type of content are they interested in;
What products or services did they buy; What challenge or
pain point are they looking to overcome or solve)!
• Reference CRM & Marketing Automation system!
• Use OneSource, Data.com, Hoovers, D&B, etc!
2

9. ! ! !Segmentation!
• Identify patterns and trends of potential
customers!
• Segment the data accordingly!
3

10. ! ! !Persona Creation!
• Depending on the company, how many products/
services offered will determine the # of personas!
• Create a profile for each persona that includes
key data points!
– Demographics, Identifiers, Goals, Challenges, Quotes,
Objections (Add in Marketing Message & Elevator Pitch)!
• Name the persona and use that name throughout
your marketing plan!
4

11. ! ! !Content & Messaging!
• Develop content topics and messaging for each
persona profile!
• Determine appropriate content types for each
persona throughout the sales/buying cycle!
• Create elevator pitch!
5

12. ! ! !Execution & Adjustments!
• Roll out the buyer personas!
– Align with the customer buying cycle!
– Address the pain points & motivation to purchase in a
logical order that aligns with buying cycle!
• Make adjustments to existing personas, or
create/delete personas, as necessary!
– New product/services, retired product/services,
industry changes!
6

13. !Summary!
• WHAT: Fictional, generalized representations of an
ideal customer based on research & insights!
• WHY: Map out and create highly targeted content in
order to better personalize marketing!
• HOW: 6 Steps to Create Buyer Personas:!
1. Customer Attribute Identification!
2. Data Collection!
3. Segmentation!
4. Persona Creation!
5. Content & Messaging!
6. Execution & Adjustments!

14. TEMPLATE!

15. PERSONA NAME: !
Background!
• !
• !
• !
• !
Identifiers!
• !
• !
• !
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Goals!
• !
• !
• !
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Challenges!
• !
• !
• !

16. Quotes!
• !
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• !
• !
Messaging!
1. !
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2. !
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3. !
Objections!
• !
!
• !
• !
Elevator Pitch!
1. !
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2. !
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3. !
MARKETING & SALES
PERSONA NAME: !