How to Create a “B2B Buyer Persona”
Posted: Tue Dec 03, 2024 5:53 am
To maximize the effectiveness of your marketing campaign and get your content seen by the right audience, it's important to know your customers beyond demographics.
We must therefore ask ourselves a series of questions that are more profound than the simple role in the company, sector or geolocation of the prospect.
In addition to these important questions that represent an excellent starting point, we must therefore ask ourselves, for example:
Where do they go to look for reliable sources of information?
What motivates them to purchase?
Knowing these answers is essential to create effective B2B marketing campaigns. The way to do this is to create what is technically called Buyer Personas. Buyer Personas are an “avatar” of the typical customer based on demographics, behavior, lifestyle and purchasing motivations based on the role they hold in the company. In a B2B context, buyer personas therefore represent the buyers who make purchasing decisions in the company.
Creating a Buyer Persona in B2B
The basic steps for creating a B2B buyer persona are similar to B2C customer personas, with a few important distinctions. Let’s look at the steps for creating buyer personas that will help you plan and make your marketing campaigns effective.
The image shows the differences between target audience and buyer persona.
PHASE 1
There are some important attributes to identify in your buyer personas, as, as mentioned, you need to deepen your understanding of your customers, thinking about their lifestyle, motivations, afghanistan phone number library challenges, and goals. Here are some categories that most marketers include:
Demographics: What is their age, location, and company/industry?
Career: How long have they been in the industry, what is their purchasing power, and what needs to happen to make purchasing decisions?
Lifestyle: What are their main responsibilities and work activities?
Media: Where do they go to find reliable sources of information and networking: conferences, forums, and/or corporate social media?
Motivations / Goals / Objectives: What drives their purchasing decisions and what business goals do they have?
Brands: What brands or products do they already use in their company? What do they like/dislike about these products?
Pain points / frustrations / challenges: What problems do they have that they need help solving?
What challenges do they face in trying to achieve their business goals/objectives?
Objections: What are the frustrations they have with related products or services (or yours)?
Keep the above categories in mind as you move to the next step of researching existing buyers and businesses.
PHASE 2
When looking for your ideal buyer, the first step is to brainstorm which industries and companies your product or service would be suitable for.
First of all, if you have an already established company, you can certainly scrutinize in detail the characteristics of your best customers and then, to support the data obtained, you can start using digital tools.
To research B2B buyer personas, LinkedIn certainly provides an in-depth look at various companies and industries.
By looking at employee profiles, you can gather information about how long they have been in the industry or specific company, what their educational background is, what companies they follow, and much more. LinkedIn, as we have seen, is a great place to share articles, communicate with other professionals in forums, and connect with others.
We must therefore ask ourselves a series of questions that are more profound than the simple role in the company, sector or geolocation of the prospect.
In addition to these important questions that represent an excellent starting point, we must therefore ask ourselves, for example:
Where do they go to look for reliable sources of information?
What motivates them to purchase?
Knowing these answers is essential to create effective B2B marketing campaigns. The way to do this is to create what is technically called Buyer Personas. Buyer Personas are an “avatar” of the typical customer based on demographics, behavior, lifestyle and purchasing motivations based on the role they hold in the company. In a B2B context, buyer personas therefore represent the buyers who make purchasing decisions in the company.
Creating a Buyer Persona in B2B
The basic steps for creating a B2B buyer persona are similar to B2C customer personas, with a few important distinctions. Let’s look at the steps for creating buyer personas that will help you plan and make your marketing campaigns effective.
The image shows the differences between target audience and buyer persona.
PHASE 1
There are some important attributes to identify in your buyer personas, as, as mentioned, you need to deepen your understanding of your customers, thinking about their lifestyle, motivations, afghanistan phone number library challenges, and goals. Here are some categories that most marketers include:
Demographics: What is their age, location, and company/industry?
Career: How long have they been in the industry, what is their purchasing power, and what needs to happen to make purchasing decisions?
Lifestyle: What are their main responsibilities and work activities?
Media: Where do they go to find reliable sources of information and networking: conferences, forums, and/or corporate social media?
Motivations / Goals / Objectives: What drives their purchasing decisions and what business goals do they have?
Brands: What brands or products do they already use in their company? What do they like/dislike about these products?
Pain points / frustrations / challenges: What problems do they have that they need help solving?
What challenges do they face in trying to achieve their business goals/objectives?
Objections: What are the frustrations they have with related products or services (or yours)?
Keep the above categories in mind as you move to the next step of researching existing buyers and businesses.
PHASE 2
When looking for your ideal buyer, the first step is to brainstorm which industries and companies your product or service would be suitable for.
First of all, if you have an already established company, you can certainly scrutinize in detail the characteristics of your best customers and then, to support the data obtained, you can start using digital tools.
To research B2B buyer personas, LinkedIn certainly provides an in-depth look at various companies and industries.
By looking at employee profiles, you can gather information about how long they have been in the industry or specific company, what their educational background is, what companies they follow, and much more. LinkedIn, as we have seen, is a great place to share articles, communicate with other professionals in forums, and connect with others.