6 steps to creating your buyer personas and a free template
Buyer personas are semi-fictional profiles of your target audience so you understand your customers better and can tailor your marketing messaging for them.
First we need to understand the customer journey to better understand how buyer personas fit in your marketing strategy to help you create relevant and effective marketing campaigns.
The customer journey
The customer journey is “the complete sum of experiences that customers go through when interacting with your company and brand. Instead of looking at just a part of a transaction or experience, the customer journey documents the full experience of being a customer.”
The modern customer journey takes place online and has five steps: Awareness, interest, evaluation, decision, and retention. Your customers interact with your brand across all of these steps, and many marketing tactics overlap. Some examples of digital marketing tactics for each step of the journey include:
- Awareness: Search, PPC, news articles, review sites
- Interest: Website visits, social media, Search
- Evaluation: Website visits, review sites, social media
- Decision: Online bookings
- Retention: Social media, email subscribers, blog subscribers, review sites
Another way to look at it is to think about it on an awareness scale:
- Unaware: The client doesn’t there’s a problem they need to solve
- Problem aware: They know there’s an issue but don’t know how to solve it
- Solution aware: They know the problem and solution and are evaluating your products
- Product aware: They need more information about your brand and if the product is the right fit
- Purchase aware: They’re ready to buy
Each stage has different types of writing attached:
- Unaware: Stories and educational information
- Problem aware: Benefits and anxieties
- Solution aware: Proof, stories and customer case studies
- Product aware: Discounts or special offers
- Purchase aware: Product details and price
As your customers move through each stage, you need to have quality, targeted content waiting for them. So, how do we create that content? By knowing our customers through buyer personas.
Buyer personas
Through audience research you can learn more about your customers and what problems they need to address. Audience research can be done through Google Analytics by looking at demographic data and how they’re using your website, through social media by looking at demographics, lifestyle information, buying behavior, and related interests, as well as direct market research through surveys, polls, and feedback forms.
Your sales and customer service departments are also goldmines when it comes to understanding your typical customer.
The 4 rights of buyer personas
Answering the right questions at the right time on the right channel for the right customer.
Let’s say you’re the manager of a local gym. Your customers probably include class fitness enthusiasts, body builders, and those who are just starting to get into fitness. These are three different personalities that need three different types of messaging to come to your gym. For our personas, we’ll call them:
- Zumba Zoe: Only attends classes
- Mad Max: Bodybuilder and gym rat
- Healthy Heidi: Looking to join a gym
Here, we’ll break out each of these characters into a buyer persona and match different content and marketing channels to their needs.
We’re going to use six steps for our buyer personas:
- Give them a name
- Provide demographic information
- Determine their values
- Set goals
- Identify challenges
- Map out content to online channels
Zumba Zoe
Software developer
25, female, Denver, $90,000 salary
Values: Zoe likes being social and making new friends in class, and how much her gym membership costs isn’t important to her. Having early morning and evening group fitness classes is important to her as well as healthy living seminars.
Goals: Make friends, try different classes to keep her workouts interesting
Challenges: Finding a gym that offers classes on her schedule
Marketing messages for Zoe
Ad
Need a change? Come check out our exciting lineup of group classes at Denver Gym! View the schedule now!
Blogs
- Break a sweat at these 3 hot new classes at Denver Gym
- 5 reasons you need to add studio classes to your workout routine
- Focused breathing: Denver Gym’ yoga seminar on April 6
Cool down: Upcoming yoga seminar at Denver Gym
Social
Inspirational posts, class schedules, healthy living blogs, video previews of new classes
Mad Max
Video editor for local TV station
35, male, Denver, $55,000 salary
Values: Max practically lives at the gym. He has a few close friends that he works out with, works in television as a cameraman, and takes his workouts and post-workout routine seriously. Cost is a factor to him but if he loves his gym he’ll find a way to make it work.
Goals: Keep up his fitness routine, find a gym with a shop for protein shakes and supplements
Challenges: Cost, large enough space for his workouts with his buddies
Marketing messages for Max
Ad
We’re weighing in: Denver Gym has the best selection of free weights and weight machines for your body building needs. Schedule a visit now!
Blogs
- Protein pre- or post-workout? The experts weigh in
- Target different muscles with these 10 weight lifting exercises
- 5 tips from our personal trainers on how to be a better spotter
New at Denver Gym: Protein-packed supplements the pros use
Social
Links to men’s health articles, protein powder and supplement reviews, gym news and hours, new equipment announcements
Healthy Heidi
Receptionist
50, female, Denver, $40,000 salary
Values: Heidi is considering joining a gym with her husband. She just wants to be more active and get in shape as her daughter is having their first grandchild soon. She needs some help figuring out what to do at the gym and doesn’t want to spend a lot of money on a membership.
Goals: Get in shape and have fun with her family
Challenges: Cost, getting started
Marketing messages for Heidi
Ad
Stick to your healthy resolutions this year with our limited time offer of 10% off yearly gym memberships at Denver Gym! Purchase a 12-month membership now!
Blogs
- 10 tips for finding your best workout routine
- 5 reasons you should work out with a personal trainer at your gym
- 12 reasons to invest in a gym membership this year
The ROI of a gym membership
Social
Personal trainer video previews, workout circuits for newbies, women’s health articles, healthy living seminar information
Buyer persona template
Character name
Job
Age, gender, city, salary
Values: What do they value?
Goals: What goals are they trying to achieve?
Challenges: What could prevent them from taking action?
Marketing messages
Ads
Blogs
Social
If you want to take it a step further, you could also add brand personality/tone into your marketing messages and understand what type of branding would resonate best with each persona, like friendly, formal, humorous, straightforward, and so on.
Buyer personas can shift and change as your customers move through their own buyer’s journey, but by understanding what speaks to them, you can create targeted, relevant content for each persona at every stage of the buyer’s journey.
