Goal:
Create a buyer persona based on real customer feedback and data.
Ideal Outcome:
Successfully create a buyer persona that you can use for your marketing campaigns.
Prerequisites or requirements:
You should have conducted customer interviews before you complete your buyer persona. If you haven’t done so already, follow SOP 160 (web version) on how to schedule and conduct customer interviews.
Why this is important:
A well-designed persona based on real customer feedback and data reveals insight into how buyers buy and how you can reach this type of buyer.
Where this is done:
Google slides and Google docs.
When is this done:
In the early stage of marketing your business or a new product, and then reviewed at least once a year.
Who does this:
Marketing Manager, marketing consultant, or any person responsible for marketing strategy for your business.
Interview potential and existing customers
In order to create an accurate buyer persona, set up interview sessions with potential and existing customers and document their answers.Follow SOP 160 (web version) to set up interview sessions with your customers.
If you’re doing cold outreach to potential customers, use this interview script to conduct the interview.
Fill in the buyer persona template with the answers you collect from the interview.
Fill out the buyer persona template
Note: Based on your interview sessions, create 3-4 groups of customers with similar profiles and backgrounds so you don’t have to create a persona for every type of customer.
Fill-out the buyer persona template:Identify this persona’s traits:
Customer avatar — A profile picture of your customer if available.
Name, Title — Name and the work title of your customer.
Demographics —Age, Education background, Occupation, income level, location where applicable.
Bio — A short description of what they do, how many years were they in the industry, and what was their career path like
Business/Career Goals — What are their personal/company goals for the next 6 months and 1 year? What are their current plans?
Challenges — What major obstacles and bottlenecks are they facing that will prevent them from achieving their goals?Here’s an example from the template:
Answer 3 questions to identify why your solution works for them:.
How are they using our products
In what circumstances do they use our product/service?
What’s the problem they’re using our product/service to solve?
When do they use it
What they like about our products/service (Include real quotes)
What specific aspect/feature of the product did they like?
Why did they like it?
Are they any other products they use it with?
What they dislike about our products/service (Include real quotes)
What specific aspect/feature of the product did they dislike?
Why did they dislike it?
What other alternatives/competitors did they consider?Here’s an example from the template:
Detail their online habits:
What online communities are they in?
Which Facebook/LinkedIn/Slack etc groups are they active in?
Did they join any online course with a private community?
Where do they learn about news?
Where/How do they keep up with industry news?
Who’s the expert in their industry they listen to?
Are they active on any social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Online publication they subscribed to.
Which blog did they subscribe to?
What are their favorite newsletters?Here’s an example from the template:
Do this again for each type of persona that you’ve identified and that’s it! You’ve successfully created a set of personas you can now use whenever you are creating new content, offers, or marketing material.