Buyer Persona Template: How to Create Yours in 5 Easy Steps

A buyer persona gives a representation of your ideal customers. In other words, you gather figures, facts and research data about your ideal customers and turn them into a ‘living and breathing’ customer character.

Buyer personas will help you make an informed decision about your business, such as the kind of customer support to offer, the pricing of your products, the approach to take in marketing and advertising, how to develop your product, sales follow up and everything to do with customer retention.

You may ask yourself, “Is having a buyer persona important to my small business?”

This is the same question I asked myself when I started doing Facebook Ads. You know, you need to have a buyer persona to help you define your target audience for your Ads.

So, the answer is YES!

You may know your ideal customers, let’s say the caregivers.

But do you know their interests?

What are their specific needs?

What is their typical background?

These questions get answered in your buyer persona. In that case, you can target the right audience for your Ads and resonate with their needs too.

If you need help with Facebook Ads, check out my FREE Checklist with 20 Facebook Ads Secrets to a Successful Campaign. This is a Checklist that has saved me countless times in my Facebook Campaigns.

You can gather the information about your buyer personas from sources, such as surveys, personal interviews, research, existing customers and prospects.

Start with one buyer persona development and later add others as you grow your business.

For example, if your products are priced in tiers, create buyer personas that match your ideal customers for each tier.

Gather your buyer persona data as you go through these simple steps and use it to create your buyer persona template in step 5.

Step 1: Gather Information About Your Audience

Do research about your current customers.

Collect data about their age, interests, activities, location, stage in life, income, buying behavior and language.

Confirm and get additional information through online surveys, customer interviews, and email surveys.

Check your social media analytics and Google Analytics for information about people who are already interacting with your brand.

Facebook Audience Insights offer valuable information about these people.

Finally research on what the competitors are doing.

Are they targeting the same audience as you? Or, are they reaching out to an audience that you need to reach?

What are they doing that can help you stand out?

I have covered this step and a few other steps in this post, in my Free Facebook Content Planner. The Planner has worksheets attached to help you analyse your audience and create relevant content for them.

Download the Planner below;

Step 2: What are Your Customer Needs?

What challenges is your audience facing?
Are there any pain points they going through?
What problems are they trying to solve?

Engage in social listening to find out.

Set up strategies to monitor what people are saying about your brand or industry online. You will understand why they like or don’t like your product.

Step 3: What are The Goals of Your Customers?

In step 2, you identified the struggles that prevent your customers from realizing their goals. Now, in step 3, identify these goals and aspirations that they are trying to achieve.

They might be professional or personal, but try to align them to the products and services that you offer.

Understand the customer needs, but don’t force the benefits of your products to match their goals. If their goals don’t match with your products, you can use the information to plan your next marketing plan.

Again, just like in step 2, use social listening to gather this data.

Step 4: Dig Deep Into The Benefits of Your Product

Your product needs to solve your customers’ struggles and help in achieving their goals.

Now that you understand what your customers need, analyze the benefits of your products rather than the features.

Simply consider your products from the buyer’s perspective.

For each of the struggles and goals collected, ask yourself how your product can help. Use the answers as the basis for crafting key marketing campaigns.

Step 5: Turn Your Research Data Into Buyer Personas

Go through your data looking for common characteristics then grouping them together.

For instance, you may have identified moms in their 20’s who live in urban areas, have infants, as your buyer persona.

Now, turn it into a persona you can speak to and identify with. By saying this, I mean you should give your persona a defining characteristic, such as a name, home and even a job title!

In the above example, your group of young urban moms could have the persona name, “Young Catherina.” You can then list down her characteristics;

She’s mother of an infant

She is 24 years old

Lives in Minnesota

Works at a retail store

Etc.

However, note that a persona is a segment or a group of your customer base with similar characteristics.

The individual characteristics may vary slightly, but the grouping and naming allow you to address them as human and not a collection of data.

Conclusion

As you draft your buyer persona, always ask yourself who they are now and who they would want to be in the future. This will help you tailor your products to help them achieve their goals.

You will also be able to craft messages that address their specific needs. Ask yourself the following questions;

What struggles is she going through that your message can solve?

Where does she hang out online?

What kind of language does she use online?

Think of her as a human being so you can address her priorities instead of yours.