Why Buyer Personas Are Vital to Inbound Marketing Success

A buyer persona is described by our friends at Hubspot as a, "semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers."

In nearly all cases you won't just have one buyer persona though.

Buyer personas should be developed to fit a range of potential customer types - desirable and otherwise - in readiness for their arrival at your website and to ensure each visitor is treated to a tailored inbound marketing strategy.

"The Big Problem with Buyer Personas in Content Marketing and What to Do About It" http://t.co/3pNFIIuNGp pic.twitter.com/ANH1pybzvT

— George B Thomas (@GeorgeBThomas) March 25, 2015

The inbound marketing process, done well, is intuitive to different buyer personas and their buyer journeys - to the point where any given customer should feel like the entire sales process was designed with purely them in mind.

To make that happen, you have to get your buyer personas right. Here are some of the reasons why buyer personas are vital to good inbound strategy.

1. Buyer personas inform the type of content you post

Imagine you're a business selling specialist software, and you've identifed that your key buyer persona is a high-ranking decision-maker working in IT for a big pharmaceutical company.

Knowing that criteria helps you define the type of content you'll use in your blog posts and also in offerings such as eBooks and infographics. You can study the customers you already have to help you here, along with conducting your own research.

In time, you'll understand the type of questions this buyer persona is asking online, and the problems for which they need answers.

2. Buyer personas inform the sales process

Providing a detailed buyer persona to your marketing and sales teams helps both of them hone their process for converting leads into customers.

A company selling educational software might have a different approach set up for teachers than they would for administrators or faculty heads, for example. This would be evidenced in the type of emails leads were sent, how phone calls were approached and the offers that were presented.

3. Buyer personas inform the offers you use

Inbound marketing success follows the "attract, convert, close, delight," pattern. In the conversion stage a great offer is vital, because it's what entices a visitor to fill out a form and thus become a lead.

The best way to make that happen is to create offers that appeal accurately to your buyer personas. By researching your buyer persona needs, you can target their interests with specialist offers and give yourself a great chance of converting.

"Community Through Content - Wilma - March 2015 - Wilmington, NC" http://t.co/DPpqp2rTPB by @WilmaMag pic.twitter.com/S99t2Ts47Y

— Hüify (@TeamHuify) March 25, 2015

4. The more you know, the more you sell

Nobody sells successfully without knowing their customers inside out. You might even argue the process of creating and researching buyer personas is almost as important as their implementation with your inbound strategy.

The more you know about your customers, the better you can serve their needs and the more sales you'll get.

Hüify is a dynamic inbound marketing agency based in Wilmington NC. To schedule a free consultation with one of our inbound experts simply click the button above.