6 Easy Steps to Create a Buyer Persona [FREE TEMPLATE]

What is a buyer persona, and why is it so important in effective video marketing?

A buyer persona is a fictional person who represents your broader target audience. Think of a buyer persona as your ideal customer, or the people you want to do business with.

Importantly, these personas influence most aspects of your business. They are crucial in directing content creation and in product development. Buyer personas also determine how potential clients can be turned into actual clients and the messaging required to do so.

Developing a buyer persona allows you to create targeted video marketing campaigns that connect your products with people who want to buy them.

Check your dataIf developing a persona from scratch, analytical data is your best friend.

Who are the sort of people you are already doing business with? Google Analytics will provide basic demographic data such as the age and home country of your customers.
But it will also tell you about their buying behaviour. Google Analytics will show you which content lead to a buying decision or which social media post lead to the most direct sales.

Speaking of social media, platforms such as Instagram and Facebook also provide detailed data on user demographics.
Facebook in particular displays data on hobbies, relationship status and even job titles. It also gives you valuable information on people who are interacting with your brand but have not yet bought from you.
Potential customers, in other words.

Survey your audience

If you are just starting out and do not have the luxury of an existing customer base, then never fear.

Send a survey to your prospective clients to really get a feel for your target audience. This audience may be on an email list you already own. But often, you will need to be proactive and search them out yourself. Where do they hang out and what type of survey might they most enjoy completing?

Instagram stories is one way to survey your audience in a fun and engaging way. By keeping the surveys short and sweet, there is more chance people will be motivated to complete them. Offering a discount on the finished product is another effective way to increase survey participation from your target audience.

Research the pain points

Pain points are problems that your ideal customer is trying to solve. These problems are of course varied and dependent upon the particular niche your business occupies. But usually, they relate to a lack of money, knowledge, productivity, or convenience.

There is no excuse not to be crystal clear on your target audience’s pain points. Sites such as Reddit and Quora were basically built from people seeking solutions to the problems in their lives.

The autocomplete function within Google search is also a fantastic way to discover the exact problems people are trying to solve.

Narrow your focus

They say that knowledge is power, but too much knowledge can be overwhelming.

Hopefully, your buyer persona is now starting to take shape with list of associated pain points.
In this step, look for problems that seem to pop up again and again.

Sometimes these questions will be asked in different ways because they are coming from different people. But they usually share a common theme. Your job is to determine what it is by reading between the lines, so to speak.

Once you narrow your focus and identify common themes, you can cross reference this information with demographic data. This enables you to market to people who actually want to hear your message and are already motivated to make a purchase.

Make it real

The best way to solidify the work you have done so far is to give your buyer persona and a name and a photograph.

You are, after all, marketing your product to an individual person who is using their own discretion in deciding to do business with you. Making them real reinforces the fact that your ideal client is not a collection of data points.

Don’t just stop at a name and photograph, however.

• What motivates your ideal customer to act?
• Their life goals and their biggest frustrations
• What does their ultimate buying experience look like?

If compiled correctly, this information gives you a huge advantage over your competitors.

Make it visible

Buyer personas often get completed after a burst of marketing enthusiasm, only to get stashed somewhere and never see the light of day again.

Place the buyer persona in a visible, public place where employees across all departments can get a sense of the person they intend to serve. This allows your brand to be consistent and focused because everything you do is aligned with the needs of your customer base.

A visible persona also allows the marketing department to connect to a buyer on an emotional level. In understanding the emotions that drive a customer to act, they know which emotions to target in their marketing strategies.

Creating a buyer persona for your video marketing campaigns may seem like a daunting task at first. But it represents the stable foundation that your entire business operation rests on.

Buyer persona research starts with analysing or collating data on your target audience. But you must also speak to your audience. You must listen to their problems and identify common themes.

You must also create a buyer persona with information that humanises them. Once you have created the ideal customer avatar, post it where people will see it. This reinforces the fact that you are marketing to real people. It also allows your marketing efforts to connect to your audience on a meaningful level.

If want to create your BUYER PERSONA, get your FREE BUYER PERSONA TEMPLATE.
If you are ready fir next step check our our 4 Proven Steps to Find Your Dream Client with Video blog.