It’s all about Gary

Meet Gary. He’s between the age of 45-59, an avid fisherman and loves late night TV. He still enjoys a print magazine and prefers to buy from brick-and-mortar stores, but usually only with a coupon.

Does Gary sound like someone you know? He might, because Gary represents a group of similar people within a data set. “Gary” is an example of a buyer persona. While Gary himself is not a real person, he is representing a group of people who have similar demographics, behaviors and goals. And so are his friends “Sally”, “Jenny” and “Kevin” – other examples of buyer personas, each with a unique set of characteristics.

Buyer personas may not seem like a necessity for your business. You may alternatively refer to them as the middle-aged sportsman readers group. If you are segmenting your data, giving the group a name just simplifies things, because depending on how detailed your information becomes, that descriptor name could become quite lengthy. Would you call them the “middle-aged-male-fishermen-tv watching-reading-discount shoppers”? Or, let’s just call them “Gary”.

The more detailed a buyer persona is, the more accurately it will assist you in deciding which group is worth the time, energy and focus of your resources. Maybe you’re developing new products – which buying persona are you trying to please? As a marketer, being able to focus your attention toward one detailed persona will allow your content to be more customized and ultimately, your interactions will be more valued.

How many buyer personas should you have? You could have 1 or 2 detailed buyer personas, or your company may have 20. There is no limit to how many you have, as long as you can feasibly customize product or communication to each. If you’re new to buyer personas, I’d recommend starting out with just a few and work your way toward expanding as you understand the response from each and other ways customization could be of value.

If you’d like to explore the different buyer personas to be found within your data, let the data experts at B2E Data Marketing help. You might not be a fan of Todd from accounting, but your “Todd” persona may be your 2018 ROI Star.

Cheers!

Keith