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If you’re an avid reader of marketing articles, you’ve probably heard this more times than you’ve heard your name being mentioned today.
Sounds like a cliche that’s cliche, right? I understand. I’d answer "yes", too.
The good news is that almost everyone can create content. These days, there’s not much rocket science involved in writing an article, sending out a newsletter, editing a new explainer video or well, going live on Instagram (my 8-year-old niece can do this already).
And the bad news? Well, there’s only a handful of content creators who know just how best to create content for the RIGHT audience in their content marketing mix.
And the puzzling question usually is: "how do you create content for someone you don’t know?"
So, the greatest rule of content creation and marketing is Knowing your Customer.
This is mostly possible by designing a customer avatar or buyer persona to best profile your audiences and customers.
If that sounds like a million-dollar task, let’s help you make it more affordable.
In this article, we’ll explain what buyer personas are and also show you 5 examples of buyer personas that will help you achieve your content marketing goals.
Ready? Let’s go.
What are Buyer Personas?
Buyer personas, or customer avatar, are fictional customer profiles that help marketers understand their customers (especially prospective customers) better.
Having a buyer persona makes it much easier for you to not just create content, but also create content, messaging, product development, and services that are tailored to the specific needs, behaviours, and interests of your audience.
For instance, as a real estate agent, you may know that your target buyers are house hunters, but do you know what their specific needs and interests are?
Because home preferences are determined by a number of variables such as income, location, environmental concerns, and even age, knowing the individual differences about your typical audience along these rubrics will help you tailor your offerings to a targeted segment of a broader audience.
But these personas cannot be developed on the basis of guesswork. The most effective buyer personas are usually based on insights obtained from market research, surveys and interviews from your actual customer base.
5 Examples of Buyer Personas
Now that you understand what buyer personas are, let us show you some examples that will guide you on how to develop high converting buyer personas for your content marketing.
These buyer or user personas vary from focus, data to style.
For instance, B2C buyer personas differ from B2B personas in their focus and data. While the former tends to focus more on individuals as customers and obtains individualised data, the latter is more brand-focused and obtains business-centric data.
Now that this clarification has been made, let’s dive in.
Examples of Buyer Personas #1: Status Box Personas
Our first buyer persona example shows how, unlike previously held beliefs, user personas do not necessarily have to be lengthy to convey a strong message.
In this B2C buyer persona example by propertyconnect.me, the brand assigns a fictional name, "Rachel" to its typical customer and further tries to input personalised and buying behavioural patterns about Rachel which must have been obtained from customer surveys and data analytics.
But, as you can see, these data subsets are arranged in small boxes to sort the information status by status. The style is simplistic and further makes it easy to get a good idea of who Rachel is by learning about her background, lifestyle, and challenges.
In just a few status boxes, you can understand that she is a busy person, lives and spends on a budget, and needs simple and actionable solutions.
Examples of Buyer Personas #2: Quoted Personas
Quotes are believed to be one of the most personalised assets of any individual. Physical and liquid assets can fade, but the words and actions of a person are everlasting legacies.
So, when you’re able to accurately predict the thoughts of your typical customer, be sure that your buyer persona is hyper-personalised.
In this B2C buyer persona example by Indie Game Girl, the brand uses short blurbs to profile its target fictional customer, "Brandi". The data provided help you visualise the buying journey she goes through when searching for shoes to buy.
But what is more captivating about this buyer persona is the fictional quote used to fully depict the frustrations of their target customer.
It gives you the "horse’s mouth" effect.
Examples of Buyer Personas #3: Product-Customer Personas
This buyer persona example by Iron Springs Design takes a product-specific approach to developing customer avatars. It attempts to match the demographics information of its ideal customer, Sarah, especially in relation to its product offerings and specifications.
The bio-description narrates how Sarah’s personality and other psychographic make her a perfect fit for the company’s product offerings.
Also, notice the use of quotes to personalise Sarah’s thoughts and aspirations based on her budget and spending power.
If you find yourself struggling with creating a mental image of who your ideal customer is, trying envisioning yourself as your typical customer and think of what your day in their lives would be and then create your own account of their typical day.
Examples of Buyer Personas #4: B2B Persona
The next set of buyer persona examples will focus on customer profiles for B2B or business-to-business firms.
Unlike B2C examples that focus on the personal and demographic details of typical customers, B2B buyer persona examples are usually more concerned with the professional and work-related profiles of a typical customer.
For instance, if your business produces and distributes female corporate wears and other corporate fashion accessories, your ideal customer will most likely not be stay-at-home moms, but working-class women. Hence, the need to understand the corporate profile of the typical customer, like where they work, income level, etc.
This B2B buyer persona example by ClearVoice outlines a short and precise description of who, John, a typical customer is in relation to his job position and decision-making ability at his firm.
Never mind the brevity of this user persona. Your buyer profile only needs to contain the necessary information that would inform the best business decisions.
Examples of Buyer Personas #5: Tabbed Personas
Some buyer personas come in minimalist and simple outlooks and data sets, while others are usually more complex.
A good example of one of these comprehensive and complex buyer personas is this tabbed persona example by Buyer Persona Institute.
The profile uses 6 different tabs to separately outline the buying behaviour and personality of "Amanda".
Although it is complex and comprehensive, the persona is broken down into tabs and sections for easy readability and scanning.
With this style, the business can structurally fit Amanda’s profile and buying behaviour into separate data sets and sections that will help decide product offerings and services best fit for her.
If you intend to develop a complex and comprehensive buyer persona like this, always ensure that your content is readable and easy to absorb.
Wrapping up…
As you can see from the 5 buyer persona examples above, there are many approaches and methods for developing a buyer persona that will best profile your business’ typical customer and help you create content that is targeted accurately to the right audience and customers.
To recap, the first step to developing a buyer persona is researching your audience’s buying interests and demographic details. Once these data have been gathered, put the pieces together and then decide on the format that would work best for you in fictionally profiling your audience.
With these profiles in mind, you can now go-ahead to create your content or product for every sale funnel stage, find more effective blogging opportunities and develop better overall content marketing strategies in relation to how best they will suit your audience.
About the author
Ronald Adimoha is a copywriter, content creator and marketer with years of experience writing high-converting marketing and sales copies for brands and businesses. He’s also the founder of RoxNet Solutions, a startup virtual assistance provider based in Nigeria.
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