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Build Your Buyer Persona Template

Adele Revella is a genius when it comes to buyer personas. She provided these helpful tips and insights this year at Content Marketing World.

It’s no surprise that all prospects have expectations based on the services offered by your company. All buyers will have that in common and if you can understand their buying intent, it eliminates guess work for building buyer persona templates.

The key is to align your company’s capabilities to match the buyer persona expectations. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row height=”small”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Don’t build multiple buyer persona profiles

Before we discuss the steps to building the best buyer persona template, you need to know what NOT to do.

There could be a million variations and personas depending on industry, job title, location and culture, and so many more factors. It’s impossible to keep up effective content to market to each persona.

For instance, Adele Revella use to work for a company in an international market. They had eight buyer personas for 10 major regions, with four content creation categories along the buying cycle for each persona. Which meant they had to simultaneously create over 300 different versions of content every time they tried to update their marketing.

That really seems like a lifelong endeavor. For more details, you can read the entire book about buyer personas and templates from the book Buyer Personas by Adele Revella.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row height=”small”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Step 1: Interview past, present, and lost customers

In-depth interviews will provide valuable qualitative data to compliment the hard quantitative data you may have collected through surveys or company history.

The key to a successful interview is to listen to a person’s responses and keep probing for real insights. The buyers first answer is the usually the one you already know. Of course they’re going to say they chose your company because of price, speed, quality, etc. The only reason a person gives that answer is because they know most interviewers will give up after they get that general response.

That being said, don’t script your questions! Treat it more like a conversation than an interview. Just keep talking and digging until they actually start to open up and get past the general responses. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row height=”small”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Step 2: Find the common trends

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How are decisions made for your buyer persona?

The buying process takes time and usually filters through multiple people. It’s important to understand who the first person is to contact for your company. Then you need to find out all the influencers involved before it reached the person who gave approval for the purchase.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1507313567466{background-color: #ededed !important;}”][vc_column_text]

How do your buyers think about benefits?

This will allow us to step into the shoes of our buyer persona. Sometimes the things we value and promote in our company aren’t the same benefits that buyers are interested in. When you get past  the general answers like price, quality and such… those will be the benefits that resonate with your buyer persona. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row content_placement=”middle” height=”auto”][vc_column width=”1/2″ css=”.vc_custom_1507313578725{background-color: #ededed !important;}”][vc_column_text]

What obstacles or objections do you need to overcome?

This is extremely valuable. It’s critical to understand how we aren’t meeting our buyer person’s expectations so we can solve those problems. Chances are, if you’re not meeting their expectations, your competition is probably falling short too. You can utilize this information to get ahead of the competition and become a leader in your industry. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

What drives your buyer persona to make a decision to solve their problem?

Everyone experiences challenges throughout their life, but we usually don’t make a purchase unless our problem becomes unbearable. So you need to analyze your results from multiple interviews and find what was the straw that broke the camel’s back. What problems were the buyers really experiencing within their organization that caused enough frustrations to look for a solution? Or are you dealing with buyers that are simply trying to get ahead of the curve?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row height=”small”][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Step 3: Create the template for buyer personas

After you’ve interviewed enough clients to identify common trends, it’s time to build your buyer persona template. If you want to see a great example of a sample buyer persona, click here.

By the time you’re done with this process, you should have one buyer persona that will apply to everyone, regardless of job title, location, or random hobbies. You’ll be able to create content focused around the points outlined for your buyer persona to convert more leads and retain more customers.

Just remember, ultimately buyers choose to work with people they trust. Adele Revella conducted a study and found that ALL buyers have this in common. So don’t be fooled when your customers tell you they chose you for price!

You can transform your business and simplify your content marketing strategy by implementing this template for buyer personas. [/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]About inWhatLanguage

inWhatLanguage is a translation services company dedicated to breaking down language and cultural barriers. Using their centralized, real-time TMS UNIFY, they utilize a network of professional linguists to provide high quality translations at a price you can afford. Access new markets and expand your global presence. Get a quote today or request a demo of UNIFY to see how you can benefit with inWhatLanguage.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]