Buyer personas give your marketing direction and ensure your message is accurate
Whether or not you know it, you’re likely using buyer personas everyday – it’s just a matter of how accurate they are. Buyer personas are representations of customers that are used to better understand why they purchase what they do. As building product marketers, we all say things like “Contractors will like this product because it’s easier/cheaper/faster”, but what is it that really influences them to buy? Establishing the specifics allows you to craft a message that resonates with these buyers and beats out the competition.
So how do you establish an accurate buyer persona?
- First off, you can just make it up. As building industry marketers it’s important to go deeper than a list of bullet points that describes our key buyers. We need to really spend time with these people and complete an in-depth analysis of their buying trends. According to Adele Revella, the founder and president of the Buyer Persona Institute, the Five Rings of Insight are the “most overlooked and essential aspect, simplifying decisions for persuasive messaging, content, launches, campaigns and sales enablement.”
- Ground your personas in real data. Interview recent buyers and lost deals, review CRM notes, scan website analytics and search logs, analyze customer service questions and gather feedback from distributor and manufacturer reps to reveal patterns tied to the Five Rings.
Personas should rely on aggregated, anonymized insights, not personally identifiable information. This approach supports compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation, effective 2018, and the California Consumer Privacy Act, effective 2020.
Here are the “Five Rings of Insight” that will allow you to define your buyer persona:
- Determine the Priority Initiatives: Define the three-to-five problems or initiatives where this buyer persona is dedicating time, budget and political capital
- List Out Success Factors: Figure out the tangible or intangible rewards that your buyer persona wants to achieve as a result of buying your solution
- Recognize Perceived Barriers: List the reasons your buyer persona believes your solution won’t be the best way to achieve the Success Factors
- Chart Out the Buying Process: Include the resources and steps that your buyer persona relies upon to assess available options and make a final decision. In building products, decisions often involve a committee that includes the contractor, dealer or distributor, architect or specifier, general contractor and owner. Map handoffs, approval steps and common resources like specifications, submittals and code checks.
- Figure Out the Decision Criteria: List the aspects of the product, service, solution or company that this buyer persona evaluates during the purchasing process
Accurately defining your Buyer Persona’s takes time, energy and effort, but once established can pay dividends in assuring your messaging is correct and sets you apart from your competitors.
We’ve used buyer personas for years. We actually have cardboard cut-outs of our “guys” – dealers, contractors, big box sales reps, deck builders, etc. When we have a meeting these guys often join us as a reminder of who we’re talking to. If they’re not in the room with you – it’s time you invite them!
For more information about buyer personas and the Buyer Persona Institute, click here.
