No matter your company size, there are always things you can do to improve the effectiveness of your digital marketing campaigns.
Do you want one easy method? Define your ideal customers by using buyer personas.
After all, if you know who you’re targeting with your strategies, you can craft a message that resonates with their needs more directly.
This tactic works whether you have many existing customers you’re looking to reignite or need more fresh sales.
Here’s what you should know about B2B buyer personas, including why they’re important and how you can create them as part of your overall marketing strategy.
What Is a Buyer Persona?
A buyer persona is simply a caricature of your ideal customer. It can include everything from how they react to specific situations to their belief systems, job titles, pain points, and much more.
However, a B2B persona is a little different from your typical retail customer. Instead of basing their decisions solely on how they feel about a particular product or service or demographic information, their input can include other factors like their job position, department budgets, and more elements that are primarily out of their hands.
With B2B buyers, it is ideal to be as detailed as possible when creating personas. The more you understand what might be going through the decision maker’s mind when interacting with your sales team, the easier it becomes to understand their needs and overcome objections successfully.
Why B2B Buyer Personas Matter to Your Sales Team
For a lot of companies, the thought of creating B2B buyer personas for their target customer base could seem like a significant waste of time. Truthfully, it is one of the most essential aspects of creating a strong marketing strategy.
Again, when you know who your sales team is aiming to close, they can attend Zoom meetings, conference calls, or in-person sessions better equipped.
Put simply, they will know what to expect and can plan for those possibilities ahead of time. Here are three key benefits of this practice to consider.
Have Better Responses to Questions and Objections
Knowing an ideal customer through a buyer persona makes it far easier for your sales team to answer questions and handle objections.
This is especially true with high-ticket items, such as significant construction projects or renovations in which the ultimate contract can be in the hundred thousand to million-plus dollar range.
Sales teams that understand customers’ pain points and areas where they find the most value often have better overall closing rates because they communicate more effectively with leads.
Create a More Professional Tone
When your sales team knows your ideal customer base intimately, the end result is a more professional tone.
Learning decision makers’ various pain points and understanding their methods to move forward through the sales process facilitates spotting particular bottlenecks or roadblocks along the way.
From the customer perspective, this gives the impression of an organization that is the best in their industry and highly knowledgeable. Building a profile like that is incredibly important when you’re talking about large contracts or projects.
Make It Easier to Go Above and Beyond
Finally, using B2B buyer personas makes going above and beyond for the client much easier. Whether you’re working with a single point of contact or an entire committee, you can opt to do things that you know add extra value when you have an idea of what’s behind their prime motivation.
And the end result is a happy lead eager to become a paying customer. Furthermore, they’ll also want to stick around to become a repeat client for the long haul.
5 Tips for Creating B2B Buyer Personas for Your Business
Now that we’ve talked about the importance of using B2B buyer personas for your business, let’s dive into how to make that happen. Here are five useful tips to consider.
1. Give Your Personas Names
It might sound silly, but giving your buyer personas names is an excellent way to make the process more tangible and believable. For example, you might have Strategist Susan or Building Manager Bob. While these are overly simplistic examples, they prove that assigning a name to a specific persona makes it easier to identify their real-life counterparts in the future.
2. Think About the Reporting Hierarchy
There are usually varying steps in the sales cycle in the B2B world. That means you might be creating buyer personas for multiple people you’ll encounter along the way. By doing this, you can be prepared for whomever you meet along the sales journey.
3. Sometimes B2B Personas Aren’t People
In some industries, the B2B customer you’re creating a profile for isn’t actually another person. Instead, it can be an organization or even another company. In that case, try to characterize the group as a whole, including their primary motivations and any pain points. Then create smaller, less detailed personas for several people or roles within that group.
4. Don’t Be Afraid to Create a Template
Not all buyer personas are alike, but the process is generally the same. That means it is perfectly okay to create a template to use across the entire process. Add room for elements like prime motivations, goals, pain points, why your product or service is best, etc. Use the same format across various characterizations.
5. Adjust Accordingly With New Information
Sometimes, businesses and sales teams look back at their B2B buyer personas and realize they’re somewhat or entirely off the mark. That’s okay! Don’t be afraid to adjust accordingly with new information or after direct experience.
Wrap Up: Using B2B Buyer Personas to Improve Your Digital Marketing
Digital marketing is only effective if it resonates with your audience. One of the easiest ways to increase success is by using B2B buyer personas. Not only does it ensure your sales team has a better understanding of your ideal customer, but it can make it easier to craft campaigns that directly relate to your clients’ needs.
Are you ready to learn more about sales and lead generation? Our ER Marketing team is here to help. Please contact us today to start the conversation.
