Why knowing your Buyer Persona is different than knowing your Target Market
When I first was introduced to the concept of buyer personas I have to say, I was a bit turned off. I used to be a teacher and was told that the best way to teach to children was to entertain. I remember thinking “If I wanted to entertain I would have studied to be an actor!”
Well times have changed and I have too.
Entertainment was just a part of holding a high schooler’s attention and the rest was putting together the training material. Writing a business blog is no different. The intent of the article is to educate and inform your prospect of your solution proposal. When talking about writing blogs, specifically business blogs, it is vital to understand and target your buyer personas.
By definition, buyer personas are semi-fictional characters that represent your dream characters.
What buyer personas are not:
- Specific real people – They are not your next-door neighbor or the guy you networked with at last week’s conference.
- Target markets – They are not “blue collar, middle aged, male, college graduates”.
- Professional roles – They are not “CMO’s of a large manufacturing firm”.
What buyer personas are:
- Common behavior patterns – What search engine does your persona prefer? Where do they go for information on the web? Where do they buy from? What social media sites do they use? How often are they on the internet? At home and at work.
- Universal goals, wishes, and dreams – What does your persona like to do in their spare time? How do they spend their spare time? What do they wish to do when they retire? What is they view of success?
- General demographic information – Where does your persona live? What is their background? What groups do they associate with?
This may or may not resonate with you but if one thing will strike a chord with you it is this – if you write to a target market, a targeted mass of people, how many people do you think you are connecting with? Is that your ideal client for you?
With inbound marketing the efforts to know your prospects at a granular level allows your marketing to be preferential instead of generalities. If your marketing is broad you might miss your ideal client. If you spend your time creating content that is at the granular level you focus on the ideal client for you – and that is your goal. Finding you ideal client adds value to long time customers and promotion of your brand and product.
So take the time to think about how important is a buyer persona. The better your efforts at researching your ideal persona the better the pay-off down the road will be because your marketing will connect you with your client based on who they are, what their needs are, and how your company matches as a solution to those needs. Focus your efforts and find people that offer blogging strategies for Tulsa business owners if you are in need of resources.
