10 Questions to Ask When Developing Buyer Personas

Buyer personas represent the typical characteristics of decision-makers and influencers at your target companies. Knowing these personas in detail will help you craft marketing content that’s relevant to them, improving your inbound marketing results. 

Here are 10 questions you should answer when creating your buyer personas to make sure you have a full picture.

1. What are your buyer persona’s demographics such as age, education, family status?

Identifying these characteristics will help make your buyer persona real to you and help you craft content that addresses your buyers more personally.

2. What’s your ideal customer’s job title?

Figuring out your ideal customer’s job title and role within the company will help you hone your messaging. C-level executives and middle managers, for example, have very different needs, desires, and goals, so it’s important to figure out who you’re targeting.

3. What does a day in the life of your buyer look like?

What does your buyer do on an average day, and what are the main activities and responsibilities of their job? Knowing how your buyer spends their time will help you understand how to best address them.

4. Where is your buyer in the organisational structure?

Does your ideal customer have any direct reports? Who is their boss and what is their role? 

Answering these questions will help you establish the chain of command at the company and understand the influences that shape your buyer’s attitudes.

5. What are the characteristics of your buyer’s company?

It’s important to nail down some things about your buyer’s company, including the industry and company size.

Understanding what kind of company they work for will help you identify potential objections they’ll face when presenting your solution to their colleagues and superiors.

6. What are your buyer’s most important goals?

Consider your buyer’s personal goals, goals in their job, and company goals when creating your persona. Knowing what their aspirations are will enable you to create tailored content and solutions to help them achieve those goals.

7. What are their biggest challenges?

What challenges or problems are keeping your ideal customer up at night? If you can identify those problems and position your product or service as the solution, you’ll be well on your way to making a sale.

8. How does your buyer prefer to get information?

Your content needs to be where your buyers are in order to reach them. So try to figure out where and how your ideal buyer likes to get their information to create an effective marketing campaign. 

9. What are your buyer’s objections to your solution?

Some prospects who come to your website may have objections. In order to cut through them, you’ll need to anticipate those concerns and address them in your marketing materials.  

Based on what you know about your buyer, what are their main concerns and objections likely to be? Will it be price, or something else?

10. What about your solution makes your buyer’s life easier?

Asking yourself how your product or service helps your ideal customer will enable you to craft a compelling marketing message that wins over prospects. 

Creating a few detailed buyer personas takes a lot of effort and thought, but it’s definitely worth it. Knowing who your ideal buyer is, where they work, and what their goals, needs, and challenges are will enable you to craft content that directly appeals to them and converts them into paying customers.