The Buyer Persona + Market Segmentation

By Art Moryedi, Senior Consultant & Creative Director at Marlik Group, a creative branding, marketing and advertising agency. 

It was with great pleasure to facilitate the Buyer Persona and Segmentation Round Table Discussion at the TMSA 2017 Conference. This brief article (one in a two-part series) reflects what was discussed and its significance in developing a successful digital marketing strategy. 

What is buyer persona?
Buyer personas are representations of your ideal customers. The purpose of having buyer personas created and documented are:

• To have a coherent understanding and approach towards the personas within departments (i.e. sales and marketing)
• To identify each persona’s different goals, needs and challenges
• To craft customized content that resonates with each persona
• To improve online experience and increase the conversion rate

Why buyer personas are important?
Most websites have a one-size-fits-all monotonous approach with one generic content strategy and message that is mostly "corporate centric." This approach is conflicting with the "customer centric" digital world we live in. Buyers are just one click away from our competition and failure to address their needs could quickly turn into a lost opportunity.

It is key to keep the digital content (i.e. web copy, blogs, email marketing, social media) tailored to what each buyer is looking for. The more relevant, the higher the chance of connecting and earning their trust.

The negative buyer persona
We are not the perfect fit for everybody. As tough as saying no to a business opportunity might sound, it is better to identify the unfit categories (personas) and have a plan for it. This will allow the sales team to spend more time in front of the qualified leads as opposed to chasing the ones that are not going to buy.

A fail fast strategy could result in higher conversion and retention rates and improve the ROI.

How many buyer personas do you need?
The number of personas vary based on each business but one very important rule is to keep it simple and as lean as possible, without removing any major group from the list. Over-complicating the process and creating too many personas with many overlapping characteristics could cripple the process and bring this very important approach to a halt, especially if you are new to this. In most cases a group of 3 to 6 personas should suffice.

View related TMSA webinars:

• Understanding Your Buyer's Buying Style to Enhance Sales Success (Presenter: Joel McGinley, TranStrategy Partners)
• Identifying Buyers in the Supply Chain (Bob Rippel of RJ Learning Group; and Colin Longren, The Millau Group)