Inbound Marketing Plan: How to Create Buyer Personas

Who Are You Reaching With You Inbound Marketing Plan?

When creating marketing material, the key to success is knowing whom you are marketing to. In the case of developing an inbound marketing plan, creating a buyer persona can help focus and fine tune marketing efforts to make them as effective as possible, because the persona gives the marketer a “person” to market to, rather than a “demographic.” A persona is a fictional character that embodies the needs, goals and behaviors of your target buyer. Creating these personas is a valuable process, but can be challenging if you have never done it before. Here is how you can create that persona.

Start With the Right Questions

To define your persona, you must first ask the right questions about your typical customer. Perform marketing research to determine what your customers are like. Ask questions relating to the customer’s role, such as his or her job and typical day, goals and challenges. Then, if your business works with other businesses, find out what the customer’s company is involved in, and what the company wants the individual to accomplish.

Finally, find out the answers to more personal questions. What is the general age and family status of your target customer. Where do they spend their time? What blogs do they read? Were do they prefer to shop? What type of shopping experience do they prefer? The answers to these questions will help you create a persona that is in line with your company’s marketing goals.

How can you generate this research? Interviewing current customers, either online or over the phone, is helpful. Talk to the members of your sales team to see what they have learned. Use forms on your website that capture persona information, such as company size and position, whenever possible. A combination of this research will help you generate the persona.

Give the Persona a Name and Picture

When you are ready to actually create the persona, start by giving the persona a name. Decide whether the person is male or female, then name it. After naming it, give the person a picture. This will help make the persona feel more real when you are creating your inbound marketing plan. Instead of marketing to a generic target audience, you are marketing to the persona you created which now has a name and face.

Give the Persona a Story

Next, clearly define the person’s role, what they are looking for in your company, what challenges they face at work and the hurdles they have to overcome to meet their goals within their company. Then, add some personal information to give some context to the professional information that is being discussed. Remember to include the demographic that applies to your persona. The more detail you can give the persona’s story, the more effective it will be at helping you reach your marketing goals.

Before you start creating an inbound marketing plan, you need a buyer persona. If you would like some help creating a persona and then an inbound marketing plan that will help, start with the Inbound Marketing Assessment. This free survey will show you where you need additional help in your marketing plan and persona creation, so you can adjust it to be as effective as possible.

Marketing Matters Inbound?is an inbound marketing firm specializing in online conversions, content?strategy, PPC campaigns and traditional media placement. Our experience in?B2B digital?marketing?and?traditional media?allows us to deliver results through a strategic media mix. We believe in?aligning and merging marketing and sales/operations for optimal return on your marketing investment.