Buyer personas have become extremely important in the world of marketing.  Being able to identify key similar traits of your ideal buyers helps you to target your marketing efforts and tailor your communications to your prospects.  Every company will have multiple buyer personas they will want to identify.  You also need to recognize the best personas so you know where to focus the majority of your marketing efforts.  One of the best ways to create your personas is to interview current customers. When deciding which customers to interview, you’ll want to look at which clients bring in the most revenue and provide the highest return on investment. When determining who your most profitable customers are, you’ll need to look at several factors.

Identify

1. What is the cost of the product or services your provide to that customer?

This can include labor, royalties and materials.

2. How much does it cost to sell your product or service?

You need to take into account the cost of your sales person, method of payment and repeat business.

3. How much does it cost to support your customer?

You’ll need to look at how much time are your project managers spending supporting your clients.

Develop

Once you’ve decide who your most profitable clients are, you’ll want to interview those customers.  Hubspot has developed a list of 20 questions that you can ask in order to create your buyer personas.

1. Describe your personal demographics.

2. Describe your educational background.

3. Describe your career path.

4. In which industry or industries does your company work?

5. What is the size of your company (revenue, employees)?

6. What is your job role? Your title?

7. Whom do you report to? Who reports to you?

8. How is your job measured?

9. What does a typical day look like?

10. Which skills are required to do your job?

11. What knowledge and which tools do you use in your job?

12. What are your biggest challenges?

13. What are you responsible for?

14. What does it mean to be successful in your role?

15. How do you learn about new information for your job?

16. Which publications or blogs do you read?

17. Which associations and social networks do you participate in?

18. How do you prefer to interact with vendors?

19. Do you use the internet to research vendors or products? If yes, how do you search for information?

20. Describe a recent purchase.

Getting the answers to these questions will help your marketing team know who to target and also provide your sales team insights on how to communicate with prospects.  You should periodically reevaluate your personas as your ideal buyer can change frequently.  If you are unable to interview a current customer to develop your personas, there are other avenues you can take.  You can interview your sales people to answer some of these questions on you customer’s behalf.  You can also research your competitor’s top customers.  Winn Technology Group specializes in inbound marketing and can assist you with every aspect of your campaign, including developing your ideal buyer personas.  Click below to schedule your free inbound marketing assessment.