What is a buyer persona? What is worth knowing?

Under the term “buyer persona” lies a customer profile. It is a description of the ideal customer based on real data from marketing research, competitor analysis and existing customer profiles. Most companies have many customer profiles, each of which describes in detail what prompts a given person to buy a product or service.

Why are buyer persona profiles important?

Customer profiles “buyer persona” support the marketing, sales, customer service and product teams in gaining insights and making decisions that are wise from a business perspective. From a marketing point of view, insight into defining customer profiles can help target and improve marketing strategies in many ways:

1. 01Department supportSmarter business decisions.
2. 02Offer personalisationUnderstanding audience needs.
3. 03Increasing salesHigher purchase conversion.
4. 04Customer loyaltyMore frequent returns to the company.

Key takeaway: Understanding the customer drives better results and builds lasting relationships.

1. Customer profiles improve marketing personalisation

Personalisation is the main reason why customer profiles matter. It can only be done when you truly understand your audience. Customers appreciate personalisation, which according to 96% of sellers increases the likelihood of repeat purchases. Moreover, 94% of sellers report that personalisation increases sales.

Many customers are happy to return to companies that know what is expected of them. For example, if a brand sends a customer an email saying that a product on their wish list is available for purchase, it increases the likelihood of gaining a loyal customer. They will not only return to the shop, but will also recommend it to their friends.

2. Customer profiles provide information that helps in product development

Extensive research into target customers does not only support marketing activities. Such insight also comes into play during the product research and development phase. Learning about the experiences of ideal customers on a daily basis can provide inspiration for product improvements.

Let’s assume, for example, that you run a company selling kitchen utensils, and your customer profile research tells you that your ideal customer lives in a region where barbecuing is common and popular all year round. This creates an opportunity to develop and add to your offer barbecue utensils that are suitable for use both indoors and outdoors.

1. 01Identify the teamPeople with customer experience.
2. 02Engage departmentsSales and marketing.
3. 03Include a leaderExecutive support.

It is crucial to involve the right people with direct customer contact and decision-making support.

3. Customer profiles enable optimisation of demand generation, leads and relationship-building content for potential customers

Did you know that your model customer wants to receive information from you? So customer profile research is important. Understanding how your ideal customer prefers to receive information can influence your demand generation strategies.

For example, a preferred SMS communication channel among target audiences may mean that you create SMS campaigns instead of email campaigns. You can also make changes to your website based on the findings of such research.

4. Customer profiles allow you to refine product messages aimed at target audiences

“Buyer persona” profiles help you better understand customers (and potential future customers), thereby making it easier for you to tailor content, messaging, product development and services so that they meet the specific expectations of your target audience and align with their behaviour as well as their concerns and pain points.

For example, you may know that your target customers are carers, but do you know what kind of care they provide most often? What is the typical environment of the ideal buyer? To fully understand your best customers, it is crucial to develop detailed profiles for your business.

Sellers who offer customers personalised experiences are more likely to develop effective marketing strategies compared with sellers who do not.

The best customer profiles are based on market research and information obtained from the current customer base (through surveys, interviews, etc.). The most popular information gathered by sellers from their audiences concerns customers’ interests and hobbies, based on demographic information and products that buyers may be interested in.

Depending on your business, you may have one or two customer profiles, or even 10-20. If you are just starting to work with them, begin with a smaller number. You can always develop more profiles later, if needed.

It is worth remembering that there is a customer profile representing the ideal buyer. A negative profile, in turn, represents people you do not want as customers.

For example, it may refer to professionals who are too advanced for your product or service, students who engage with your content solely to gain knowledge, or potential higher-tier clients who will not be willing to make a purchase.

Potential customers may be too “expensive”, because due to the low average sales price, there is a low likelihood of purchase. This knowledge is important because it helps tailor your strategy so that it delivers the best possible results.

1. 01Current customersThey know your product
2. 02Unhappy usersThey reveal different patterns
3. 03Specific needse.g. greater functionality

Understanding different customer perspectives is key to accurate profiling

How can customer profiles be used in marketing?

At the most basic level, developing customer profiles allows you to create content and messages that are attractive to your target audience. This also makes it possible to target or personalise marketing for different audience segments.

For example, instead of sending the same relationship-building emails to every potential customer in your database, you can segment your audience by customer profile and tailor your messages to what you know about those different profiles.

Furthermore, when combined with the lifecycle stage (e.g. how far someone is in your sales cycle), customer profiles also allow you to plan and create highly targeted content.

If you also take the time to create negative profiles, you gain an additional advantage by filtering out “bad profiles” from the rest of your contacts. This will help reduce the cost per lead and per customer, which in turn means greater sales efficiency.

Customer profiles are also an excellent tool if your target audience is a niche group. Of course, you can write content based on what I think customers will search for and what they will benefit from, but the content will be better and more effective if I learn something about the specific interests and needs of the audience.

Types of customer profiles

When developing customer profiles, you may ask yourself “What are the different types of customer profiles?”. From that point it seems that all you need to do is match a profile to your business.

It does not work exactly like that. Of course, there are standard customer profiles for common demographic characteristics, such as age groups. Let us look at a few basic examples:

Generation Z

Here are some key statistics about Generation Z taken from a report prepared by Hubspot.

• 64% of Generation Z discovered a product on social media in the last three months,
• recommendations from influencers have a stronger impact than recommendations from friends and family,
• Generation Z cares more than other generations about brands taking a stand on social issues, especially when it comes to racial justice (47%), LGBTQ+ rights (46%) and climate change (41%),
• Generation Z likes to gather information independently when searching for and researching a product or service (64%),
• Generation Z’s favourite content is short-form videos (61%).

Based on the huge appetite for brands taking a stand on social issues, this example customer profile will be called Socially Conscious Sam. Here is how you can use the statistics when creating a customer profile based on what he likes and how he wants to gather information.

• Sam spends a lot of time on social media and wants to discover new products or services there,
• he prefers to look for a brand on his own rather than speaking to someone in the industry and is likely to search for information on social media,
• Sam wants to watch interesting, short videos showcasing your brand, especially so-called “reels” on TikTok and Instagram,
• this person trusts the influencers and creators they follow, as well as the product recommendations they share, and their endorsement of a given product has a significant impact on this person’s purchasing decisions,
• for Sam, it is very important that the brands he supports take a stand on the social issues he cares about, and he wants to know which causes are supported by particular brands.

Generation X

Here are some key statistics about Generation X:

• Generation X prefers discovering products on social media and while browsing the web,
• Generation X likes illustrations/photos/infographics the most, as they generate the highest engagement,
• generally, Generation X prefers buying products from online sellers offering products from many brands,
• product quality has the greatest influence on Generation X’s purchasing decisions,
• Generation X believes that companies should not take a stance on social issues.

We will call this example person Technical Ted, because he makes most of his purchases online. Here is how the above information allows us to create a basic customer profile:

• Ted prefers discovering new products online through social media and by browsing the Internet,
• attractive illustrations, photos and infographics catch his attention and he spends quite a lot of time looking at them,
• Ted likes the ease of buying from online sellers (such as Amazon) that offer many products from different brands,
• for Ted, product quality is the most important thing, and he wants access to detailed information about product features and the benefits associated with them. Marketing messages that emphasise this are the most helpful to him,
• Ted prefers brand-specific content and does not believe that his favourite company should take a stance on social issues.

Despite the existence of these standard profiles, there are still certain variations. For example, the older generation prefers illustrations, photos and infographics, but someone in this group may prefer Instagram Reels.

As a result, there is no set from which you can choose universal customer profiles, nor is there any standard number of profiles you will need. Every business (regardless of how many competitors it has) is unique, so its customer profiles should also be unique.

That is why identifying and creating your different customer profiles can sometimes be a little difficult. That is why it is worth using special profile generators to simplify the process.

Customer profiles are unique to every business, and their names should be just as unique. There are profiles referred to as “customer profile”, “marketing profile”, “audience profile” or “target profile”. Each has the same meaning, but will look unique in your business.

In general, businesses may have the same (or similar) categories of customer profiles (e.g. salesperson, HR representative, IT manager, etc.). However, your customer profiles and the number required depend on your target audience and on what you offer your customers.

Profile development – basic information

Before you start creating a “buyer persona” profile, you need to identify the people from your team who will play a role in this process. Each team has its own unique experience with customers, which provides valuable insights when it comes to understanding the target audience.

We recommend involving the team that deals with customers in the process. If there are several such teams, you can choose one representative from each group or department.

A good starting point is the sales and marketing departments. Sales staff communicate directly with customers, and marketing personnel can create data based on information about your customers. Your customer profile team should also include an executive leader who will ensure that your brand’s mission and values are upheld at every stage of development.

What types of businesses should create customer profiles?

Many people wonder what types of businesses need to create customer profiles. The answer is all of them. Every business needs buyers or customers. Therefore, customer profiles should be included in every business, regardless of industry.

Developing customer profiles is crucial, but reviewing and updating them is just as important. It is recommended to do this manually. This way, you can always be sure you are meeting the needs of customers, who will happily return to your business.

How to create customer profiles?

Many (ineffective) customer profiles are based on stereotypes, fictional information or general assumptions. A fairly common mistake when it comes to customer profiles is focusing too much on the general characteristics of the customer and too little on the real challenges, goals and factors influencing that person’s purchasing decisions. This information can be easily obtained using the right tools.

When creating customer profiles, you should take the following steps:

1. Segment and analyse existing customers.
2. Carry out qualitative research (e.g. interviews) and quantitative research (e.g. surveys). 
3. Use customer comments from reviews and requests sent to customer support.
4. Communicate with your teams that deal with customers.
5. Use analytics tools (e.g. Google Analytics and your content management system).
6. Create your profiles using templates to make sure customer information is easy to understand and remember.
7. Present your profiles across the organisation.
8. Focus on those customer profiles that are of greatest value to your business.
9. Never stop monitoring and updating your profiles when needed!

Once you go through the research process, you will obtain a lot of valuable raw data about potential and current customers. But what should you do with it? How will you distil the essence of the data, since anyone can easily understand all the information collected?

The next step is to use your research to identify patterns and similarities in the answers to your questions and develop at least one core profile that will be shared across the company.

Free, downloadable profile templates are available online to help organise the information gathered about profiles and pass it on to the relevant stakeholders. This means everyone can gain a deeper understanding of the people the work is aimed at.

Let us take a more detailed look at the activities involved in creating a customer profile.

1. Provide basic demographic information about your customer profile

Ask demographic questions by phone or through online surveys. Remember that some people are more willing to disclose personal information in a more private setting, while others do not want to do so. As a result, it is best to treat such answers as optional unless this is a key part of the customer profile.

If you are conducting interviews, it may be helpful to include descriptive common sayings and mannerisms. This will make it easier for people in your team to identify particular profiles during the conversation.

2. Report what you have learned about the motivation of a given profile

Here you will draw out the essence of the information you gathered by asking “why” during interviews. What makes the profile exist? Who does the person want to be? This should be summarised by telling people how your company is able to help them.

3. Help your sales team prepare for conversations with people who match the customer profile

The profiles you create will be useful and gain greater significance when you include real quotes from interviews that illustrate what the audience is interested in, who they are and what they want.

You can also create a list of objections that may arise on the customer side. This will allow your sales team to prepare so that they can give a good answer during conversations.

4. Creating messaging for people who match the customer profile

Instruct people to talk about your products/services with people who match the profile. This includes the precise vocabulary you should use and the concise pitches that present your solution in a way that fits the customer profile.

This will ensure that everyone in your company speaks the same language when it comes to leads and customers.

Finally, make sure your customer profile has a name (e.g. finance director Maria, IT specialist Tomasz or gardener Mariusz). This way, everyone internally refers to each profile in the same way, and that will keep consistency between teams.

How to find interviewees for customer profile research

One of the most important stages of establishing a customer profile is finding people to talk to in order to understand who fits the profile. There are several options for finding such interviewees.

1. Current customers

Your current customer base is an excellent place to start interviews, because these people have already bought your product and engaged with your company. At least some of them may reflect your target customer profile.

Do not talk only to people who love your product and are able to talk about it at length. Customers who are dissatisfied with your product display different patterns that help you gain an excellent understanding of your profiles.

For example, you may find that one of your less satisfied customers leads larger teams and needs more functionality from your product in terms of collaboration. Customers may also find your product too technical and difficult to use. In both cases, you will learn something about your product and the challenges customers face.

Another benefit of speaking to current customers is that you do not need to offer them compensation (e.g. gift cards). Such customers have the chance during interviews to talk about their environment, challenges and what they think about your product.

Customers also like to have influence over the products they use. So if you involve them in an interview, you can make them much more loyal to your company. When you contact customers, explain that your aim is to get their feedback, which you value greatly.

2. Potential customers

You can also interview people who have not bought your product and are only slightly familiar with your brand. Your potential customers are an excellent option because you already have their contact details.

Use the data you have on them (e.g. everything you managed to collect in lead generation forms or during website analysis) to determine who may fit your target profiles. There are certain tools that help create your own customer profiles and match potential customers to them. This makes it easier to find the people you need to speak to.

3. Referrals

You may need to rely on referrals in order to talk to people who match your target customer profiles, especially if you want to enter new markets and do not yet have any current or potential customers.

Use your network (colleagues, current customers, social media contacts, etc.) to find people you want to interview and be introduced to. Gaining access to a large group of people using this method can be difficult, but there is a strong chance of conducting high-quality interviews.

If you do not know where to start, I suggest searching on LinkedIn for people who may fit your target profiles and checking who you should share contacts with and who you should ask for an introduction.

4. Using external networks

When it comes to interviewees whose information is not available within your company, you can find them through external networks.

Tips for recruiting interviewees when creating a customer profile

Here are a few ideas that can increase the range of responses from potential interviewees.

1. Use different incentives

An incentive gives people a reason to take part in the study if they have not had any previous contact with you. You probably will not need it every time (for example, there may be customers who already want to talk to you). However, handing over a simple gift card is not complicated.

2. Explain that it is not a sales call

Explain that you are not calling to sell anything. This is particularly important when speaking with non-customers, who may be reluctant when it comes to such calls. Explain that you are conducting research and want to learn something, and that your aim is not to sell. Engage such people by talking about their lives, work and challenges.

3. Make it easy for potential interviewees to agree

Take care of everything when it comes to speaking with a potential interviewee. Suggest a time for the call, but remain flexible so that the interviewee can choose the slot that suits them best.

4. Decide how many people should be interviewed

It is difficult to give an exact number of interviews, because it depends on many factors. To start with, it is a good idea to begin with 3-5 interviews for each customer profile you create. That may be enough if you already know a lot about your profile.

You may need many interviews for each category of interviewee (customers, potential customers, people who do not know your company). Naturally, you will notice certain patterns during your conversations. It is good if you start anticipating what people are going to say.

5. Determine which questions you want to ask interviewees

It is time to conduct the interview. After a brief introductory conversation and thanks, it is time to move on to the questions. You need to ask questions from many categories during interviews in order to create a complete customer profile, from personal questions to questions about the goals and challenges of people in a given role.

Create ideal customer profiles

Creating customer profiles allows you to understand target customers at a deeper level and helps ensure that everyone in your team knows how to acquire, support and work with customers. When you use customer profiles in decision-making processes, you will certainly notice an improvement in reach, conversions and increased customer loyalty.

Differences between B2C and B2B customer profiles 

Depending on whether you deal directly with the customer (B2C) or with another company (B2B), the way you create your customer profiles may be a little different. For example, when creating B2B profiles, you may focus more on professional data than on demographics, and vice versa. 

However, your goal remains the same: to understand what customers need, why and how they make purchasing decisions, and how best to present your offer to them.

Bear in mind that not all potential information about your customers will be relevant in your specific situation. Make sure that the information obtained from customer analysis and added to customer profiles provides an action basis. For example, knowing how many children B2B customers have will not change anything in the business strategy, so there is no need to include this information.

Whether we are dealing with a B2C or B2B customer, you should always avoid baseless assumptions and making up facts about your customers. Adding fictitious information to customer profiles is not a good thing and can cause a decline in the ROI of customer research and profile creation.

Summary

Regardless of the stage your business is at, creating detailed customer profiles should be a priority. Even companies that have been on the market for decades should from time to time recheck and reassess their target audiences. Properly created customer profiles can provide broad insight into the true motivations, challenges and goals of customers.

This information allows you to control every aspect of your business, whether it is controlling and improving the overall brand experience, changing prices or creating marketing content that is attractive to customers. Customer profiles sit at the centre of these activities.