Attracting the Right Customers: Who Are You Talking To?

When it comes to inbound marketing, the name of the game is relevance. But what is relevant? What is relevant is, of course, going to be dependent on your company, but mostly it is going to be dependent on your prospects. So, while no one can tell you what is relevant to your inbound marketing strategy, there is a way to figure it out for yourself. That magic relevance diving rode? The buyer persona.

A target buyer persona is the ideal individual or organization who will purchase your product of service. This persona is not an actual person or company, rather it is a projection of the ideal customer and the embodiment of your customer base.

When developing your target persona, your goal should be to answer three basic questions:

1. Who are your buyers; i.e. what do they care about and what are their issues?

2. What are some of their goals or problems that your products or services can help resolve?

3. How have your existing clients solved similar problems?

One of the best ways to nail down your target persona is to talk to your existing clients. Ask existing clients to answer some basic questions about themselves, their motives, and their business habits with the goal of fleshing out your target persona's details. Some of the details you should be looking to fill in are:

• Your buyer’s title.
• Their occupation and time spent in that occupation.
• Who they work with.
• What their daily tasks/responsibilities may be.
• What they love and what they hate about their work.
• Their different attitudes.
• What they believe in.
• What really annoys them.
• The different pressures they feel on a day to day basis.
• Their concerns.
• Their needs.
• What role they play in purchasing (are they an influencer? The purchaser?  Both?)
• What drives them to do things.
• What stages in the buying process they’re in (if you can take a guess).

Once you can fill in these details, you will have a deep understanding of the kind of company/individual you want to pursue. This understanding should be used to influence everything from your content creation to your lead nurturing. So many companies spend time focusing on their products, their services, their web site and neglect to spend time engaging with prospects around issues that they are interested in. Understanding your target persona will allow you to focus on them and what they want. Which, in turn, will greatly increase your chances of success.