Buyer personas have come under a lot of criticism lately, usually for the right reasons. However, buyer personas were invented for a reason, and that need is still alive. Understanding how to use buyer personas effectively can help organisations align and improve customer centricity. Here are some of the insights we have gathered on how to create and bring to life powerful personas.
Global CMOs are often divided on buyer personas. Some really love them and think they have great potential to improve the success of their business. Some others really hate them and think they are a waste of time.
I have seen enough sets of buyer personas to know that both sides have a point. Buyer personas can really make a difference if they are designed and communicated in the right way. Unfortunately, in many occasions, this is not the case and the personas do not deliver the desired benefits to their organisations.
However, it is not that difficult to create good buyer personas and get them into businesses with impact. We have put together some of the learnings that we have gathered over time on how to do this successfully.
How buyer personas help
The concept of personas first appeared in the context of software usability. User personas were created to help development teams better understand the needs and expectations of users. Later, the concept was extended to marketing under the name of buyer personas. Since then, thousands of organisations have used them to spread customer understanding among their employee base.
The idea behind creating buyer personas is simple. Describing a company’s customer segments can be abstract and difficult for many teams to engage with. However, using semi-fictional archetypes to represent them can make it easier for teams to understand and remember them in their day-to-day work. In addition, portraying them as specific individuals can facilitate empathy and engagement across the organisation.
When all teams in an organisation understand and work with these archetypes, it becomes much easier to put customer needs and expectations at the heart of everything they do. This includes aspects such as advertising, pricing, sales messages, product design, service delivery and much more.
This greater focus on customer centricity should lead to better business performance. A study by Google and CXpartners found that companies that are customer-centric grow nine times faster than those that are not. They retain customers better and are more likely to be recommended.
The role of buyer personas in the quest for customer centricity
Like them or not, the reality is that what prompted the invention of buyer personas is a problem that still needs to be solved. Many companies fail to be customer-centric. As customers, we can all recall experiences where companies didn’t live up to our expectations. And we are not alone. A recent survey by emplify found that 87% of companies say they provide an excellent customer experience, but only 11% of customers agree.
It is clear that organisations need to become more customer-centric, and buyer personas were designed to do just that. So, before abandoning their use, it is worth looking at what it takes to make them work effectively.
Getting buyer personas right
Working with our clients on Insights Activation projects, we at Origin Insights have gathered some learnings about what makes buyer personas successful in any organisation. By observing them, it is possible to create with buyer personas the decisive impact you want them to have on the business performance.
Buyer personas should be a company-wide initiative
The creation of buyer personas is usually a marketing-led project. But it shouldn’t be a marketing project, it should be a company-wide project. The great contribution of buyer personas is not that the marketing team gets to know customers better. They should already have that knowledge. It is that the whole organisation gets to know them; that all teams understand their needs and expectations; and that they take them into account in their day-to-day work.
For this to happen, buyer personas need to be driven and supported by the entire management team, so that it is not seen as a marketing exercise that does not affect any other team, but as something that is of paramount importance to each and every department.
Buyer personas should be based on data
One of the most common criticisms of buyer personas is that they are based on fictional information about customers that do not exist in reality. This perception is based on a misinterpretation of what buyer personas are. Fortunately, this can be easily corrected.
Buyer persona profiles should be based on research data. A good customer segmentation study will help us understand which segments are most important to the brand. Qualitative research will allow us to delve deeper into each segment to better understand their needs and expectations. All of this research should underpin the personas so that we can be confident that, although the profiles are semi-fictional, the segment they describe is clear to everyone and the assessment of their needs and expectations is unquestioned.
Buyer personas are a summary of richer insights
In addition, the entire organisation needs to understand that the buyer persona is a characterisation of the insights gathered, which by their nature are more complex and nuanced.
The key is to be clear that buyer personas are not the whole picture, but a blueprint for better understanding of the details of each segment. Complementing the profiles with real quantitative data and verbatims from real customers will help teams to better understand the segments behind the buyer personas. This way, they will see more clearly that the buyer personas are a simplification of a much more diverse and rich reality, presented in a simpler way to make it easier for everyone to digest.
Buyer personas requiere communication and repetition
Making an organisation more customer-centric is not achieved with a single presentation when buyer personas are launched. For teams to understand, remember and empathise with them, it is necessary to communicate about them regularly. This means top-down communication, but also organising workshops to internalise them, creating documentation that can be consulted, and whatever else can be done to bring them to life for each and every employee.
Implementing buyer personas in your business
Successfully implementing buyer personas in any organisation requires research and a significant activation effort. But done right, it can help companies close the gap between the level of customer centricity they aspire to and what they actually deliver. If you need a helping hand in any of these areas, give us a call. We’d love to get involved.
Mar Serrán
CEO
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