To properly research Buyer Personas, we need to use 3 methods and 2 levels of analysis.
The 3 methods we are going to learn are research, surveys, and interviews.
The 2 levels of analysis are prospects and customers.
Using the data you already have access to, we can build accurate buyer persona templates to clarify your message and make more sales.
But before we get into it…
Let’s dive in.
How to Research Buyer Personas in the prospect level?
We will start by uncovering the research methods of people that are not your customers yet.
It’s not mandatory to use all 3 methods at once, but having a variety of options at your disposal will increase the accuracy of your buyer persona template.
How to research prospects on your website
Web browsers record our every move. A brand with an online presence can use that data for further analysis.
You can use the Google Analytics Audience Tool to understand the demographics of who is visiting your website. You can break down the data by demographics, interest, geo-location, behavior, and even the technology they use to access your website.
How to research prospects on your Social Networks
Another great source of prospect analysis is your Social Network. Of course, you will need to have a Social Media Marketing Strategy in place to extract this information.
You can use your Social network statistics to uncover details of who is interested in your message. Any Social Network will give you at least age, gender, and interests.
How to research prospects on your Email Lists
You can segment your leads on your email list by interest and engagement. Remember, leads are the subscribers on your email lists that haven’t converted to customers yet. You have to filter them to have proper results.
The best way to segment prospects by interest is by tagging them based on how they opt-in to your list. For example, if they downloaded an eBook about a specific topic, tag them with that to use it on this Buyer Persona research.
To segment prospects by engagement, all you need to do is to apply scores to your subscribers based on email KPI engagement. Open Rates and Click Rates, for that matter. Then, decide what score is enough to filter only the most engaged prospects.
Both filters together will give you a clear vision of who is your ideal Buyer Persona on your lists.
How to research buyer personas in the customer level
The 3 methods below are restricted to people that have already bought from you.
In other words, they work when applied to those who already have a relationship after trusting you with a purchase.
How to research customers on your database
You can use your CRM database to uncover similarities, patterns, and preferences. You can group your customers by interest, age range, gender, geo-location, engagement, and more. The more patterns you find, the more accurate will be your Buyer Persona Template.
How to research customers with a survey
Another powerful way to research Buyer Personas within your customers is by creating an email campaign for your customers, asking them to answer specific questions in an online form.
You can even combine that with the previous database research and decide to send this survey to specific groups of customers to create a range of Buyer Personas.
How to research customers with live calls
Last but not least, you can invite your current brand advocates to take part in a one-on-one call with you to talk about their experience with your brand.
Again, the database research will help you filter your brand advocates to be part of the calls. Brand advocates can be identified by filtering only customers who bought more than once from you. The number of times is up to you. Focus on the top numbers for a one-on-one call.
Now, the next important aspect of these types of research is to answer the question: “How to invite those customers to participate in my research?”
It doesn’t matter if it’s a survey or call, the procedure will be quite the same.
How to invite participants
To invite customers to surveys, you need to provide reciprocity.
- You can offer a discount code for their next purchase
- You can also offer an exclusive gift based on their past interest. One that is not available otherwise.
- Or even offer early access to exclusive bonuses.
You have to compensate your customers for their time participating in the survey.
Not only that, they need the extra motivation to invest energy to respond to your surveys or interviews accurately.
With all that, you will be able to track Buyer Personas accurately. That leads us to the next step to build a profitable Buyer Persona, which is: Combine them with the Buyer’s Journey.
This is what we’re covering next.
Conclusion
Creating profitable buyer personas requires detailed research.
That’s crucial to communicate your services clearly, even if you’re just starting out and are still discovering the basis of your brand.
The next logical step we’re covering in the next video is what exactly you have to offer to buyer personas in different buyer’s journey stages.
