By developing unique marketing personas, successful businesses are better able to identify their target audiences.
As consumers come to expect increasingly personalized products and services, knowing precisely who you’re selling to is more important than ever.
Enter marketing personas (also known as buyer personas), which are drawn up to illuminate and mimic your customers’ behavior patterns. The benefits of these personas, which are generally fictionalized versions of a brand’s target consumer, include:
- Better informed marketing strategies
- More cohesive internal language around consumers
- Improved quality of the customer experience
Here are a few examples of built-out marketing personas, in case you’re looking for inspiration to build out your own:
1. Rachel
On their wide-ranging blog, social media company Buffer had quite a bit to say about their persona development strategy. For example, meet Rachel:
A social media marketer and small business owner, Rachel represents a particular personality type that Buffer created with, as they put it, “a combination of raw data and educated guesses” based on their known readership. By keeping Rachel in mind while developing their content marketing strategy, Buffer can build out content specifically geared towards her interests — and the interests of other readers like her.
2. Erin
The age old wisdom — “know your customer!” — still holds true today, if Hubspot’s detailed persona is any indication.
Enterprise Erin’s profile not only notes her personal characteristics (down to her likely status as a newlywed), but also the challenges that customers like her are experiencing.
3. Frank
As a digital marketing company, Single Grain knows the value of a well-placed targeted ad. Of course, that doesn’t mean all of their consumers are going to be high-tech.
By building out a thorough persona for ‘Frank Founder,’ Single Grain gives its in-house team a sense of who they should be selling to, and what these clients’ pressure points might be.
4. Kyle
An example of a marketing persona created by Inalign, Kyle Fisher’s profile considers not only his general characteristics and assets, but also explicitly explains what he’s looking for when purchasing a vehicle.
With a detail-oriented profile like this, it’ll be much easier for the company in question to stay on message when trying to communicate with real consumers.
5. Jane
Although Flight Media’s example persona is a bit less thorough, it’s certainly relatable. After all, chances are that plenty of people know a Jane:
As Flight Media reminds us, details are certainly important; but when it comes to building out a profile, it’s important to refer to your character by name. Although it might feel silly, these names actually help us to better connect with these personas and their imagined hurdles — and thus to put forth a concerted effort to address them.
6. Sally
Referral SaaSquatch, a customer referral program for modern marketers, certainly has a lot to say about B2B buyer personas. Enter Sample Sally:
Unlike some other examples we’ve seen in this list, Sally is given certain intimate identifiers, such as her calm demeanor and her reliance on an office assistant. This way, employees will know what to highlight when they have a Sally on the phone.
7. Steve
According to business journalist and editor Neil Davey, it’s not enough just to build out a persona: it’s also important for it to look professional. By way of example, Davey points to this graphic:
Because the information is laid out in a clear and concise manner, it is easier for the reader to absorb all of Steve’s relevant characteristics.
8. Amanda
Of course, while discussing buyer personas, who better to consult than the Buyer Persona Institute?
In Amanda’s multi-tab persona profile, her wants, needs, and sticking points are all clearly addressed. This way, when someone from the company enters into conversation with an Amanda, he will already have done his homework on what makes her tick.
9. Mark
Of course, at L&T we practice what we preach, so we have a few marketing personas of our own. First up, meet Mark the Marketing Manager:
Because L&T recently opened a sales office in St. Louis, getting perspective on potential clients like Mark is essential to our marketing strategy. After all, the better we know our market, the better we can provide consumers with what they need.
10. Ms. Snow
Finally, we have Ms. Snow the CMO, a persona L&T created to reflect our high-powered, female clientele. Her persona is as such:
By using personas like Mark and Ms. Snow, L&T not only makes it easier for our sales team to do its job — we also improve our content ROI, attract better leads, and experience an overall improvement to our content marketing strategy.
