How to create an effective B2B buyer persona for your business

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A buyer persona is a must-have to deliver your message to the right person at the right moment. With this step-by-step plan you easily create a buyer persona for your brand.

When it comes to sales and marketing, you no doubt want to reach as many people as possible. Yet it pays off to aim your efforts at a specific audience. So specific that you can summarize it in a single profile: the B2B buyer persona.

The meaning of a buyer persona

A buyer persona is a fictional profile in which you describe your favorite customer in detail. This goes beyond the typical “Jan, 34, data specialist” sketch you may be familiar with. The goal of the buyer persona is to understand your customer to the point where you can almost feel their pain yourself.

How do you put such a vivid picture of your customer on paper? By not letting yourself be guided by demographic characteristics, but truly getting into your audience’s shoes. What are their goals and ambitions? Which frustrations gnaw at them? What are their habits and behaviors? This gives you a well-rounded picture of the customer that you can build on in your marketing and sales activities.

Why you need a buyer persona

A buyer persona forces you to step out of the daily grind and consider the bigger picture. Who are we doing all this for? If you don’t know who your customer is and, more importantly, which inner drivers bring this person to your product, then you cannot possibly influence this process. Ever heard the saying ‘buying is emotion’? It is the human aspects, actions and emotions that form the cornerstone of a winning marketing campaign.

In other words, a buyer persona provides input for your marketing strategy and for creating content that resonates with your customer, both in substance and in feeling. Because you know your buyer persona through and through, you know exactly which buttons to push. But also through which channels and at which moments you can best place this content.

So you are able to address the right person, with the right message and at the right moment. It will not surprise you that this pays off in a higher return on investment and more customers at the end of the day. A study by MarketingSherpa underlines this, with findings such as “124% more leads by using a marketing strategy with buyer personas”. The Nielsen Norman Group study on personas also confirms that a sharp picture of your audience measurably improves your choices in content and design.

On top of that, you can respond quickly to trends and changes in the market when you know your audience well. With a buyer persona, you can gauge in the blink of an eye whether your customer is wary of ClubHouse, is becoming increasingly climate-conscious or receives their coffee in the mailbox every month. You spot opportunities as they arise and thereby gain an edge over your competitor.

Building a buyer persona

Now that we agree a buyer persona cannot be missing, it’s go time! Here is how you build a buyer persona in 5 steps.

The five steps build on each other: you start from your real customers, choose your focus, pour that into a profile, deepen it with input from sales and customers, and finally bring the profile to life.

How to create an effective B2B buyer persona for your business

What is a B2B buyer persona and why does it matter for your business?

Definition of a B2B buyer persona

A buyer persona is an imaginary profile in which you describe in detail who your ideal customer is. Instead of relying only on standard demographic data such as “Jan, 34, data specialist”, you try to genuinely get into your customer’s shoes. The goal of the buyer persona is to understand your customer so well that you can almost feel their problems yourself.

How do you create such a vivid picture of your customer? By not focusing only on demographic characteristics, but truly looking at your audience’s goals, ambitions, frustrations, habits and behaviors. This way you get a complete picture of your customer on which to base your marketing and sales activities.

Why do you need a buyer persona in B2B?

A buyer persona helps you step out of the daily routine and see the bigger picture. Who are we really doing all this for? If you don’t know who your customer is and (more importantly) what the inner motivations are that bring them to your product, then you cannot influence this process. Have you ever heard the saying ‘buying is emotion’? It is precisely the human aspects, actions and emotions that form the basis of a successful marketing campaign.

In other words, a buyer persona provides input for creating content that fits your customer perfectly, both on a substantive and an emotional level. Because you know your buyer persona well, you know exactly how to reach them. You also know through which channels and at which moments it is best to share the content.

So you have the capacity to address the right person, with the right message and at the right moment. It is no surprise that this results in a higher ROI and more customers in the end. A study by MarketingSherpa shows that using a marketing strategy with buyer personas can lead to “124% more leads”.

Moreover, you can respond quickly to trends and changes in the market when you understand your audience well. With the help of a buyer persona, you can gauge in the blink of an eye whether your customer is interested in Clubhouse, is becoming more environmentally conscious or wants their coffee delivered to their home every month. By recognizing opportunities as soon as they arise, you create an edge over your competitors.

Which steps should you take when creating a B2B buyer persona?

Identifying relevant demographic data

It is essential to understand demographic data such as age, gender, job title and company size of your potential customers. This information helps in creating a targeted buyer persona.

How to map your ideal customer’s buyer journey?

Step 1. Look at your current customers

Creating a buyer persona does not happen on the basis of guesswork. This is because it is based on the actual customers you currently serve. Go through the list and look for similarities and differences. Can you divide your customers into groups based on this (for example: 65% of my customers belong to the “young geeks” and 35% to the “older C-level managers”)? At this stage, it is allowed to be a bit generalizing.

Step 2. Select your favorite audience(s)

Many companies struggle to define their focus on a specific audience. A structured audience segmentation helps you with this. They fear they will miss revenue if they become too specific about who they want to reach, and therefore about who they do not. This is a misconception. By determining very clearly who you are targeting, the right customers will also choose you faster.

Suppose you notice that your current customer base consists of 4 different audiences. Of these 4, 3 generate high margins and 2 fit well with your company’s mission. Then the decision is actually already made. Choose to focus on these 2 audiences. Then create 1 buyer persona for each audience.

Step 3. Create 1 or more profiles

Now you can get to work on the profiles! Start by writing down all the relevant information you already have based on your current customer group. Think of things like:

• Demographic data: age, gender, place of residence, family situation, income bracket, etc.
• Organization: what kind of company and in what role does the buyer persona work?
• Communication: which channels does your buyer persona use regularly? How does he/she prefer to receive information? Which communication style (e.g. personal or business) resonates best?
• Behavior: what is the (relevant) behavior of your buyer persona?
• Goals and ambitions: which goal does the buyer persona want to achieve by using your product? Think not only of the flat results (‘a new phone’), but also of the overarching life goals that go with it (‘staying connected with my loved ones’).
• Challenges and frustrations: what keeps your audience awake at night when it comes to achieving their goals? Or what are those small irritations that just never get resolved?

Step 4. Gather the deepening information

It is likely that not all information about your audience is available yet. The internal motivations in particular remain hard to uncover (which we sometimes don’t even fully understand ourselves). In that case, it is important to fill the gaps in your buyer persona.

Where can you find the missing information? Start with internal stakeholders who have direct contact with the audience. Sales and customer service employees are often well informed about the questions, frustrations and motivations of your buyer persona.

If you still think you are missing puzzle pieces, it is a good idea to talk to the customer themselves. This way you show that the company is genuinely involved with its customers and in improving their experience. During the conversation, you can also gain more insight into the essence of your buyer persona.

Step 5. Make your buyer persona attractive

What are you trying to avoid? That all your efforts to establish a detailed buyer persona are lost when it ends up in a drawer. Perhaps this is why marketers like to give their buyer personas a name. It then becomes easier, during a brainstorming session, to ask: What would Tom think of this?

Take it a step further by making your buyer persona visual. Add a photo and organize the information into clear blocks. Hang this overview in a prominent place on the wall, so you are regularly reminded of it.

The importance of interviewing potential customers and building customer profiles

By interviewing potential customers and building customer profiles, you can gain valuable insights into their needs, preferences and challenges, which is essential for creating an effective buyer persona.

What are the essential elements of a good B2B buyer persona template?

Understanding the DMU (Decision Making Unit)

Understanding the decision-making structure within your ideal customer’s organization is crucial to identify the right stakeholders involved in the purchasing process.

By conducting effective qualitative research and interviewing potential customers, you can accurately determine their pain points and needs, and tailor your marketing strategy accordingly.

Leveraging tools such as Google Analytics can help collect quantitative data about your audience’s behavior, which is valuable when building a buyer persona.

Why is it necessary to continuously update and adapt your buyer persona?

The market and customer behavior evolve constantly, which is why it is essential to regularly review and adapt your buyer persona to stay relevant.

Changes in the purchasing process can have a direct impact on the needs and expectations of your customers, making it crucial to adapt your buyer persona accordingly.

By continuously gathering feedback from sales and marketing teams, conducting market research and following industry trends, you can keep your buyer persona dynamic and relevant.

How can an effective B2B buyer persona help your business generate leads and sales?

By ensuring that your content and online marketing strategies align with the wishes and interests of your audience, you increase the chance of attracting high-quality leads.

By tailoring your offer to the specific needs of your audience, you improve the chance of positive interactions and eventual sales.

With a detailed buyer persona, you can better segment potential customers, run targeted marketing campaigns and generate leads more efficiently.

I’ve created a buyer persona, now what?

After going through the entire process and establishing a buyer persona, you are ready for the next steps in generating leads! Start by developing an effective lead generation strategy, in which the choice between inbound and outbound lead generation is a good starting point. Next, you can launch a targeting campaign to reach your buyer persona and experiment with ways to optimize your B2B lead generation activities. Good luck!

Further reading

• How to do a competitive analysis for B2B? Step-by-step plan
• How do you create a buyer persona for B2B? (with template)