Do you know what your customers watch on Netflix?

Unless you’re… well, Netflix, you probably don’t.

And that’s a bad thing.

It may sound like a weird question at first, but if you don’t know the ins and outs of your customer’s lifestyle… you’re missing out on opportunities to sell to them.

Enter: Buyer Personas.

What Is a Buyer Persona Anyways?

If you’re new to the marketing arena, you may not have heard the term before.

Put simply, a Buyer Persona is a detailed, top-to-bottom profile of exactly who your ideal buyer really is…on a personal level.

That’s right, I said personal. A good buyer persona gets to the root of who your ideal buyer actually is at an emotional level.

• What are their fears?
• What are their pain points?
• What are their goals, hopes and dreams?

And it definitely doesn’t stop there. A Buyer Persona includes hyper-personalized details like: what is your ideal buyer’s family situation? Salary? Hobbies? What stores do they shop at? And what Netflix shows do they binge-watch on the weekends? (I’ll explain why that’s critical in a second).

In short, a Buyer Persona describes everything you could possibly think of when you picture the person you want to market to, and ultimately sell to.

Okay… So Why Do I Need One?

By now, you’re probably wondering “why the heck do I care what my ideal buyer watches on Netflix?”.

But don’t be fooled– smart marketers know that the deeper they get, and the more they know about their target audience, the more they can relate to them on an emotional level.

And emotion drives action.

If you can get your audience to feel, you can get them to act.

The reason buyer personas are such a powerful tool is this: whenever you’re writing a blog post, crafting a Facebook post or sending out an email newsletter, you can simply pull up that mental image and know exactly who’s going to be reading– so you can market to them more effectively.

You can use what you know about them to inject the right wording, tone, and subject matter into your content to get them to really feel. And as I said before, if you can get your customer to feel, you can get them to act.

How to Create a Buyer Persona

Creating a Buyer Persona is easy (and actually pretty fun). Set aside 15-20 minutes and walk through the steps below to craft a perfect, comprehensive buyer persona for your business.

• Give them a name (and have fun with it). This process should be fun! Start off by giving your buyer persona a name that relates to the type of buyer they are within your target audience. If you’re a real estate agent, think “First-Time-Buyer Becky”, “Empty-Nester Erin” or “Investor Ivan”.
• Ask yourself about the real them. Pull up a blank Word Doc and ask yourself these questions: What’s their marital status? Education level? Career? Salary? What are their goals in the next 5 years? What are their long-term goals? What are their fears? What keeps them up at night? Where do they hang out on the weekends? What books do they read? What blogs do they subscribe to? What social media platforms do they use? And yes, what do they binge-watch on Netflix? Have fun with it, and get as specific as you possibly can.
• Search on Google for a Stock Photo and Slap it On Your Profile. Attaching a visual image to your buyer persona will make them feel more real, and help you access a mental image of them any time you need to.
• And if you want to take it a step further… Get one of your previous customers on the phone. You don’t have to make it a big deal — send them an email saying asking for a quick 15-minute chat to “collect some feedback and improve our customer experience”. They’ll likely be ecstatic that you took the time to reach out and check up on them!

And you never know– you might gain a friend or two out of the customer interview process as well!

If you want to get serious about Inbound Marketing, creating a good buyer persona for the key types of buyers in your market is a MUST.