What Is A Buyer Persona?
What is a buyer persona, and what does it have to do with search engine optimization? Good question - let's answer why it matters to your SEO efforts.
But first, a definition of buyer persona - "a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers."
It never ceases to amaze me how many of my students and even clients really don't know specifically who they're selling to. The worst answer is "Anyone!" That's never true. Every company has specific audiences they want to attract to purchase their products and services.
And this matters to your SEO, because you need to know WHAT to write to that ideal buyer and HOW to write the content to answer all of her questions, so that she sees you as the expert who can solve her pain point, not your competition.
Suppose your ideal buyer persona is the CIO who is looking for the next generation cyber security monitoring platform to protect her IT systems. You're going to write content at a fairly sophisticated level, since this isn't her first time at the cyber rodeo.
On the other hand, if you're trying to get first time home buyers to sign a real estate contract with you, your content has to be extremely informational, go into lots of definitions and examples to convince him you'll explain everything about real estate purchasing.
How Do You Figure Out Your Buyer Persona?
If you've never done it before, be patient as you develop that individual. You need to know things like:
- Age
- Gender
- Education level
- Income level
- Purchase decision authority
- Pain points
- Motivation to buy
- Behavior
You may literally be shooting in the dark for awhile until you've sold enough of your services and products to develop that picture. If you're lucky, you already know who the ideal buyer is; now you need to create content that guides her to make the decision to buy from you.
You might have multiple buyer personas to consider. If that's the case, your content has to be segmented to each one. If I'm in the market to buy a new drone, I've already owned four, so giving me drone 101 content won't reach me. No, for me you need to explain details about different flight functions, compatible software, maintenance and spare parts.
The thing is, until you figure out who needs and wants what you're offering, it's going to be hit or miss. As you complete sales, be observant of who buys from you. Do online surveys and ask some probing questions to build a better picture.
Remember...if you're selling high performance sailing gear for offshore racing, someone's grandmother who's never been on a sail boat isn't who you need to convince to buy your products. The racer who routinely does offshore regattas and competes for crew jobs on professional racing boats is who your content needs to be speak to.
Want to know more about writing content? Take Invenio SEO's Basics of SEO where we go into more detail about writing the right kind of content for your target audience.
Until then, keep it safely between the ditches!
All the best to you,
Nancy McDonald
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