How to Develop a Buyer Persona in Less than 10 Minutes

If you’re not currently using buyer personas, we don’t want to say you’re doing marketing wrong, but…

You’re doing marketing wrong.

At the end of the day, if you aren’t quite sure who you’re targeting, you’re throwing money away. A persona helps you hone in on our ideal customer and create content for them, instead of just throwing everything on the wall and seeing what sticks. Personas are also extremely critical for any Inbound Marketing campaign.

Luckily, creating a persona is very easy and – thanks to a new tool from our friends at HubSpot – very quick.

What Are Buyer Personas?

Buyer personas are fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers. They help you understand your customers (and prospective customers) better and make it easier for you to tailor content to the specific needs, behaviors and concerns of different groups. The strongest buyer personas are based on market research as well as on insights you gather from your actual customer base (through surveys, interviews, etc.). Depending on your business, you could have as few as one or two personas, or as many as 10 or 20. (Note: If you’re new to personas, start small! You can always develop more personas later if needed.) For rockstar personas, use our free how-to guide.

How to Build A Persona

Typically, when you build a persona you want to start by interviewing your current customers to find out what made them choose your company. HubSpot has a list of 20 questions you can ask you current customers. You can also talk to your sales team and customer service team. Once you’ve gathered all your information, head over to the brand new HubSpot Make My Persona tool. As a HubSpot partner agency, we’re a little biased – but we think it’s pretty darn nifty.

And voilà – that’s it! Everything you need to create a brand new persona. If you still need a little inspiration or clarity on personas, check out our pre-made personas to see how it all comes together.

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Amplify Your Marketing with Inbound

Are you not seeing the results you expected out of marketing with your current program? It’s time to go Inbound. Inbound Marketing is a strategic, proven approach to digital marketing that laser-focuses on your goals that doesn’t just get eyeballs on your content – it sends you primed and warmed leads. You’re reaching the people you want most as customers, which means better business for you. As a Minneapolis HubSpot Partner Agency, we have the tools to create killer campaigns, and the knowledge to slice and dice the analytics.

Need a new digital marketing or web design plan? We are a Minneapolis SEO, digital marketing, social media marketing, web design and HubSpot inbound marketing agency. We’re located just outside of Minneapolis. Stop on by and get started – and while you’re here, pick up a free honey stick (yes, we love our bee-related theme).