by Nkemdilim Uwaje Begho
There is plenty of evidence that shows the ineffectiveness of digital marketing, but at the core of this supposed evidence is businesses having a poor understanding of their ideal buyers. This poor understanding results in poorly crafted and presented messaging or content which literally makes your prospective ideal buyer switch off on you and all your marketing.
The most powerful key to an effective marketing campaign is to understand the buyer, whether it’s an individual, a business or even the government. To do this, B2B and B2C business owners need to develop distinct buyer profiles and buyer personas. A buyer profile provides a better understanding of buyer segments, while buyer personas help you understand the deeper goals, personal values and challenges of the buyers and how these factors influence their purchasing decisions. The two terms are often used interchangeably, however, they are not the same thing.
As they say in Vietnam….Same, same, but different..
Now, let’s dig a little deeper!
I would say the primary difference is a function of the level of contact; the buyer’s persona is a personal representation of a prospect, while the buyer’s profile focuses on a prospect’s company and is used to describe a prospect’s actual business. Here are some definitions that may help…keep reading…I’ve got examples too.
Buyer Personas
A buyer persona is a quasi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. When creating your buyer persona(s), consider including customer demographics, behaviour patterns, motivations, and goals. Should you not have any existing customers yet, a buyer persona would be based on your best fit demographic. Your unique selling proposition lies in the detail, so try to be as detailed as possible. When done well, buyer personas help you hone your messaging, find gaps in your offerings, and provide the ability to strategically approach pain points your customers struggle with in your message delivery.
Here’s an example of an ideal buyer persona:
Age — Between 30–50 years old
Family — Kids under 18
Lives in a metropolitan city
Family first values
Business Owner
College Educated
Owns a smartphone
Enjoys networking
Has an active lifestyle
Uses online resources for every aspect of their life from grocery shopping to choice of schools for the kids.
Buyer Profiles
A buyer profile is a more precise description and usually describes the actual company that you would like to do business with. It represents the type of company that would be a good fit for your product or services. Features to consider include company size, industry and budget.
Here’s an example of an ideal buyer profile:
Companies with at least 50 and no more than 1,000 employees
Annual revenue of at least N100m
Businesses that are not technically proficient but current phase of business requires efficient technology solutions
They need to be able to scale quickly and cost-effectively as their needs arise
Having headquarters in Lagos or other metropolitan cities in Nigeria
Our clients’ customers are consumers, not other businesses
I am sure you are pretty confused at this point — well that’s normal. I guess I would be confused too if I didn’t do this for a living…
…so here are quick examples of how basic background information for buyer personas and buyer profiles should look.
Buyer Persona: Aida is a 31 year old CEO, who founded her cosmetics company four years ago. She would like to scale her business in 2018 using digital marketing but doesn’t know how to go about it or the kind of results that she can achieve.
Buyer Profile: AIDA Cosmetics is a Lagos based manufacturing company that specializes in premium beauty products. The company employs 140 workers and is available in beauty stores nationwide, with current annual revenue of between N100m- N180m.
What next?
We now know that B2C businesses absolutely need to develop buyer personas, but should B2B businesses do both buyer persona development and buyer profiling? Of course! This is crucial to understanding how each marketing approach should be designed to achieve each distinct purpose of your prospect’s business.
So get cracking and create your buyer personas and profiles. Once done make sure that your business model and marketing strategies fit the ideal buyer personas and buyer profiles and then you can pretty much sit back and watch as high-quality and precisely-targeted leads pour in.
Nkemdilim Uwaje Begho is a seasoned Information Technology professional with over 15 years of industry experience in Africa’s largest emerging economy with a deep purpose and focus on bridging the digital divide and transforming Africa by harnessing the benefits of digital. At home in technology from childhood, Nkemdilim is walking in her fathers’ footsteps as a second-generation Nigerian Information Technology expert. Currently CEO of Future Software Resources Ltd. (Futuresoft), one of Nigeria’s leading digital & technology solutions companies, providing a broad range of solutions for the scaling African enterprise, to consistently attract and retain its target audience, optimize its processes and increase its bottom line.
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