Forming B2B buyer personas can seem like an insurmountable task, especially when there is so much information to gather. Do you ever ask yourself how can I gather this information? How much information is enough? What data should I gather? Who should I be interviewing for this information? We know you might have a lot of questions and we’ll answer them in this blog, which addresses how to build accurate B2B buyer personas, leading to more effective marketing efforts.
Questions About Demographics
One of the major components of buyer personas is their demographic characteristics. Getting relevant information on these basic demographic data points helps give insight as to who they are as a person. This information is a crucial part of a B2B buyer persona. Here are a few questions to ensure you have answers to regarding a buyer persona’s demographic information:
- Where do they live?
- What is their education level?
- What certifications do they have?
- What is their job title?
- What does their role entail in the organization?
Questions About Firmographics
Another key component of buyer personas is firmographic characteristics. These data points detail everything about the organization. From what success means to them to how many employees are in the company. Firmographics not only help marketing, but they also inform sales exactly what they are working with. Including this data rounds out some of the basic information that is used to build B2B buyer personas. Here are a few buyer persona questions that need to be answered.
- What industry is the organization in? Is there any overlap with other industries?
- How many employees does the company have? What is the structure of the executive/leadership team? Who are the key decision-makers? Who are key influencers?
- What technology does the organization use? Are they loyal to any specific infrastructure, software or device types (of course, this is only important if relevant for your business!)?
- How does the organization measure success? Is it in revenue? Sales? Are they a nonprofit?
- How much yearly revenue does the organization yield?
- How many offices do they have? Where are they headquartered? Is the team in person, virtual or hybrid?
Questions About Buyer Needs, Goals, Challenges and Values
All buyers are unique, but all buyers have certain needs, goals, challenges and values. It is up to you to find those and use them when building personas and developing marketing efforts. These insights can be some of the most instrumental data collected to build a buyer persona. If their needs are unknown, how do you know your product or service will be right for them? If needs are known but their goals and values are not, how does marketing know what activities to plan to reach them and how do sales know how to have conversations with them? These characteristics are very foundational to a B2B buyer persona. Answer these buyer persona questions to build that foundation.
- What is the buyer in need of? What pain points are they experiencing? Is it painful enough they are willing to pay to address it?
- Does your product or service address those pain points?
- Are there any competitors in the picture? Or perceived competitors?
- What features and functions is the buyer looking at when considering a product? What do they value in a product or service?
- What is the buyer trying to achieve by purchasing a new product or using a new service? What are their goals?
- What hesitations does the buyer have about making a purchase? Is there any way to appeal to those hesitations?
- What questions do they have about your product or service?
Questions About Buyer Behavior
As we mentioned before, all buyers are unique. And in most cases, that is the same for how they behave. Everyone has their personal preferences as to how they get their information, what media they trust, what devices they use and so on. While this may not seem as important as knowing what they are looking for in a product, it is essential for marketing and sales, especially marketing. Understanding some of their behaviors can detail how to market to them and what marketing content to use to reach them. Here are a few questions to answer about a buyer’s behavior when building a buyer persona.
- How does your buyer get information? Do they use social media, the newspaper, magazines?
- What media do they consume? Is it live television, streamed shows and movies, books?
- What social media do they use? Do they frequent LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit? What do they use most often in their personal versus professional lives?
- What technology do they use? Cellphones, tablets, other devices?
- What content do they like to consume? Videos, articles, graphics?
While this is not an exhaustive list of questions to answer when building B2B buyer personas, this will surely give you a head start on the process.
Ready to build or refine your buyer personas but not sure where to start? Check out our Buyer Persona and Target Audience Course. This online, on-demand marketing course is unique – as it combines self-paced videos, interactive templates and the opportunity for personalized marketing coaching. If this sounds like something perfect for you and your organization, learn all about the course here.
