In questo post esaminerò più in dettaglio come si costruisce una Buyer persona.

Da dove iniziare? Secondo Laura Patterson

it’s important not to confuse personas with profiles. Personas are narrative descriptions that bring user profiles to life … Profiles are the foundation for constructing personas. And while these two concepts seem similar, they are different. Profiles describe type of prospects, customers, or users. Persona describe specific people.

Esempio di un profilo:

Gender: 50% Male/50% Female;

Age: 18-34;

Education: high shool education, and most have a BA degree or some college education;

Marital Status: 50/50 Married/Single;

Comfort with Technology: Average, comfortable making purchase online.

    Secondo Ahmed Taleb, Director of strategic planning a Bulldog Solutions,

a natural starting point is to define the attributes of companies in your key clients list … A strong company profile mining exercise also helps identify common attributes across clients that beging to help define differences between segments. Examples of these attributes are company vertical, size, distribution and geography … From this starting point, you can shift your focus towards identifying the key people at each of these companies that are typically involved in the sales process … You’ll need to define title, role, and traditional “Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline (BANT)” criteria.

Un breve profilo potrebbe ad esempio essere quello descritto da Ardath Albee:

Our leads are CIOs in companies with more than 500 employees in the financial services industry who are responsible for the data center.

Quindi, per iniziare a descrivere una Buyer persona, occorre prima trascrivere un profilo del segmento di clienti individuato. Ma questo non basta. E’ necessario compiere un ulteriore passo.

Dobbiamo considerare non solo gli aspetti espliciti (demografici) ma anche quelli impliciti, cioè quelli comportamentali:

Too often marketers segment purely on demographic/explicit or BANT (budget, authority, needs, timing) criteria, but it also is critical to combine this with analysis of behavioral/implicit factors. Good buyer persona definitions should align with this segmentation based on a combination of explicit and implicit factors.  (Adam Needles)

Dobbiamo quindi individuare le caratteristiche comportamentali. Come ha scritto Ahmed Taleb:

The next step is to define and document the specific behavioral attributes that can impact decision making in your newly defined target personas … There are many possible behavioral traits you can target to help inspire action in your prospects. For the sake of simplicity and efficiency, I advise focusing on the three most powerful types of behavior: Avoidance (Pain Ponts), Attraction (Motivators) and Validation …

Pain points are simply the set of stimuli that cause a prospect to react with a set of actions that minimize or eliminate negative outcomes. These are the things that most trouble a prospect and can be the most powerful motivating force behind rational decision making. Motivators, on the other hand, are the set of stimuli that operate in exactly tha opposite way – thay inspire action to encourage or repeat a positive outcome. And finally, Validation can be used to better undestand the prospect’s decision-making process. For example, if an economic buyer routinely consults with third-party research and industry experts before finalizing a purchase decision, a shrewd marketer will court these entities and integrate them into the overall marketing message. 

C.Edward Brice ha sintetizzato molto bene questo argomento:

The key point is to focus on a specific role and better understand how that role buys, what are the key pain ponts and motivation, what are the right type of questions to ask, and who do those people turn to for purchase validation, whether peers, analysts, or media sources.

the buyer description focus on demographic information, as well as the prospect’s typical behavior, attitudes, needs, and goals – all in relation to something you can help them overcome or achieve.

A questo punto è necessario “umanizzare” la Buyer persona fornendogli un nome e, se possibile, anche una foto. Come ha scritto Laura Patterson,

[personas] bring customers to life by living them a name and/or title, personality, and in some instances even a photo … or graphic representation.

 Nel suo best seller “Nuove Regole di Marketing & Pr”, David Meerman Scott ha scritto:

Credo che dovreste arrivare a dare un nome ai vostri acquirenti tipo [cioè le Buyer Personas] … Potreste anche ritagliare da una rivista una foto rappresentativa in modo da potere visualizzare facilmente [le vostre Buyer personas]. Si dovrebbe trattare solo di un nome interno che aiuti voi e i vostri colleghi a sviluppare empatia e profonda consapevolezza nei confronti delle vere persone a cui vendete. Piuttosto che un “prospect” senza nome e senza volto, a prendere vita sarà il vostro acquirente tipo.

Per finire, in modo da comprendere come può essere descritta una Buyer Persona, riporto una sintesi dell’esempio riportato in un’indagine condotta da Esquiro Research, Marketing to a Technical Buyer, in cui viene dato un nome (Steven Fitzpatrick) e un titolo (technical buyer) alla Buyer Persona:

As IT Manager, Steven reports to the CIO directly on a weekly basis through status reports and scheduled meetings. He has been with his current company for 7 years. Because of his MBA, Steven’s CIO relies on him for business-case analysis as well as technical evaluations and summary reports …

Steven is obsessed with network security, backups, proper encryption, and communication solutions. He attends conferences and major seminars, and is even a junior member of the board of a few organizations and committees, helping the CIO with speaking engagements.

Steven’s main functions within the company are to plan, organize, and manage the immediate IT needs of the company. Working with the CIO and others, he also identifies the long range IT and communication needs of the company.

As part of Steven’s job he weighs the merit of service providers, constantly evaluating current contracts and trying to recommend the best purchase for upstairs. He is not adverse to going digging for information himself, but usually he works off the suggestions from more front-line managers.

Come potete notare, lo stile è molto discorsivo e il contenuto è molto approfondito: si ha di fronte una persona “vera”, esemplificazione di un segmento di clienti.

Proseguirò questo argomento nel prossimo post.