Your customers are separate individuals. They have their personal lives, interests, fears and dreams-no two are the same. While this is a good way to look at things, it can make it target the right people because everyone’s different. This is specifically true for B2B brands that are targeting job roles and companies rather than everyday consumers.

Usually, most brands tend to put generic messages and taglines to capture everyone’s attention. But this can be counterproductive. You can end up addressing NO ONE when you try to address EVERYONE.

So, what is the solution?

Businesses need B2B Buyer Personas.

What is a Buyer Persona for B2B?

The “buyer persona” for B2B refers to the profiles of the customers who tend to shop from such businesses. They highlight key characteristics and information regarding each of the segments that help to create messages that will resonate with the audience.

Here are some statistics to put information in perspective:

• Content that is made for personas increases the customer engagement by 58%
• 93% of companies who stay ahead of the lead and revenue goals segment of their butter persona database
• It could lead to an improvement of open rate by 2x and click-through rates by 5x owing to the use of buyer personas for email campaigns
• Know who your clients are and what are their hobbies.
• This will help to level up your content and increase sales and revenue. This helps to improve the performance of marketing campaigns. Businesses will like the buyer persona.

But what should a buyer persona for B2B include?

Buyer Persona for B2B Content

The buy persona for B2Bs is slightly different than the ones for B2C. This is because you are targeting a person as part of a company rather than a separate individual. While B2C companies might take an interest in the magazines that their customers read, or what they do in their spare time, B2B brands are more interested in workplace goals and challenges.

As a rule, a buyer persona for B2B must include:

• Demographic Information: It includes the basic details about the individual’s age, location and sex.
• Job Profile: It includes key facts about the job’s role as a prospect. This includes their salary, seniority and main tasks.  
• Buying Behaviour: It refers to the products that the customers have bought in the past and when they are most likely to buy them. Also tracks how they prefer to buy said products.
• Psychographic Information: This is a deep-level information about the prospect’s biggest fears, challenges, dreams and goals
• Pain Points and Challenges: This includes information about what a prospect struggles with the most at work or in their business.

Here are a few examples of the psychographic questions:

• What is my prospect’s main business goal? 
• What are their values in business?
• What are their career or business dreams? 
• What motivates them to do well at work? 
• What platforms do they use to carry out research?  
• What issues are they most concerned with at work? 
• What is the average work for a work?
• What challenges do they face daily? 

These questions serve as a useful new time-saving tool for businesses. Now that you have all the essential tools let’s develop the characters of the purchasers.

How to Create B2B Buyer Personas

A comprehensive and effective persona needs a careful process. Businesses need to curate it very carefully. It is a systematic process that involves several key steps. Each step is crucial in building a comprehensive and effective persona that truly represents your target audience.  

1. Conduct Thorough Research 

To know how to create B2B buyer personas, gather data on your existing customers and your target market. You can use methods like interviews with current clients, surveys of potential customers and analysis of industry reports. 

These will help to understand common characteristics and trends. You need to focus on both quantitative data (like job titles, company sizes and industries) and qualitative ones (goals, challenges and motivations).

2. Identify the Demographic Information

Collect demographic data such as industry, location, company size and job role. This information helps in creating a basic structure of the customers’ persona. 

3. Understanding the Customer’s Goals and Challenges

Businesses need to understand the goals and aspirations of the personas in their professional roles. This also helps to detect the challenges they face. Such an approach is crucial in emphasising your persona and tailoring your message to the specific needs of the customer. 

4. Map the Buyer’s Journey

Analyse the steps your buyer persona for B2B takes once they become aware of their needs or problems to the point of purchasing the product. Assess the touchpoints from where they seek information. Know what criteria they use for evaluation and factors that influence their decision-making process. 

5. Collect Behavioural Insights

Study the behavioural patterns of your target audience. These include their preferred communication channels, content preferences and buying habits. These insights help to fine-tune the businesses’ marketing strategies to align with the behaviours of your personas. 

6. Develop Pain Points and Motivation

If you want to know how to create B2B buyer personas, identify the specific pain points that your persona experiences in their professional roles. You must understand the motivation and what drives their decision-making process. This helps in creating messages that emotionally and professionally resonate with your audience.

7. Create Persona Profiles

Assemble all the collected information into detailed persona profiles. Such profiles should include not only demographic and behavioural data but also narratives that describe the persona’s daily life, challenges and goals. 

8. Validate and Refine Personas

Share the developed personas with team members, particularly the ones in sales and customer services to get their input. You can validate these personas with real-world interactions and feedback to ensure that they accurately represent your target audience. 

9. Implement and Review 

Use these personas in your marketing campaigns and monitor their impact. Regularly assess and update the personas using fresh data and market insights to maintain their relevance and effectiveness. 

Through these processes, you can develop a buyer persona for B2B that is not just comprehensive but also actionable, steering your marketing approaches toward more targeted and triumphant results.

With that in mind, let’s take a look at a few instances of the B2B buyer personas.

Buyer Persona for B2B Examples

There are multiple forms of the buyer persona, the most essential one being “one-pager”. This is a single document that houses all the relevant information. Here is an example of a specific persona:

EXAMPLE 1:

Name: Priya Sharma

Picture: Stock photo representing a professional female in her early 40s

Age: 42

Job Title: Chief Information Officer (CIO) at a leading e-commerce platform

Location: Mumbai

Income: INR 15,00,000 per year

Family Status: Single with a focus on career and personal growth

Media Habits: Active on industry-specific forums; Tech conferences and webinars; Subscribed to digital transformation magazines

Buys for: Implementing cutting-edge technology solutions; Enhancing cybersecurity measures; Streamlining IT infrastructure for scalability

Buying Frustrations: Legacy systems hindering innovation; Cybersecurity threats and vulnerabilities; Inefficient data management

Research Channels: Industry reports on emerging technologies; Recommendations from IT consultants; Networking with CIO peers at conferences

Alternatives: Upgrading existing technology stack; Exploring partnerships with innovative tech startups; Adopting cloud-based solutions endorsed by industry leaders

Buying Moment: During the annual IT budget planning; Ahead of major system upgrades or migrations

Virtual Shelf: Cybersecurity software suites; Cloud computing services; Project management tools tailored for enterprise-level operations

EXAMPLE 2:

Name: Rohit Kapoor

Picture: Stock photo representing a professional male in his 30s

Age: 35

Job Title: Human Resources Manager at a multinational IT company

Location: Bangalore

Income: INR 9,00,000 per year

Family Status: Married with two young children

Media Habits: LinkedIn for professional networking; Webinars on employee well-being; Corporate wellness newsletters

Buys for: Employee engagement; enhancing workplace productivity and satisfaction

Buying Frustrations: Difficulty in measuring the impact of existing wellness programs; Limited employee participation

Research Channels: Recommendations from HR industry peers; LinkedIn articles on corporate wellness; Employee feedback surveys

Alternatives: Sticking with current wellness initiatives; Exploring comprehensive corporate wellness solutions endorsed by industry experts

Buying Moment: Before annual performance reviews or during the planning phase for employee engagement initiatives

Virtual Shelf: Fitbit for corporate wellness challenges; Headspace subscription for guided meditation; Nutritional counselling services

As you can assess the information above can give a lot of insight to the companies who are collecting data for their buyer persona for the B2B list. 

FAQs: Navigating B2B Buyer Personas: Targeted Marketing Insights   

What is thе updatе frеquеncy of B2B buyеr pеrsonas for companies to maintain rеlеvancе?

Companies need regular updates to understand thе changеs in thе markеt, industry trends, and shifts in buyеr behaviour. To maintain rеlеvancе and еffеctivеnеss,rеviеw and update B2B buyеr pеrsonas at lеast oncе a quartеr or whеnеvеr thеrе arе significant changes in thе busіnеss landscapе. 

What role does data play in rеfining B2B buyеr pеrsonas?

To create an accurate buyer persona, companies need data. This helps them to understand the buyer’s behaviour, preferences and challenges. Continuous data analysis allows marketers to refine personas depending on rеal-timе information.

How do personas impact brand and marketing strategy?

Brands get marketing strategy insights from the personas. This helps them to cater their services to their target audience’s preferences, behaviours, and pain points. This enables brands to tailor messaging and make their engagement more effective, fostering brand loyalty and growth.

Conclusion 

Understanding the diverse landscape of B2B customers is crucial for effective marketing. Generic approaches often miss the mark, emphasising the need for a buyer persona for B2B. Real-world examples illustrate the power of tailored personas, emphasising the importance of regular updates to stay relevant in a dynamic business environment. Explore Midas Touch for more B2B tools that will elevate your marketing strategies.