How can we identify the Buyer Persona and the Customer Journey
Knowing your customers is one of the key aspects to connect with them, create more relevant campaigns and achieve better business results.
The truth is that if you don’t do the exercise of getting to know your possible Buyer Persona in detail, the path to follow will be unclear and very vague, because the path to follow will not start from the correct base. That is why it is important that you connect with him and for this we recommend that you start by studying, dreaming, speaking like him to fully understand his needs and desires in order to offer you what he is really looking for.
Before getting into the matter, we must be clear that knowing the purchase cycle of users will be a key piece to correctly focus your marketing strategy. The strategy to use will not be the same for a client who already knows and trusts your product or service compared to one who does not even know that it exists and who also has doubts.
Additionally, knowing the purchase cycle of users will help us determine what types of content will be needed. In this way you will be creating personalized content according to the type of user and at the same time you will use the entire purchase process.
What methods can we use to capture the necessary information?
- Through the analysis of the company’s databases: analyzing the trends and/or the information they consume.
- Through market analysis with external sources.
- Analysis of the Digital Channel and demographic segmentation analytics.
- Through the sources of social networks.
- Through query forms on the web: it is important to include these forms to capture information from those who have visited us.
- Sales Department or Customer Service: listen to what your team tells you.
- Interviews and customer surveys to get to know them and get first-hand opinions of your product.
Below we propose a simple checklist with some ideas that could help build this same Buyer Persona.
- Make a list or define the Buyer “negative” people, that is, those profiles that you already know are not going to be your clients nor do you want them to be.
- Research in broad strokes the goals, problems, aspirations, needs or challenges of your ideal consumer.
- Know the circumstances or why your users buy and invest in your products and/or users. How are they different from those people who, with the same problem or uncertainty, prefer to stick with the solution they already have?
- Find out what their expectations are before the possible purchase or final transaction. That is, what result the buyer expects if he invests in your solution.
- Reflect on the reasons why the buyer considers that your product or service is not the best option for him.
- Analyze the different phases of your customers’ buying process.
- Assess the most determining aspects that encourage the purchase or acquisition of your products and/or services.
Purchases involve a sales process and learning by the customer. In addition, new technologies have brought a great leap forward in this field, so we must see it as a global brand experience that, depending on the product, can be different for each brand.
Brands or companies that are committed to focusing their efforts on providing an excellent experience to their customers can generate up to 8% more than the rest of their competitors, but how? Thanks to the Customer Journey, a graphic representation of all the interactions that a customer has with a company. It is a tool that helps to visualize the needs of the consumer at each moment or point of contact, allowing them to be met more easily and precisely.
How can we create and identify the Customer Journey?
- Define the objectives:
Before drawing and defining the path that you want to follow, you have to define very well what the objectives to follow are going to be. What are you really interested in? or Where do you want to go? Keep in mind that the Customer Journey can be worked on at a general level, where you analyze all the interactions that the customer has with the company, or specifically, where we analyze the interactions of that customer at a certain stage.
- Draw your Buyer Persona:
It will be time to carry out a detailed representation of the ideal client, including demographic and behavioral data. This will help us to be closer to our ideal client, the one we really want to reach.
- Identify the Touch Points or points of interaction:
Here you will have to investigate how the client gets in touch with you, either through a form, or an advertisement on Instagram or through an offline advertising campaign. And once you have received this information, it will be interesting to know which method of purchase you will use (online or offline?).
- Collect the necessary resources:
In the Customer Journey, it must be clear what the necessary resources are going to be to be able to launch any type of action or campaign during each and every one of these stages. This way we will know how we can reach the final consumer.
- Test and experiment the same way your consumer will:
A good idea, once the path is designed and ready for action, is to test in the same way that your consumer would do, to see if the route created is correct, makes sense and at the same time generates an excellent line of purchase.
- Modify if necessary:
In case of detecting possible improvements or errors in the testing phase, improve and perform them again so that the route leads to the expected success.
Once all these aspects have been identified, we can say that we know our client and that we are at the moment of putting all the gear in motion!
