A report from Aberdeen Research states that marketers who use buyer personas and map content to the buyer journey enjoy 73 percent higher conversions from response to marketing qualified leads. The problem is that most buyer personas are terrible, says Jed Singer, managing partner of Socialight Media, a leading digital marketing consultancy.
Accurate and detailed buyer personas are necessary for developing an effective B2B content marketing strategy, building traction across your digital marketing channels, helping the marketing team stay focused, and creating tight alignment between marketing and sales. In a recent blog post on Business2Community.com, Singer identified sources for developing useful buyer personas:
• Former and lost customers – How did you lose their business or miss getting it completely? Are they happy with the vendor/partner they chose instead? What could make them switch to your company?
• Advocates – Find those customers who flew through the buyer journey. Find the customers who purchase the most from you annually; the customers who have been with you the longest; the customers who refer you the most business. What makes them tick?
• Customer Support – These folks are a gold mine for pain points. Why are customers hard to track down? Why do they contact you? Why do they reschedule? What are they asking for?
