Buyer personas should be at the forefront of everything your business does- especially marketing. If you already have buyer personas in place, that’s great (if not, get started here)! But, as we all know, things change. Market conditions, trends, new competitors, and even pandemics cause shifts that impact even the most well thought-out buyer personas. Now is the perfect time to revisit your buyer personas to make sure they’re still as relevant.
Go straight to the source.
When updating buyer personas, analyze your current contact database and as a few people if they’d be willing to be interviewed. Conduct 3-5 interviews for each persona. Use a sampling of people who would represent both your ideal buyer, as well as non-ideal, in order to paint a precise picture.
Once you have your sources in place, here’s what you should ask:
Have the basics changed?
- Are they married?
- What is their annual income?
- Where do they live?
- Are they male or female?
- What is their age?
- What is their educational background?
How has their company evolved?
- What are their internal challenges are facing their company?
- What are their external challenges are facing their industry and company?
- Has the size of their company changed?
Has their role changed?
- What are their current responsibilities?
- How do they define success in their role?
- Has their decision-making process changed? Who is involved?
- What are their current goals?
- What personal KPIs do they strive for?
- What KPIs does their boss consider important?
- Are their KPIs their customers/clients think are important?
It’s easy to let something simple like updating your buyer personas fall to the wayside. Go ahead and put a reminder on your calendar to review them quarterly (or bi-quarterly) with your team. While it’s not necessary to rewrite them each time, reviewing them with your team keeps them front of mind and can help your team identify roadblocks or inaccuracies. Most importantly, doing so lays the groundwork for your business to grow, and that’s the goal.
