How Many Buyer Personas Does Your Business Need?

Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, Market Segmentation and Analysis Tool (Excel workbook). From a high-level, the goal of a marketing strategy is to identify a target market and develop a marketing mix that will appeal to those potential customers. Decisions regarding the ideal marketing mix can be organized in terms of Price, Promotion, Product, and Price. However, the goal is not to [read more]

Also, if you are interested in becoming an expert on Strategy Development, take a look at Flevy's Strategy Development Frameworks offering here. This is a curated collection of best practice frameworks based on the thought leadership of leading consulting firms, academics, and recognized subject matter experts. By learning and applying these concepts, you can you stay ahead of the curve. Full details here.

* * * *

If you’re like most business owners, you’ve probably heard of the term ‘buyer persona’ at least once. A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your target audience or ideal customers.

Due to its substantial benefits for a business, many entrepreneurs and business owners consider buyer personas as one of the essential elements of a marketing plan.  However, despite its frequent mention in various discussions, only a few people truly understand how buyer personas work. One particular aspect that business owners often struggle to comprehend is whether they should stick to one or create numerous personas.

Importance of Buyer Personas

A buyer persona creates a realistic representation of your ideal customer. A buyer persona template typically contains the following information:

• Age,
• Ethnicity,
• Location,
• Spending patterns,
• Purchasing power,
• Interests, and
• Civil/marital status.

These pieces of information could go a long way in helping you craft marketing campaigns. After all, it allows you to target the right audience for your business. Furthermore, if your business has buyer personas, your marketing team will know the exact details to use when creating ads.  For example, when creating a certain ad, they can target their audience according to demographics, language, and age.

As for Business To Business (B2B) companies, you need to consider the size and nature of the business. Either way, a buyer persona could serve as a guide on how a business creates and plans its marketing campaigns.

But take note that a buyer persona will only be useful if there is sufficient research behind it. One may even argue how it’s a waste of resources if a buyer persona isn’t fact-based. It’s also worth noting that more doesn’t necessarily mean better, this might lead you to wonder how many buyer personas should a business have.

Optimal Number of Buyer Personas for a Business

Many experts agree that a business should have at least one buyer persona. Also, it might depend on the nature of your business.

For example, if you’re running a construction business, there should be more than one group of persons that will appreciate your products and services. You could appeal to homeowners, startups, and you can even operate in the real estate industry. Naturally, you’d want to create a persona for each one of these markets. Thus, a business that caters to the masses will naturally have a couple of them.

On the other hand, if your business operates in only one industry, a few personas should be enough. Mom-and-pop shops and niche businesses would require fewer personas.  Simply put, there is no optimal number of buyer personas that work for all types of business. Also, identifying each one of your targets is crucial. But as always, you must take caution, as having one too many personas could be harmful.

The Dangers of Having Too Many Buyer Personas

Having too many buyer personas can be detrimental for the same reason that creating too many marketing campaigns might not be advisable.  This impairs your ability to focus on what matters most. Suppose your business sells health products. You may argue on the following target markets:

• Gut health
• Weight loss
• Skincare
• Anti-aging
• Pain management
• Hair loss

Remember to aim at the bigger picture.  It’s best to generalize your buyer personas as a whole.  In this case, it could be to target people who would like to buy health products than people with these health concerns.  By fixating on various health concerns, you may lose sight of your prime sales and marketing strategies.

Also, take note even if you intend to focus on only one market, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should stick to one buyer persona as well. Rather, you may want to create personas of different types.

Different Types of Buyer Personas

Although buyer personas are meant to be a fictional representation of customers who would adore your products, it doesn’t always have to be the case. You could also add personality to your buyer personas rather than just pure data.

For example, you can create a persona for the ideal customer, skeptical buyer, or indecisive consumer. With these personas, you could understand consumer behavior. This would help you figure out how to interact with your prospects during telemarketing calls.

Wrap Up

Buyer personas are undoubtedly a powerful tool and could help make marketing a lot easier.  It allows your marketing team to laser target a specific market. Doing so could also craft a better script for your telemarketing agents. However, it’s worth noting that having too many buyer personas can hurt your business. As long as you understand your business, you would know the ideal number of needed buyer personas.

Want to Achieve Excellence in Strategy Development?

Gain the knowledge and develop the expertise to become an expert in Strategy Development. Our frameworks are based on the thought leadership of leading consulting firms, academics, and recognized subject matter experts. Click here for full details.

"Strategy without Tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without Strategy is the noise before defeat." - Sun Tzu

For effective Strategy Development and Strategic Planning, we must master both Strategy and Tactics. Our frameworks cover all phases of Strategy, from Strategy Design and Formulation to Strategy Deployment and Execution; as well as all levels of Strategy, from Corporate Strategy to Business Strategy to "Tactical" Strategy. Many of these methodologies are authored by global strategy consulting firms and have been successfully implemented at their Fortune 100 client organizations.

These frameworks include Porter's Five Forces, BCG Growth-Share Matrix, Greiner's Growth Model, Capabilities-driven Strategy (CDS), Business Model Innovation (BMI), Value Chain Analysis (VCA), Endgame Niche Strategies, Value Patterns, Integrated Strategy Model for Value Creation, Scenario Planning, to name a few.

Learn about our Strategy Development Best Practice Frameworks here.