Many marketers are now paying attention to “buyer personas” and “buyer journeys” as trends in BtoB
content marketing
. Unlike the purchasing process of individuals, such as BtoC personas and customer journeys, we focus on and set up the process that buyers (decision makers and implementation managers) go through before making purchasing decisions at a company. is a distinctive feature.
In this article, we’ll show you practical ways to create buyer personas and buyer journeys. See below for an overview of buyer personas and buyer journeys.
Related materials:
Gathering information on buyer personas and buyer journey settings
Buyer
personas
are set to increase the resolution of your company’s target customers for the purpose of successful content marketing.
To do this, start by gathering information about your target customers and buyers using the methods below.
- Sales/Customer Success Interview
We interview sales and customer success representatives at companies that have introduced our products and services to find out what kind of buyers they are. This method allows you to obtain information from many buyers in a short period of time.
However, since the information we hear from sales and customer success centers mainly on information obtained after the inquiry, the process leading up to the inquiry tends to be unclear. The results of the interview will focus on the company’s attributes and the buyer’s personal attributes. In addition, there is a risk that there will be a certain bias in the personnel who have contact with sales and customer success, so it is necessary to keep this in mind.
- Access data such as Google Analytics and Google Ads
Obtain the search keywords used when visiting your company’s website using tools such as Google Analytics. Based on the search keywords, this data can be used to determine whether the searched buyer is a decision-maker or a person in charge of the process, or at what stage in the purchasing process.
Additionally, if you are running listing ads, we will obtain search keywords and CV keywords from Google Ads and Yahoo Ads. Search keywords for listing advertisements are extremely important data, along with the data mentioned above, as it allows you to understand keywords that cannot currently be acquired through SEO.
- Information on the internet other than websites
In addition to your company’s website, we also refer to information on the internet such as Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Information on the internet is secondary information, rather than your company’s primary information such as sales/customer success interviews and website access data, so be sure to distinguish it from information obtained from interviews and access data and properly test your hypotheses. Let’s do this.
- Interviews with business partners
If you can interview the companies you do business with, you can set up a buyer persona and buyer journey with higher resolution. Based on the information obtained through interviews, it is possible to obtain more detailed company and buyer attributes and insights into search keywords, and it is also possible to verify information obtained online.
The problem is that it cannot be conducted frequently because it requires the cooperation of client companies, but it can be done in parallel with interviews about implementation cases, or by attending sales negotiations.
Buyer persona setting items and number of settings
We will set up buyer personas based on the information you have collected about your target customers. We will organize the following items for each target customer’s corporate attributes and buyer’s individual attributes.
[Company attributes]
Items that should be set depending on the industry, transaction type (BtoB, BtoC), company size, and other characteristics of products and services
[Personal attributes]
Items that should be set depending on gender, age, department, position, role, approval authority, and other characteristics of products and services.
When you combine the target customer’s industry, transaction type (BtoB, BtoC), corporate attributes such as company size, and the buyer’s personal attributes such as department/role/title and whether or not they have payment authority, the combinations become enormous. Masu. However, if you consider setting up buyer personas that account for the majority of your target customers, I think you can cover them with a combination of 3 to 4.
However, if you don’t have enough information about the company or buyers or marketing resources, start by creating one persona that accounts for the largest percentage of your target customers, and then add other personas as part of your content management. would be better.
Buyer’s Journey 4 Processes and 5 Items
The buyer journey is defined by the four processes of awareness/information gathering, comparative consideration, evaluation, and decision-making, which show how the buyer makes purchasing decisions based on the buyer persona.
1. When and how did you realize the need for the product/service?
2. How did you compare products and services?
3. From what perspective did you evaluate the compared products and services?
4. How and from whom was internal approval for the purchase obtained?
If the product/service itself is not well known in the market, at what point should we recognize the issue, collect information, and how to solve the issue before we become aware of the product/service and collect information? It is necessary to compare measures for this purpose and decide whether to consider introducing products or services.
Next, there are five items to be set for each process: issues, actions, search keywords/exposure media, trusted content, and goals.
- assignment
We will identify and organize the issues that buyers may (or may) have. There are no omissions when considering the BANT of budget, necessity, settlement rights, and implementation timing.
How to use BANT (BANT conditions) in BtoB sales activities?
As the process progresses from 1. to 4., the issues related to products and services become stronger. 4. We will clarify how each issue changes until we reach the goal, and how we arrive at approval for the purchase of goods and services.
- action
We will add what kind of information to collect and what kind of solutions to obtain for the issues faced in each process. At the same time, once we have obtained a solution, we will organize other issues that have arisen through pre- and post-processes.
In action, through processes 1 to 4, you will move from a vague understanding of products and services to a deep understanding of what can be achieved and what kind of effects will be produced. .
- Search words, contact media
We will apply the specific search keywords used and the access data obtained from Google Analytics and Google Ads to each process. We will also add information on what kind of sites people access when they actually search for specific keywords, and what media they use to collect information.
- Content you trust
We will clarify what kind of content we trust regarding the issues we are aware of in the media we come into contact with. For example, if your company does not have a track record of implementing it and you are skeptical about its effectiveness, it would be helpful to have case studies from famous companies or research data that shows the implementation status and effects of other companies in the same industry. Alternatively, if there are strong concerns about the risks associated with implementation, such as not being able to obtain the cooperation of the on-site, the availability of trials, implementation support, and QA may be effective content.
- goal
Finally, set goals for each process. We will clarify what state you need to be in to move on to the next process, and what state will make a perspective change possible.
Points of use after setting up buyer personas and buyer journeys
There is no point in setting a buyer persona and buyer journey as a goal. The original purpose is to implement content marketing and make it successful. Based on the completed buyer persona and buyer journey, it should be very easy to consider how to actually create and operate content.
When considering content creation and operation, please use buyer personas and buyer journeys in conjunction with the items below.
- Content creation and operation considerations
[Conditions of provision] Anyone can access, provided with permission, etc. [Target customers] Decision makers, business personnel, etc. [Contents] Research reports, know-how, implementation examples, product introductions, etc. [Format] Articles, white papers, etc. eBooks, videos, etc. [Publication locations] Company website, external media, offline events, etc. [Browsing promotion] Web advertisements, SNS, email sending, press releases, etc.
It is also important to collect information about target customers and buyers and update it regularly even during content operation.
summary
- Buyer personas collect information about buyers through interviews with sales and customer success, access data on your company’s website, information on the internet, and interviews with companies that have introduced it.
- The buyer journey identifies and clarifies issues, actions, search keywords, trusted content, and goals for each process of recognition, information gathering, comparison, and decision-making.
- It is important to create content based on completed buyer personas and buyer journeys and update it regularly.