![\"fire](\"https:\/\/inbound.lollipoplocal.co.uk\/inbound-blog\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/fire-security-man-buyer-persona.png\")
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Don’t know what a buyer persona is? Or why your Fire & Security business should have one?<\/p>\n
Well, you’re not alone. But it is a fundamental piece of the digital marketing jigsaw.<\/p>\n
Done correctly,\u00a0your buyer persona\u00a0will get you more leads from your website and digital marketing efforts. And, of course, more leads mean more site surveys and more customers. In turn that means more maintenance contracts and more upsells.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And all of that will give you more lovely revenue and a thriving, growing Fire & Security business.<\/strong><\/p>\n Not bad… eh?<\/p>\n But what the flippin’ ‘eck is a buyer persona?<\/p>\n Many Fire & Security\u00a0business owners, if asked, will say they want to appeal to EVERYONE! Certainly on their website.\u00a0<\/p>\n When we ask “Who is your ideal customer?” There’s usually, umming<\/em> and ahhing. <\/em>And lots of:<\/p>\n And all because you don’t want to miss out on the work.<\/p>\n But it is a MASSIVE problem. By trying to appeal to EVERYONE, you invariably end up pleasing NO ONE.<\/strong> This is very important. Because you REALLY DO NOT want to appeal to everyone.<\/p>\n Ask yourself, how good are enquiries from people who:<\/p>\n Okay. You’ll happily provide a great bells only<\/em> alarm… But if all your enquiries were one-offs like this you’d get fed up pretty quickly. Point is these are not GREAT customers.<\/p>\n Buyer personas are about targeting the people you DO want to work with<\/strong>. Your ideal customers. It means you\u00a0need to be specific rather than generic. And I do mean mega<\/em> specific.\u00a0<\/p>\n Being specific is magic. It makes everything better. Suddenly your marketing becomes much much easier. Why?<\/p>\n This next bit might be confusing at first but, please, bear with me…<\/p>\n Marketing becomes easier because you can target the pain points<\/em> and behaviours<\/em> of your ideal customer – the person who is most likely to want your product\u00a0and service. You speak to those people with your digital marketing as if you were in a room with them. The emphasis is on helping them to keep their family secure.\u00a0OR…\u00a0to\u00a0get\u00a0the best fire protection\u00a0for their warehouse…<\/p>\n Starting to make sense?<\/p>\n If your website is set up to talk to<\/em> the right people, these will get in touch.<\/strong> Not the tyre-kickers…<\/p>\n This is what buyer personas can do for you. Bring more of the best customers to your website AND get more of them to convert!<\/p>\n Tony Zambito<\/a> gives us the original definition from 2002<\/p>\n Buyer personas are research-based archetypal (modeled) representations of who buyers are, what they are trying to accomplish, what goals drive their behavior, how they think, how they buy, and why they make buying decisions.<\/strong> (Today, I now include where they buy as well as when buyers decide to buy.)<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Is that clear? Kinda…<\/p>\n According to Hubspot<\/a>, it\u00a0is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers<\/em>. <\/p>\n It includes demographics, behaviour patterns, motivations and goals. And please note the important bit –\u00a0market research and real data about your existing customers. <\/em>That means no guessing.<\/p>\n When you dig in,<\/em> it can be surprising what you find out…<\/p>\n However, as the\u00a0Buyer Persona Institute<\/a> reminds us, a buyer persona is not merely a description of your buyer<\/em>.\u00a0While profiling all your buyers will result in too many personas.<\/p>\n Your buyer persona is a\u00a0mish-mash<\/em> of your ideal customers rolled into one. But that does not mean it is just slapped together…<\/p>\n You have to think about and understand what causes\u00a0your buyers to invest in your solutions. And what is different about buyers who don’t. It’s about buyer behaviour<\/strong>.<\/p>\n You have to address the pain points<\/strong> and also the tipping point<\/strong>. So, the problems that would cause someone to need your product. But also the change driver<\/em> that will make them go out and actively research for a solution to that problem.<\/p>\n A simple example\u00a0from\u00a0the domestic security market. Homeowner A\u00a0wants 3 quotes from a professional company because his wife doesn’t trust his DIY. Price is a big factor for him. Homeowner B is scared because there have been break-ins locally. She just wants to keep her home and kids safe while her husband is working away.<\/p>\n Different buyer personas with different motivations. And, you will probably not want to attract Homeowner A at all. Competing on price is a race to the bottom.<\/p>\n These semi-fictional representations<\/em>\u00a0aren’t too difficult to create – if you know the right questions to ask the right people.<\/p>\n Luckily, Hubspot<\/a> have a buyer persona template that you can use with all the questions on it.<\/p>\n But buyer beware. The \u00a0Content Marketing Institute<\/a>\u00a0give us 4 Buyer Persona Mistakes to avoid:<\/p>\n The last one gave me pause to think. Isn’t a scripted Q&A<\/em> what Hubspot’s template is? However, apparently, it is better to be unscripted<\/em> but agenda driven<\/em> to get the most in depth detail rather than simple generic answers.<\/p>\n The key to success in developing a buyer persona is asking probing questions based on your buyer\u2019s answers. For example, if buyers tell you they chose you because your solution is easy to use, you might ask follow-up questions to understand what about the solution needed to be easy.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Keep asking “why?”…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n An example is perhaps\u00a0the best way to appreciate the power of wielding\u00a0buyer personas. And there was\u00a0a great one during an episode of AMC’s\u00a0<\/span>Better Call Saul<\/strong><\/em><\/a>. Stay with me here, I’ll explain.<\/span><\/p>\n Saul’s target market were elderly people in a specific chain of care homes. He knew the itinerary\u00a0and their gripes.\u00a0<\/span>So Saul made a TV ad that pushed their buttons.<\/p>\n He knew <\/strong>they were unhappy with the pricing and the service.<\/strong> So he got very specific in the ad. The\u00a0star<\/em> was a little old lady, because most of the care home users were female. She was confused and a little worried. Just like his target customers.<\/p>\n Because he knew<\/strong> the care home itinerary<\/strong> he could target the ad directly to the right people. He knew<\/strong>\u00a0that ALL his elderly target customers would be watching Murder She Wrote<\/strong><\/em> at 3pm on a Wednesday afternoon.<\/p>\n So\u00a0his television ad ran\u00a0during the first ad break.<\/p>\n Genius!<\/p>\n But the phone didn’t ring straight away… He had to wait until Jessica Fletcher had solved the crime. Then the phone rang… off the hook!\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Genius!<\/p>\n It was a piece of content with the right message placed strategically in front of its target audience. \u00a0The right place, the right time and with the right people watching. That’s guaranteed to get the right results.<\/p>\n Saul knew his buyer persona and how to use it!<\/p>\n No. I bet you don’t.\u00a0<\/p>\n But in the 21st century people hang out online. A good place to find your ideal customers is LinkedIn. Or Facebook even. And there’s Twitter too…<\/p>\n You know where\u00a0your ideal customers will be. That’s a great start. All you need to do is sort out your buyer persona and the rest follows.<\/p>\n To Do:<\/strong>\u00a0build out your buyer persona (see links above for help). And you will know how to tell the right message to ensure the right people respond.<\/p>\n There is one more thing. On LinkedIn you need to\u00a0connect<\/em> with the right people first.\u00a0So you need to build an audience on LinkedIn!<\/strong><\/p>\n And Lollipop are here to help you do just that!<\/strong><\/p>\n Once your\u00a0Buyer Persona is in place you need the audience. LinkedIn is the\u00a0perfect place to find your ideal customers. The next step is to download this eBook – Find, Connect and Sell on LinkedIn.<\/a><\/p>\n It’s helped hundreds of people do exactly that. So what are you waiting for. Click and download, It’s free! Don’t know what a buyer persona is? Or why your Fire & Security business should have one? Well, you’re not alone. But it is a fundamental piece of the digital marketing jigsaw. Done correctly,\u00a0your buyer persona\u00a0will get you more leads from your website and digital marketing efforts. And, of course, more leads mean more site … Continue reading “What the flip is a Buyer Persona? And why your Fire & Security company MUST take note!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1407,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47,46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fire-security","category-leads"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inbound.lollipoplocal.co.uk\/inbound-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inbound.lollipoplocal.co.uk\/inbound-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inbound.lollipoplocal.co.uk\/inbound-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inbound.lollipoplocal.co.uk\/inbound-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inbound.lollipoplocal.co.uk\/inbound-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1406"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inbound.lollipoplocal.co.uk\/inbound-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1406\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inbound.lollipoplocal.co.uk\/inbound-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inbound.lollipoplocal.co.uk\/inbound-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inbound.lollipoplocal.co.uk\/inbound-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inbound.lollipoplocal.co.uk\/inbound-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Everyone… OR\u00a0Someone!<\/h3>\n
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More of the best Fire\u00a0& Security customers!<\/h3>\n
So, what is a buyer persona?<\/h3>\n
![\"more](\"https:\/\/inbound.lollipoplocal.co.uk\/inbound-blog\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/ideal-commercial-fire-security-customer.png\")
<\/a><\/p>\nBuyer Persona Template<\/h3>\n
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Buyer Persona example and why it is so important<\/h3>\n
![\"Buyer](\"https:\/\/inbound.lollipoplocal.co.uk\/inbound-blog\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/Buyer-Persona-TV.png\")
<\/p>\nBut we don’t have ads on the TV…<\/h3>\n
Find, Connect and Sell<\/em> on LinkedIn<\/h3>\n
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