So you're beginning to put together a killer inbound marketing campaign. What are the first questions you start asking yourself? Is it about the goals of the campaign, the nitty gritty details, the budget, the deadline?

While those questions all need to be answered, the best place to begin is asking yourself who do you want this killer inbound marketing campaign to reach? You can create amazing content all day, every day, but if you don't know who you want to be seeing and reading it, the battle could already be lost. By targeting everyone, you could essentially be reaching no one. No bueno. Therefore I give you, the buyer persona in inbound marketing.

You've probably heard the terms target audiences or target markets before, but "buyer persona" could seem a bit Greek. Starting fresh? Let's break down what exactly a buyer persona is.

The basics: What is a buyer persona?

The buyer persona by definition is a fictional representation of who your ideal customer is. This is the time to really get thinking and brainstorming with everyone who, at some point, interacts with the customer: marketers, sales, customer service, etc.

Each of those teams will have different insight and knowledge to who this customer is, and what they want and why they want it. So, some good beginning questions to start asking and researching could include:

• Demographics (age, gender, education level, occupation, income, residential area)
• What material items do they own?
• What is their skillset?
• What are their behavior patterns?
• What challenges do they face?
• What are their goals?
• Why does this person want/need my product or service?

As you start answering these questions, a natural mold of who this person is will start to form making it easier for you to picture how to market to him or her. Some people recommend attaching an image to the persona at the end, but I also recommend a name. Giving your buyer persona some flare and personality never hurt anyone.

After your research is done, you might end up realizing you have a few different buyer personas for your business. That can be fairly common. When that happens, build your different personas out by grouping them around their common characteristics such as the industry the work in, the challenges they face or the solution you plan to offer them. 

Why do I need to develop a buyer persona?

It's the oldest trick in the book - knowledge is power. Knowing who your customer is will allow you to better target your messaging. Understanding your buyer persona will allow you to efficiently tailor your content, blogs and other inbound strategies to the customer's exact needs and wants.

Developing and understanding who the buyer is of your product or service first, will only assist you in deciding who your future customers are and aren't. That's right, don't forget, along with discovering what who your buyer persona is, you've also taken a step in the right direction to weed out your empty leads of negative personas, and a potential chunk of wasted time, effort and money - and that's a language everyone speaks. 

In a nutshell, understanding who your buyer persona is at the forefront when kicking off an inbound marketing campaign will help you to better focus your entire strategy and goals of the campaign. The better you are able to target the people you want to convert into leads and/or sales, the more effective your campaign will be and you will be able to set attainable and realistic expectations.

What other characteristics of a buyer persona are relevant to your business? Also, let us know if you have any questions.