An essential part of harnessing the incredible scope of Facebook’s user-base is actually working out who you need to target, and a big part of that targeting is knowing about what marketers refer to as ‘buyer personas’.

 

 

What is a Buyer Persona?

Buyer personas are members of the groups that are at different stages of the buying process. They form the basis of all your campaigns, because people who are at different stages of the buying process each need to be kept in mind when you’re at the planning stage.

Some will really need convincing, especially if they are earlier on in the buying process, whilst others might just need a final little push if they’re later in the game and more familiar with your brand. As with all of marketing, it’s about knowing your audience, as well as the needs of each subsection of that audience.
In this blog we will cover the 3 key types of buyers and the best ways to market to them, as well as how to market to those consumers at different levels of awareness for your campaigns.

 

 

 

The 3 Types of Buyers

If the first part of successful marketing is working out who your audience is, the second is working out how they spend their money. Clearly knowing one of these factors doesn’t necessarily mean knowing the other. Knowing both goes a long way towards having them spend their money with you.
All the buyers in the world can be broken down into three distinct types:

1. The unconflicted
2. The spendthrifts
3. The tight-fisted

 

Absolutely everyone falls into one of these three categories and knowing who falls where means knowing how your business’s target audience spends its money. It follows, then, that each type of buyer requires a different advertising strategy. How much each category spends will of course vary according to age, location, profession and many more factors. We can know all of these variables because they form all the key statistical data Facebook collects on its users.

 

 

 

Unconflicted Buyers

These are your average, run-of-the-mill consumers who spend in a clear, logical fashion. They consider existing payments, what they’ve bought recently, whilst keeping in mind any future purchases they might have to make, and, importantly, whether or not they’ll get their money’s worth from whatever it is they’re buying.

Most consumers in this group don’t have strict budgets, but they have an idea of how much is coming in and going out.
They make up roughly 61% of the market. Now, like with most people, they might make the occasional impulse buy, but they’re still subject to . They fear it, and crave some kind of assurance, some kind of safety net. An effective way of increasing conversions within this demographic is to offer them some kind of practical assurance, like a warranty, or guarantee.
The important thing to do is to appease any fears they might have about potential purchases. They do this themselves, by looking towards social proof, like reviews, both positive and negative. They’ll consider technical reviews, facts and figures. They’re both emotion and metric driven.

 

 

 

“Basically, they need confirmation that what they’re buying is exactly what your business’ great advertising makes it out to be.”

 

A great tactic to employ discounts, especially on products that they wouldn’t consider buying in the first place. To unconflicted buyers, something that is on offer has a higher perceived value. This perception, something you can induce in potential customers, makes them much more likely to convert. Three for two offers are another classic tactic for the unconflicted. The buyer was probably never going to buy two of the items in the first place, however, when it transpires that they can get an extra one for free, the perception leads them to believe that they’re getting a benefit, even though they’re actually spending more.

 

 

“These buyers tend to spend a while thinking about transactions. What tends to tip them over the edge is extras.”

 

As a general rule, all consumers tend to prefer to complete purchases in one transaction: it confines spending to only one point of pain. Consumers will spend more if there is the appearance of less hassle being involved in the transaction process.

 

 

 

Spendthrifts

These people are a marketer’s dream. They’re why credit card providers exist. Whereas most people experience buyer’s remorse, they don’t. For these types of consumers, the pleasure receptors in their brains are activated by buying.

 

For this 15% of buyers, few controlling patterns, such as budgeting, are factored into the way that they spend. For them, the desired perception is having the highest-value product. Their sense of value is dominated by luxury and the immediate fulfilment of their perceived need. There it is again, that word: “perceived”. Their perception is dominated by their emotional experience. Marketing for this demographic means hammering home the appeal of not only having the product, but also the best possible product.

 

 

A strong tactic for this demographic is a tiered pricing model. Say your business is selling a subscription service that offers three levels, basic, pro, and premium. The spendthrift will often go for the premium over the other tiers because it inspires a sense of luxury, even if there’s little actual difference between the plans.

 

 

“Optimizing your tactics for this demographic is all about making them feel special, and that their life will be easier, more luxurious, more exclusive, and so on, if they buy your company’s product. Another great way of tapping into this demographic is by offering add-ons to their purchases.”

 

Because they are so emotion-driven, upselling is easier with this demographic: consider suggesting “things frequently bought together”, or “you might also like” as a way of encouraging these buyers to stay on your site and generate the need themselves.

 

 

 

Tight-Fisted Buyers

Now we all know what this kind of buyer looks like. If you had to think of one word to describe how they engage in the buying process, the word “begrudgingly” might come to mind.
Nonetheless, they still make up 24% of all buyers. The fact that nearly a quarter of buyers don’t want to spend their money can be a daunting thing to consider, however it’s not impossible to sell to them, just more of a challenge.

 

 

They tend to avoid luxury items and spend according to their perceived needs. Generally, they feel more resistance, and buyer’s remorse. They will spend the most amount of time deciding whether or not to make a purchase, and when they do, they’ll spend less money doing so.

 

They overstate the consequences of their buying options and might exaggerate what they think they have to abandon in the future in order to be able to afford what they’re being forced into buying right now.
You need to think about all of these factors, as well as the fact that you’re probably going to have to nurture these leads for a while. They’ll research the hell out every product they consider in order to get the best deal, and the product that best suits their needs. It follows, then, that they are statistic-driven in their buying consideration.

 

 

“A strong defence needs strong tactics to break it down.”

 

 

You should consider supplying educational content, for free, alongside whatever your product is. Blog articles, eBooks, any resource or piece of content that explains what the product is and how it works, as well as hammering home why your product is necessary.

 

 

“You’ll also want to make sure that your user reviews and testimonials are up to scratch; of course, this is an ongoing process, but potential buyers need to be impressed. Shopify, for example, has an easy-to-use review system: anyone who has previously purchased a product can leave a review, letting others know if it was worth their buck.”

 

 

Interested, tight-fisted parties can then come in and make an informed decision, based on social proof.
So there you have the three types of buyers. Your marketing efforts will be so much more successful when you take the time to understand how different consumer segments think. Embrace it, and you will profit. Know the types of buyer, address them, cater to them, and they will buy.

 

 

 

How Do Awareness Levels Affect My Marketing?

Let’s take a specific example that might make things clear. Imagine that you’re selling phone cases.
The broad category for this is electronic accessories, which is a category that obviously has a huge audience. Within that audience are people who might have recently bought a phone, or who are keen to buy a new one. Let’s say that the group overall has somewhere between 1.5 to 3 million people in it, an ideal number for your target audience.

 

You’re going to find 5 awareness levels in this audience:

 

1. The first are people who don’t know anything about your business.
2. Next are the ones who are aware that they need a solution, but aren’t looking to solve their problem.
3. The next group are aware of the problem, but don’t know about your solution specifically.
4. After that, you’ve got those who know about your solution but don’t want to buy.
5. The final 1% are ready to buy, but need a deal.

 

The Unawares, the first 25%, are completely unaware of their need for your solution. They have no idea who your business is, or what it offers, because they don’t even realize that they need a phone case… yet.
45% of them may be aware of the need for your product, presumably because they’re frequently dropping their phone, however they’re not actively looking to solve the problem.
20% of them are aware of their need, but they don’t know about your specific solution. They’re in the market, and know that what you’re selling exists, but they don’t know about yours, specifically.
9% know about your business, and they know the solution that you provide, however they’re just not quite convinced to spend their cash yet. This is a really important buying persona that you’ll definitely want to target, and bear in mind for future marketing.
So that leaves the final 1%. These are the most informed people in your target audience. They’ve identified the need, they want to buy, and they want to buy from you, however they’re looking for a deal. They just need one little incentive to get them over the line, and they’re waiting for your business to provide it.

 

 

 

How Do I Advertise to Each Persona?

That example was meant to illustrate that an analysis of your target audience exposes a number of different buyer personas within an audience. Now, let’s talk solutions. Within the specific example of the protective phone cases, you can score a hit on each of these personas by running just one incredible ad. Let’s recap:

 

1. We’ve got a quarter of the target audience who don’t know they need your product yet.
2. Just under a half are aware of the need, but aren’t too interested in solving it.
3. Just shy of a quarter know about their problem, but don’t specifically know about your solution.
4. Nine percent know about your solution but aren’t quite there yet.
5. One percent need a push.

 

How about something like… “We’ve got you and your phone covered. Keep it new. Shop our cases and screen protectors, now.”
Something simple that encompasses everything: establishing the need by alerting the audience to the problem, offering a solution, ending on an imperative to coax people into buying now. That’s every buyer persona for the phone case solution wrapped up into one. By making one ad that appeals to these core personas as the foundation of your marketing strategy, there’s no reason why you can’t run it for years… providing it’s effective of course, and still appeals to those personas.

 

A single, flagship ad for your marketing campaign can be used to reach a wider and wider audience, as you scale the campaigns you build. It’s essential to think about who is at what stage in the process of buying your product when you’re advertising it. By looking at each buying persona, you can make a killer ad that hits each equally, or, multiple ads that target each persona individually.

 

 

 

 

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