How Often Should You Update Your Buyer Persona?

You may have poured blood, sweat, and tears into creating your buyer persona. However, doing all that work doesn’t mean that you are done forever. Buyers can and do change, which means your current buyer persona likely doesn’t fit your current audience as perfectly as before.

Thankfully, we have compiled some helpful information for you about buyer personas including what they are, why you should update them, and how to know it’s time for an update. Read on to learn more:

What is a Buyer Persona?

A buyer persona is a fictionalized characterization or a generalized representation of your ideal customer. You create a buyer persona by utilizing a combination of market research and real data pertaining to your current existing customers. A buyer persona typically includes the following demographic information:

• Demographics: Age, gender, income, education level, occupation, etc.

• Buyer Behavior: The buyer's methods for solving problems, searching for products, and making purchases.

• Motivations: What motivates them to make a purchase, what are their pain points and needs?

• Goals: What are they trying to accomplish with your product or service? What are their long-term goals?

Additionally, you might collect information about your target audience's communication preferences, the type of content they engage with, and their values.

Why is it Important to Have a Buyer Persona?

Buyer personas allow you to have a clear picture of your customer, which then aids you when creating targeted, personalized marketing campaigns. It also helps you develop more effective sales approaches and to create products and services that better meet the needs of your target audience. It can also help you better understand your customers and even anticipate their needs and behaviors.

How Often Should You Update Your Business’s Buyer Persona?

While creating a buyer persona is immensely helpful when it comes to targeted marketing efforts, you can’t create a buyer persona once and then assume that the information you used to create said persona hasn’t changed. Generally, experts agree that you should aim to update your buyer persona every three to five years.

Therefore, there are several reasons beyond the passage of time that you might consider updating your buyer persona even sooner. They are outlined below:

• You could have new insights or data. When you get new data or insights about your customer base through data gathering of some sort or new market research, you want to utilize this information. For example, if for example, before your demographic was primarily women aged 35 and older, but now, data is showing this age increase, you will want to alter your marketing to meet a slightly older audience. Data is extremely helpful and vital in creating an accurate picture of your customer base.
  
  
• Your business and target audience is constantly evolving. Your target audience and/or business is constantly changing. Therefore, what you offer might be different now, requiring a new buyer persona. Your target audience might also have changed in terms of age, as mentioned above, or even economic resources that are available. This can all change the way you approach your audience when it comes to marketing.
  
  
• Trends and market conditions are always changing. Sometimes you have to alter your buyer persona because trends or marketing conditions simply aren’t what they were when you originally created your buyer persona. While you can’t help that things change and the market evolves, you must stay on top of all trends, so you aren’t left behind and marketing to an audience that you are no longer appealing to with the same methods, services, or trends.
  
  
• Your business changes significantly. Another necessary reason to look at your buyer persona and consider updating it is the evolution of your business overall. If your business ownership has changed hands, you have merged with another brand, or even have a different business strategy, then it’s likely time to consider updating your buyer persona as well.
  
  
• Event triggers like conferences, industry events, or trade shows could inspire a new look at your buyer persona. Often, you can find out new information when you listen to thought leaders or attend a trade show or conference. This can lead to changing your approach in terms of your buyer personas or your business overall. Annual surveys that gather important information from your current customers can also be an indication that it's likely time to update a buyer persona.
  
  
• You have too many buyer personas. While it’s a good idea to have more than one buyer persona, you can have too many. You lose the ability to hone in on the right marketing and personalization for your customers. Having too many buyer personas can actually cause more harm than good. You lose the ability to hone in on the right marketing and personalization for your customers. After all, when you are aiming at too many targets, you are unlikely to hit any one of them. Ideally, you should start with one very well-researched buyer persona and then add on as you note clear differences between your customers. All personas should be very different from each other as this will give you a clearer picture of how to market to each customer.

Let Us Help You Update Your Buyer Persona and Marketing Strategies

Overall, it’s important to regularly review and update your buyer persona to ensure that it remains relevant and accurate. This will help you better understand your target audience and create a more effective marketing and sales strategy. At fuze32, we understand the importance of having a current buyer persona that represents your ever-changing customer base. Contact us today to let us help you do the research necessary and to formulate an accurate picture of your current customer through the creation of buyer personas.