Establishing buyer personas, one of the foundation concepts of inbound marketing, makes a world of sense - especially in the context of growing a more consistent pipeline of qualified business loan leads.
Before we get into them, though, I want to review how Hubspot and Jül define a buyer persona:
Buyer personas are fictional, generalized representations of your ideal customers. They help you understand your customers (and prospective customers) better, and make it easier for you to tailor content to the specific needs, behaviors, and concerns of different groups.
Demographic information is important market research for you to create personas. Yes, we need to establish average gender, age, income range, and geographic location.
But it’s not enough. A well-crafted, actionable persona should also contain:
And in fact, it’s more than simply choosing the right words. A buyer persona will help you identify the desirable tone, format, and delivery method for the situation. Your long-term goal is to create satisfied customers and promoters, and the process will advance your prospects toward that goal every time an appropriate communication touch takes place. Using language your target audience uses will help to grow qualified business loan leads faster by establishing trust immediately.
It's like getting a running start on building a productive relationship with a prospect before the first time you’ve ever contacted him! When you’re confident you’re providing good information about a known business challenge, you have a much better shot at earning trust right from the start.
Think about it. How likely would you be to spark initial interest from a prospect without understanding what her likely business concerns are? A good buyer persona helps you understand those concerns so you can present smart business information that directly addresses the known concern.
The flip side is that it’s way more difficult to convince a person to buy from you when he can’t immediately envision how what you’re offering could help his situation.
Both marketing and sales efforts focused on the same goals are aided by buyer personas. You’ll be laser-focused on the most useful information from the prospect’s point of view. And, just as important, you’ll avoid falling victim to the product-centric marketing myopia that too many banks still follow. Instead, your marketing will be relevant to business owners searching for information, and your sales team will have the tools they need to build the lead pipeline and follow up accordingly.
Ideal buyer profiles, buyer personas, and an organized inbound marketing program with strategic marketing execution may be just what you need to reach the persistent banking goal of producing a consistent pipeline of qualified business loan leads. And this, of course, leads directly to a larger, more profitable loan portfolio.
If you’d like to see the impact yourself, try this: Download the Financial ROI calculator, plug in numbers that reflect your bank’s current web conversion stats and lead generation experience, and see what happens. Enjoy!