For years, Buyer Personas have been helping businesses to better understand their target audiences and develop more effective and personalized communications strategies. The development of these personas, however, is painstaking, requires constant updates to remain relevant and successful implementation has often been limited by time and resources.

Still, a robust buyer persona strategy is an indispensable device in the modern marketing toolkit, significantly improving ads and content, influencing open and click-through rates, user experience, lead generation, and ultimately, the bottom line.

If you are unfamiliar with the concept, a buyer persona is a fictional representation of an ideal customer based on market research and data analysis. It typically includes demographic information such as age, gender, location, income level, and education. It also includes psychographic details, such as interests, hobbies, lifestyle choices, values, attitudes, and behavior patterns. The persona may also incorporate information about the buyer’s goals, challenges, and pain points related to the product or service being offered.

The purpose of creating customer personas is to humanize and personalize the target audience, allowing businesses to tailor their marketing efforts, messaging, and product development to meet the needs and preferences of specific customer segments. By understanding their motivations, desires, and pain points, businesses can create more effective marketing campaigns, develop products that resonate with their target audience and improve customer experience and satisfaction.

Why are Buyer Personas important?

The digital marketing landscape has drastically evolved over the years, and the impact of a well-crafted buyer persona can no longer be overlooked. The potency of this marketing tool is evident, with its remarkable influence on everything from email campaigns to content marketing strategies. For instance, integrating buyer personas into email campaigns has been found to bolster open and click-through rates by as much as 2x and 5x respectively, according to marketing agency MLT Creative.

Moreover, behaviorally targeted ads, underpinned by effective buyer personas, are generally thought to be twice as effective as their non-targeted counterparts. Research by inbound marketing software company, HubSpot, echoes this rule of thumb, demonstrating that deploying marketing personas can enhance website efficacy by 2-5 times, making it significantly more user-friendly. This focus on personalization extends to email marketing, where personalized emails have been shown to drive an astonishing 18 times more revenue than generic ‘shotgun’ emails.

The power of a strong buyer persona also manifests in driving web traffic and generating leads. Skytap, a cloud automation solutions provider, implemented a targeted content marketing strategy guided by buyer personas and saw a dramatic 124% increase in sales leads and a 210% surge in North American site traffic. Such outcomes are not uncommon. Cintell, a cloud-based customer intelligence platform, found that 71% of companies exceeding revenue and lead goals did so using personas.

The impact of buyer personas isn’t limited to improving metrics and driving revenue; it significantly enhances customer experience too. An astounding 77% of customers favor companies that provide personalized experiences, which is only possible with a detailed understanding of buyer personas.

Furthermore, Marketing Insider Group’s research indicates that 56% of companies generated higher quality leads using buyer personas.  The content agency also learned that 75% of B2B buyers say that the winning vendor’s content, likely shaped by understanding of buyer personas, has a significant impact on their purchase decisions. Lastly, a case study by research institute, MarketingSherpa, showcases the exponential value added by buyer personas, including a 900% increase in the length of a website visit and a 171% increase in marketing-generated revenue.

So where does AI come in? 

The infinite processing power and rapidly improving cognitive skills of Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) can be used to create much more sophisticated and better segmented buyer personas than we, mere mortals, can produce on our own.

• AI can analyze huge amounts of data from a variety of sources, including website traffic, social media and customer surveys to identify patterns and trends that would be difficult or impossible to detect with human analysis.
• AI can segment customers into smaller groups based on their shared characteristics and interests.
• AI can generate meticulously detailed personas that include information about customer demographics, psychographics, buying behavior, and goals.
• AI can be used to track customer interactions over time to create a more complete picture of their needs and preferences — helping to determine not just what the customer wants to buy, but also when they might make their buying decision.

How AI customer personas can be used in marketing

Harnessing the power of AI generated buyer personas can reap tremendous rewards for marketers.

Targeted marketing campaigns. More detailed AI-powered buyer personas can be used to create targeted marketing campaigns that are more likely to reach and engage with the right people. For example, a business could use AI to segment its customers into groups based on their interests, and then target each group with different marketing messages.

Personalized product recommendations.  AI-powered buyer personas can be used to make more highly personalized product recommendations to customers. For example, a business could use AI to track a customer’s browsing history and purchase behavior across more sources and over longer periods, and then recommend products that are much more likely to be of interest to the customer.

Personalized email marketing. AI-powered buyer personas can be used to develop a higher level of personalization in email marketing campaigns. For example, a business could use AI to personalize the subject line of an email, the content of the email, and the call to action for each individual.

Personalized customer service. AI-powered buyer personas can be used to personalize customer service interactions. For example, a business could use AI to track a customer’s previous interactions with the business, and then use that information to provide more personalized support — eliminating the frustration that is often associated with more generic and impersonal customer communication.

Dynamic pricing. AI can be used to analyze buyer personas to determine the optimal price for products and services. For example, a business could use AI to track the purchasing behavior of different personas, and then use that information to set different prices for different products and services.

Content marketing. AI can be used to create personalized content that is tailored to the interests of different customer personas. For example, a business could use AI to track the social media activity of different buyer personas, and then use that information to create content that is likely to be of interest to them.

Chatbots. AI can be used to create chatbots that can interact with customers in a personalized way. For example, a business could use AI to train a chatbot to recognize different buyer personas, and then use that information to answer customer questions and provide support in a personalized way.

Lead scoring. AI can be used to score leads based on their likelihood of converting into customers. This information can be used to prioritize leads and allocate marketing resources more effectively.

Customer journey mapping. AI can be used to more precisely map out each customer’s journey, from the moment a potential customer becomes aware of a business to the moment they make a purchase. This information can be used to identify opportunities to improve the customer experience.

A/B testing. AI can be used to efficiently expand marketing campaign and message testing to multiple variants. This information can be used to determine which campaigns and messages are most effective in reaching and engaging with different buyer personas.

Predictive analytics. AI can be used to predict future customer behavior. This information can be used to identify opportunities to upsell, cross-sell, or retain customers.

Resources for AI-powered customer personas

More and more resources are being developed to assist marketers with better customer targeting via buyer personas.

• Delve AI is a company that uses AI to automatically generate buyer personas based on data from Google Analytics, Salesforce, and other sources. Delve AI’s personas are used by companies of all sizes, from startups to Fortune 500 businesses. www.delve.ai
• Mnemonic AI is another company that uses AI to generate buyer personas. Mnemonic AI’s personas are more comprehensive than Delve AI’s, as they include psychographic information as well as demographic and behavioral data. Mnemonic AI’s personas are used by companies in a variety of industries, including healthcare, finance, and technology. https://mnemonic.ai
• HubSpot is a CRM platform that also offers AI-powered buyer persona generation. HubSpot’s personas are based on data from website analytics, CRM data, and social media activity. HubSpot’s personas are used by companies to create more targeted and effective marketing campaigns using their platform. https://www.hubspot.com/make-my-persona

Overall, AI-powered buyer personas can be used to improve the effectiveness of marketing campaigns by making them more targeted and personalized in a way that was not previously possible.

AI is still evolving, and there will be many more opportunities in the future for businesses to experiment with new ways to use the technology to create more sophisticated and more segmented buyer personas.  This can lead to increased engagement, conversion rates, and customer satisfaction.