Does your training business have a clear idea of who your target customer or registrant is? Buyer personas are a marketing tool used to describe fictional representations of your ideal customers. These personas help businesses like training companies to have a better understanding of where to attract new customers, what products to develop, how sales should follow up. Buyer personas, will help you find the right people, in the right places, say the right things, provide the right courses, all at the right price.
Let’s take a look at what these personas are and how you can implement them at your training company.
What’s in a buyer persona?
The best buyer personas have as much verifiable demographic and behavioural information as possible. There are a number of demographic details which you could create your buyer personas around. For example, many Arlo customers provide training to professionals, in their buyer personas they would want an understanding around:
- Region – where is my target registrant located? Can I only provide training to those near my business? Are my presenters able to travel to deliver courses nationally or internationally? Am I able to host elearning and provide online education to anyone, anytime?
- Income – does my target registrant have enough disposable income to pay for my courses? Are they able to be funded by their employer?
- Education – what level of training and education has my target registrant already received? Do my courses require prior knowledge or experience, or are they open to the masses?
- Job title – what role does my target registrant currently hold? What role does my target registrant aspire to have? Is my training focused on a particular industry or role?
Not only is demographic information important, but your registrant persona should also take into consideration behaviors of your target registrant. Some questions you could consider are:
- Where does my target registrant look for further education?
- How does my target registrant best like to be contacted?
- Does my target registrant consume education in a certain way?
How do I create a buyer persona?
Although there is no standard way to create a buyer persona, there are some easy things you can do to get started.
1. Gather good data
One of the first things you need to do to get the most return out of your buyer personas is to gather good data on your current registrant list. Gathering as much information about the people you deliver education to without being too onerous on them is vital. Ensure that you ask for the demographic information most important to you on registration forms – this is the easiest way to get the data, without having to do anything. You can also ask for information around how they found your company, or where they are currently looking for education too.
2. Look at your existing customer base
The best place to start understanding your target registrants is to look at the people who are already registering for your courses. Try slice up your current registrant list with different demographics to see if there are any commonalities or trends. You might find that a large majority of your registrants have high household incomes, or have attended tertiary education, or hold executive-level jobs. This information will help you to understand who you should be creating and marketing your future courses to.
3. Talk to your sales team
Your sales team is on the coal face, dealing with leads and customers every single day. Asking them questions around who are the most likely people to register, may back up your findings from looking at your existing customer base mentioned above.
4. Interviews
Interviews are another way for you to gather information on your registrants. Because these are quite time-consuming exercises, we suggest leaving them till after you have gained some insights from gathering data, examining your customer base and talking with your sales team. At this point, once you have a rough idea of some potential buyer personas for your training company, you can select a handful of clients who match the description to interview. Interviews can give you more in-depth information on your registrants’ historic training experiences, preferences, buying habits and needs.
After compiling this information you may be able to make many buyer personas, which your training company could target. Buyer personas can be as in-depth as you would like. The key thing is that you use as much real data as possible rather than assumptions, and you take actions that will help you reach your target registrant better. Start creating your own buyer personas today.