How to better understand your customer with Buyer Persona Profiles

By: Jacklyn Deans, Flash + Color

As a fashion brand owner, you have probably thought about how to build a long-lasting, thriving business.  Each day there are changes in our fast-paced industry.  There are always new tools, platforms, and tactics that you are told "you must use," to grow your business.

However, none of these tactics will work if you do not have a clear understanding of your customers.

Your first step to gaining an understanding of your customer is to create a Buyer Persona Profile. Creating a Buyer Persona Profile is the most important thing you can do for your business. 

A Buyer Persona is a representation of your ideal customer.  They are the customer that is most likely to purchase your products and share information about your products with others. They are also the customer whose problem you are most able to solve.

Having a deep understanding of this target customer is crucial. It affects everything in your business, including your branding, your positioning, your marketing mix, your product mix, your photography, your copy, the location of your pop-ups and trunk shows…and on and on.

Without a clear understanding of your best customer, you will waste your limited marketing dollars. You will attempt to sell products, services, and experiences that do not resonate with your customers and will not compel them to buy.

A Buyer Persona profile includes the following:

Demographic data such as Age, Gender, Income, Education Level, and Occupation.It includes your buyer's interests and words you use to describe them.

It also includes the devices that they use, their favorite media & blogs, and most importantly, their buying concerns and motivations. You can find this information about your ideal customer through both internal and external data sources.

Internal data sources include your customer surveys and interviews, customer observations, analytics data, sales data, user reviews, and user testing feedback.

External data sources include information from market research studies, articles, industry websites, trade journals, and magazines. For the Fashion and Beauty space, some excellent resources for this type of data are Mintel, L2, WGSN, and Business of Fashion.

Once you gain this understanding of your ideal customer, you can create strategies that will ensure the growth of your fashion business.

To help your business thrive, I have created a Buyer Persona worksheet.  It includes both a blank worksheet and completed sample worksheet for your reference.  You can download the worksheet here.

About Jacklyn Deans:

Jacklyn Deans is the Founder & Principal eCommerce Consultant for Flash + Color, an eCommerce consulting firm that helps Fashion, Beauty, and Lifestyle brands establish and expand their business online. Over her 15-year career in eCommerce and Digital Marketing, Jacklyn has helped hundreds of business owners increase their sales, customer loyalty, and customer engagement through actionable, marketing techniques and strategies. Jacklyn is passionate about demystifying direct-to-consumer eCommerce to help Small to Mid-size brands thrive.

Want to connect with Jacklyn Deans to learn more about eCommerce?
Website: www.flashandcolor.com
Email: [email protected]

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