The Difference Between an Audience Persona and a Buyer Persona

At first glance, you may think audience personas and buyer personas are the same thing, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. However, when used together, they can help you get a better understanding of your customer base and they can amplify your marketing strategy.

Audience Persona vs. Buyer Persona

First, let’s talk about the main difference between the two. An audience persona is a 30,000-foot view of a crowd of people. Data about this group may include its demographic and psychographic traits, attitudes and behaviors.

A buyer persona zooms in on one person in that crowd and analyzes their specific values and pain points. This information will help you gain a better understanding of this person’s buyer’s journey.

How Audience Persona and Buyer Persona Work Together

As you’re developing your marketing plan, you’re likely already thinking about who your target audience is. This is a good first step because it greatly reduces the pool of potential buyers. A few demographic and psychographic traits to consider are:

• Gender
• Age
• Annual Income
• Location
• Interests
• Attitudes
• Challenges

You could also examine historical data and trends. Consider surveying your existing customers and looking at your competitors’ customers as additional research. Audience personas are more popular among B2C companies because they target individuals who act as the only decision-maker.

Once you know the prominent behaviors and attitudes of your target audience, you can move on to buyer personas.

Also called marketing personas, buyer personas will help you market to individual buyers more effectively. These personas are typically used more in B2B to suss out the decision-makers/people with buying power. They’re a deep-dive into that buyer’s psyche and contain several sections, including (but not limited to):

• Persona name (example: Project Manager Pete, CEO Carla, Developer Dan)
• Age
• Job title
• Education
• Goals
• Challenges
• How your product can help
• Common questions about your product
• Keywords they may search
• Where they get industry news
• Content marketing geared toward this buyer

Creating buyer personas will help you see customers the way they see themselves, helping your marketing messages resonate. As you create your personas, don’t forget to consider the people within an organization who may not have buying power but serve as a champion of your product or service. Remember to create content that appeals to:

• The end-user (“This product makes your job easier because…”)
• The champion (“Here’s how to appeal to the stakeholders in your company…”)
• The decision-maker (“This is why you should invest in my product...”)

Find Your Ideal Customer with Buyer Personas and Audience Personas

Together, these personas will help you target the right people at the right time. They’ll help you create content and tailor your messages in a way that speaks to your buyers, helping you convert more leads.