Creating a buyer persona for a brand isn’t an easy task. It requires precision, brand insights, and detailed market research of your existing customers to form one that is in sync with your business goals.
Having a document that details your prospective customer’s interests, age, gender, demographics, preferences, habits, etc., helps the brand get closer to them. Creating this semi-fictitious personality is referred to as creating a buyer persona.
For an in-depth understanding of how to create buyer personas for your business, their importance, and mistakes to avoid, please refer to this in-depth Scalenut blog on Buyers personas.
A brand persona guides you with your marketing and advertising strategies, as you can target your audience in a more personalized way. However, if you do not know where to begin, here are 8 buyer persona tools that provide templates to help you target your audience with precision.
1. HubSpot
Hubspot has an interactive web tool that creates a buyer persona for a brand through the ‘Make my persona’ free buyer template. After you feed in answers to 19 questions, like the age, gender, interests, hobbies, characteristics, etc., of your ideal customers, HubSpot will devise a buyer persona for you. The persona is well-rounded and covers many parameters to give you a detailed insight into what your ideal customer looks like.
We we like
- Easy to use and navigate.
- Fully customizable.
- Can be downloaded and shared from the tool.
- Suitable for all businesses, including B2B, B2C, and SaaS.
Pricing
It is 100% free to use the ‘Make my persona’ template.
2. Delve AI
‘Live Persona’ by Delve AI creates a personalized customer persona template for the brand based on Google Analytics data. The AI creates a persona within a few minutes using machine learning.
These AI-generated personas are a resourceful way to connect with your target audience. The tool handles B2B as well as B2C-specific scenarios, providing industry-specific insights and user journeys too.
What we like
- The personas are auto-generated through Google Analytics data.
- These are auto-updated personas, which means you stay up-to-date with your brand insights.
- You get segment-wise personas for a clearer understanding.
Pricing
The free version allows you to create one persona for free. The paid version starts at $16 per month.
3. Xtensio
Xtensio lets you create user personas while letting you compare different personas at the same time. It is equipped to handle a large volume of data for B2B business and gives the option of multiple free persona templates so that you can choose the one that works best for the brand. These templates are provided on the basis of the context you provide.
You can also share the files outside of the platform. However, some quality and formatting parameters get affected when this is done.
What we like
- Persona comparison chart for easy comparison of different personas.
- SWOT analysis feature is present within the tool that gives you an insight into what sets your company apart, what your consumers are craving, what your consumer needs, etc.
Pricing
The free version lets you create 5 personas with full access to its features. The paid version starts at $14 a month.
4. UserForge
It is a fairly simple persona templates tool that lets you create buyer personas and user stories using the power of AI. UserForge facilitates team collaboration, making it easy to converse and finalize a persona. The user interface is easy to navigate.
What we like
- If there is a criterion that you wish to add in the buyer persona that isn’t already there, you have the freedom to do so.
- Offers journey maps and context maps along with personas.
Pricing
The free plan includes creating 3 personas and 2 collaborators. There are 3 types of paid plans ranging from $29 to $99. You can pick the one that matches your needs.
5. Up Close and Persona
This tool is for brands that are in the nascent stage as it offers straightforward solutions. Up Close and Persona creates a persona from its marketing persona templates based on the answers provided. The questions that you answer are divided into 3 segments, namely, company definition, buyer definition, and problem/solution. It mostly focuses on B2B businesses and gives you a detailed buyer persona.
What we like
- Sample persona is available for better guidance.
- The tool is very easy to use.
- Great for small businesses.
Pricing:
It is available for free.
6. Personapp
This lightweight tool helps create simple personas in a short span of time from its audience persona templates. However, you have to feed in the data on your own.
Personapp focuses on creating personas suitable for B2C businesses. You can create an infinite number of personas on the tool, though advanced characteristics aren’t available.
What we like
- Easy sharing among team members.
- Easy to use.
- Suitable for small businesses.
Pricing
The tool is free.
7. Akoonu
Akoonu is a tool that is power-packed with features. It generates personas by capturing data from popular emails and calendars. To facilitate a better understanding, the tool syncs personas with the user journey, messaging guides, etc. It is suitable for B2B business as it offers various advanced features.
What we like
- Can be fully integrated with CRM softwares.
- Offers automated content guides and branding suggestions.
- The free version also offers an extensive research library and features.
Pricing
There is a free and paid version, with the latter starting at $25 per month.
8. SEMrush
The buyer persona templates created on SEMrush are refined and detailed as it extracts data from existing customer profiles, primary and secondary research, analytics dashboard, etc. Information like a person’s beliefs, responsibilities, and dreams are also added to give a more personal touch to the persona. If you are a SaaS company, this tool will surely be a boon.
What we like
- 20+ attributes are taken into account for creating buyer personas.
- It is an extensive tool offering various services and features such as competitor analysis, content outline builder, and more on the platform.
Pricing
There is a free trial version, and the paid version starts at $119 per month.
Conclusion
Creating a buyer persona is an essential part of running a business. Not only does it help you know your ideal customer better, but it also aligns business stakeholders uniformly.
You do not deviate from your target audience if you have a customer persona in hand. In fact, you can keep refining and updating it. The better you know your customers, the more they will choose you over other brands.
If you want to see a few examples of buyer personas and how they should be created for your business, refer to the Scalenut blog on Buyer Persona Examples.
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