50+ Buyer Persona Statistics That Showcase Their Effectiveness

Buyer personas play a crucial role in helping you develop a firm understanding of your customers. They not only help you achieve your business objectives but also allow users to get personalized experiences.

For those who don’t know, personas are fictional representations of your most ideal buyers.

They are based on a variety of factors that empower marketers to create effective marketing strategies and promote their products and services, both online and offline.

That said, personas are your best bet to boost sales and increase ROI. Discover the impact they have on companies using them with the 40+ buyer persona stats listed below.

Rise in interest and adoption of buyer personas

Many companies already use personas in their marketing campaigns, with many others recognizing their importance and moving in this direction.

After all, buyer personas are the new normal for individuals who want to expand their business and build a good rapport with their customers.

If you are still hesitant to adopt personas, the following stats will definitely convince you otherwise!

• As per a study by ITSMA, 44% of marketers use buyer personas in their business, and an additional 29% will use them in the next 12 months.

• 63% of content marketers actively create persona-centric content.

• The search term "buyer persona" shows an upward growth in the Google Trends report, with current interests at an all-time high.

Boost company performance and sales revenue

High-performing companies regularly update, maintain, and encourage the use of customer personas within their organizations, which is critical since:

• Customer centric companies are 60% more profitable than those that are not customer centric.

• Brands that use personalization reduce marketing and sales costs by 10-20%.
• 71% of companies that surpass revenue targets have formally documented personas in place. In addition, they are 7x more likely to maintain updated personas.

• High performing companies are also 2.4x more likely to use buyer personas for demand generation.
• 24% of organizations generated more leads (with 56% producing higher-quality leads), and 36% created shorter sales cycles with buyer personas.

• Three to four buyer personas account for over 90% of a company’s sales.
• With personas, Thomson Reuters saw a 175% surge in marketing revenue, 10% uptick in leads sent to sales, and 72% reduction in lead conversion time.

Increase customer centricity and user engagement

Buyer personas play a big role in making a brand (and product) customer-centric and increasing user engagement.

According to a MarketingSherpa case study, personas have a dramatic impact on marketing success, resulting in a 100% increase in web page visits, 900% increase in visit duration, 111% increase in email open rate, and 171% increase in marketing generated revenue.

While these stats are specific to a use case, here are some general buyer persona facts to give you a broader perspective.

• 90% of companies that use buyer personas have been able to develop a better understanding of their consumers.

• Customer personas have helped 82% of companies create an improved value proposition.
• Persona-driven websites are 2-5x times more effective and easier to navigate by their targeted audiences.
• 75% of B2B buyers say that the winning vendor’s content has a significant impact on their buying decisions.
• Positive customer experiences yield 20% higher customer satisfaction rates and 10-15% boost in sales conversion rates.
• High performing companies are ~2x times more likely to include the buying preferences of their customer personas, research their drivers and motivations, and understand their fears and challenges.
• 48% of buyers are likely to choose solution providers who market to their specific needs.
• Persona-based content further increased customer engagement by 6x when targeting cold leads.

Enhance marketing campaigns

Did you know that personas are one of the most popular criteria for segmenting content, with over 40% of B2B marketers segmenting content by buyer persona?

Marketing segmentation is typically based on demographics, psychographics, and behavior, used by marketers for content, emails, and ads (that are 2x more effective than other ads).

That’s not all.

• Top-performing companies map more than 90% of their customer database using buyer personas.
• In the B2B Content Marketing Report, 58% of marketers identify audience relevance as a crucial factor when evaluating the effectiveness of their content marketing campaigns.

• Persona based email marketing increases click-through rates by 14% and conversion rates by 10%, driving 18x times more revenue than broadcast emails.

Use for personalization

Seventy percent of the decision-making process is completed by buyers using information found online – without ever engaging a sales representative.

Naturally, they will only choose companies that provide a good buyer experience. Hubspot’s marketing report says that personalization increases the chances of buyers becoming repeat customers.

So it is critical that brands personalize their digital content and customer journey.

Here are more insights into why personalization (with personas) goes a long way in acquiring new prospects and keeping the old ones.

• 64% consumers expect personalized engagements based on past interactions.
• As per an Epsilon research, 80% of buyers are more likely to purchase from a company that offers personalized experiences.
• 77% of customers have selected, recommended, or paid more for a brand that provides personalized experiences.
• In fact, 84% of buyers say that customer experience is just as important as products and services.
• On the other hand, 74% of users feel frustrated when website content is not personalized.
• 63% of customers are more likely to engage and respond to personalized messaging than a one-size-fits-all communication strategy.

Case studies: Pega and Skytap

Over the years, many successful companies have employed persona-centric marketing strategies to generate revenue and expand their customer reach.

They have adopted buyer personas for various purposes, such as design, messaging, communication, product development, demand generation, and sales, deriving numerous benefits in the process.

Let us take a look at two of them, backing up our buyer persona statistics in the process.

Pega

Pega develops and refines its buyer personas in order to engage its users early in the customers’ journey.

With personas, the company further instills a sense of understanding between its sales, marketing, and product development teams.

Pega invested a considerable amount of time in examining user data, using both quantitative and qualitative methods for customer persona research – seeking third-party expertise to enhance the process.

The end results achieved were by no means ordinary.

• Number of interactions with target accounts rose by 20%
• Number of marketing generated leads into the pipeline increased by 10%
• Number of opportunities in the pipeline and value of pipeline increased by 10%
• Conversion rate of marketing generated leads to opportunities increased from 32% to more than 40%.
• Number of marketing sourced opportunities in the active pipeline increased by 20%

Skytap

Skytap is a self-service provider of cloud automation solutions.

As part of its content marketing campaign, the company aimed to create and convert more leads by analyzing both current and future prospects to build engaging content.

Although it required a significant investment of resources, Skytap saw immediate results after using personas in their content marketing plans.

An interview by Adam Sutton, featuring the company’s marketing strategy, reveals the following statistics:

• Website traffic increased by 210%
• Organic search traffic increased by 55%
• The number of leads generated increased by 97% (online marketing)
• Sales leads generated increased by 124% (both online and offline campaigns)
• The number of opportunities generated by online marketing increased by 73%

Wrapping up

As demonstrated by the buyer persona statistics above, consistently using personas can really help business growth. They don’t just boost your profits but also elevate the customer experience.

Given their adoption rates, buyer personas can no longer be an afterthought for marketers. It has now become imperative for brands to use personas as a foundational piece of modern marketing.

So, whether you're selling the latest tech gadgets or offering yoga classes for millennials, mastering the art of creating, updating, and using buyer personas is essential.

Want a shortcut? Check out Persona by Delve AI!