You probably have a pretty good idea about who your audience is, but how do you leverage that? With a little brainstorming, you can create a unique profile called buyer personas. These semi-fictional representations of your online audience guide everything from what you post on social media, the content featured on your blog and even the overall design of your company website.
Your buyer persona should be based on trends you’ve witnessed in terms of who’s most likely to engage with your brand online and ultimately convert into a customer. Consider details such as demographics, behavior patterns, common objections they might have and how your organization can help solve their specific problems.
Still a little foggy on buyer personas? Never fear! ProFromGo’s shiny red nose is here to guide your sleigh tonight. Let’s look at an example using everyone’s favorite jolly old elf—Santa Claus.
How to Create Buyer Personas
A sleigh building company, Aurora Sleighs, wants to focus their marketing efforts toward buyers like Santa. What should the marketing department know when creating buyer personas like Santa's? What are his preferred methods of communication? What are his overall goals and challenges?
Demographics
Santa Claus, also known as Kris Kringle, St. Nicholas or simply Father Christmas, is a dear old man with rosy red cheeks and a belly that jiggles like a bowlful of jelly. He spends most of his time at his home/workshop located at the North Pole where he lives with his wife. Together they oversee a team of elves who make up the majority of the toy building operation.
His job requires a fair amount of travel around the end of Q4. These long stints away take quite a toll on his equipment, including his sleigh.
Background
While his exact age is a mystery, we do know Santa has been in the gift giving industry for a very long time. His high popularity and notoriety have led to a number of “origin stories.” Some say he was a Turkish Priest, others maintain he was adopted by a family of elves, while some even speculate he was a normal businessman who took over when the previous Santa fell off his roof.
Regardless, Santa Claus is extremely charitable and wants nothing more than to spread holiday cheer to all the good little boys and girls around the globe. Because of his giving nature, Santa is hesitant to spend money on himself.
Finally, Santa is famously meticulous and keeps immaculate records. He is constantly drafting distribution lists and always checks them twice.
Communication Preferences
Santa Claus is rather old-school when it comes to his preferred methods of communication. Ideally, he likes to correspond through letters, although his elves have convinced him email is much more efficient. Santa receives thousands of letters and emails, especially in Q4, but he’s still careful to read every single one.
While he doesn’t post much, Santa Claus is rather active on social media, constantly scrolling Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to see who’s been naughty and who’s been nice. It’s almost as if he sees you when you’re sleeping and knows when you’re awake.
Goals
Santa Claus didn’t get to where he is by slacking off. He is resolute in one overarching goal: making and delivering quality toys to all the good little boys and girls and leaving coal in the stockings of 
naughty ones. He has a near 100% delivery success rate (excluding that one year without a Santa Claus).
Santa’s operation has a lot of “moving parts.” It’s important every elf and reindeer do their job and that all of his equipment and gear remain in peak condition. Because he works on such strict timelines, he cannot afford any disruptions.
Challenges
Traveling the entire world in just one night is taxing—not just for Santa Claus, but for his equipment as well. In particular, Santa’s sleigh can take a real beating. Bad weather, hard roofing materials and being downwind of eight tiny reindeer all night take their toll on his iconic vehicle.
The tight schedule makes stopping for repairs or maintenance almost impossible during his delivery runs. Santa needs a sleigh that will hold up to his demanding schedule and the harsh conditions of a winter night’s sky.
What Can Aurora Sleighs Do for Santa Claus?
Aurora Sleighs offers the highest quality sleighs on the market today. Whether hitched to a jingling bobtail nag or carrying families over the river and through the woods, our sleighs get you where you need to go and stay on the road (or in the sky) longer.
Made from the finest Heat Miser steel and wood locally sourced from the Candy Cane Forest, our sleighs are built to last while remaining incredibly lightweight. The Polaris model even offers stealth mode to keep Santa’s movements hidden from any tiny tots who find it hard to sleep that night.
Aurora Sleighs cares about its customers and their precious cargo. We offer 24/7 Roof-side Assistance with certified sleigh technicians stationed all over the world.
Common Objections
Santa Claus has been doing this for a long, long time and is considered a late adopter to new technologies. He’s a staunch traditionalist and has been using his current sleigh for nearly 200 years. He may find it hard to part with. He would much rather put his money and effort into developing new toys or funding educational opportunities such as dental school for his elves.
Santa might also argue that his elves could simply build him a new sleigh. Why not keep production in house? It’s an argument we hear a lot. While Santa’s elves do have plenty of building experience, it’s worth reminding him that elves have other responsibilities and may not have the specialized expertise to handle a full sleigh overhaul, let alone ongoing sleigh maintenance.
It’s up to Aurora Sleighs to provide Santa Claus with a safer, more efficient sleigh that does not sacrifice his finely-honed aesthetic. He has no willingness to change his image after meticulously building his global brand over the past few centuries.
Elevator Pitch
Aurora Sleighs provides today’s sleigh rider with the safety, comfort and style they need to get the job done. With several models and full costumability, we can provide Santa Claus with his perfect sleigh so he can worry less and enjoy his midnight ride.
Craft Your Buyer Personas at the ProFromGo Workshop
While Santa Claus may not be your ideal audience, we can help you nail down who is. Contact ProFromGo to learn more about our digital marketing services and how we help you share your unique message. Have a happy holiday!
