Understanding your target audience’s behavior is paramount to your marketing success. A ‘one-size-fits-all’ marketing strategy will often only impact a fraction of your customers, and you will miss out on opportunities. By acknowledging the four different ways consumers communicate with your brand, and marketing to those specific characteristics - you’ll be able to drive more engagements and conversions.

Let’s look into four typical personalities of software buyers and what their purchasing motivators and pain points are. Based on Merrill & Reid’s four social styles: Drivers, Expressives, Analyticals and Amiables, all four types have their own unique approach, language and thought process when purchasing a product.

1. Drivers

Drivers are buyers who are quick to sign up for a trial version, onboard and start using the product. They’re eager to give feedback and to encourage iterations and improvements, but are less enthusiastic about navigating through preliminary steps before getting to the end result. Drivers love to solve problems, and if your product or service is the solution - they will act quickly with little hesitation.

If your model calls for it, these buyers are willing to ‘pay up’ to be a part of something new. Otherwise known as early adopters, drivers serve as excellent brand advocates.

2. Expressives

Expressives are excited about new things and tend to be motivated by feelings and intuition over facts and hard data. Buyers that demonstrate this style of behavior will act quickly if they’re engaged, but that interest can promptly move on to something else – so make an impression while the window of opportunity is open!

Expressives are highly assertive and will typically buy on impulse. They will generally respond well to a trial version of your product and may even consider sharing their payment information up front. Outgoing and social, expressives will likely be willing to vouch for you if they like your product and/or level of service.

3. Analyticals

Similar to how they make decisions in the business world, analyticals are generally slower to purchase. They’re highly technical, like to think before acting, and prefer lots of facts and research over marketing gimmicks. Analyticals prefer to know what to expect at each stage of the buying process, from free trial to sign up.

These buyers are less likely to offer their credit card information at the start of the trial, but won’t be as easily dissuaded when faced with a few additional steps in the buying process – especially if those steps provide further evidence as to why your product will help their cause.

4. Amiables

These are the buyers who are generally reserved about shopping online. Amiables value opinions over data, and are much more likely to make a purchase if someone they trust has recommended it. They know they need a solution to their problem, but are unsure about where to start and what will work for their specific needs.

Amiables need the information to be presented to them in plain, jargon-free language. These buyers are not overly tech-savvy, and in innovation terms, would be considered laggards by some.

What This All Means

As a digital merchant, knowing the four different buyer personalities will help you identify common factors in your target audience’s decision-making process. Depending on what your market is, you could have a disproportionate number of a specific behavioral type, and you may want to adjust your tactics accordingly.

If you’re unsure about how the majority of your buyers communicate, ask your sales representatives what reasons they are given when buyers decide to make a purchase, as well as the reasons for not buying. They should be able to describe characteristics of not only the ideal customer, but also the behaviors of customers who are actually purchasing your product. The insights you glean will allow you to anticipate buyers' needs and preferred style of communication. This will go a long way towards creating better targeted content, driving more engagements, improving your lead-nurturing efforts, and ultimately – completing more transactions.