How to Create Buyer Personas in HubSpot

With AEO for B2B, AI systems surface a B2B brand’s expertise at every stage of the decision process. A strong B2B AEO strategy ensures a brand shows up consistently and addresses the needs of every stakeholder. Tools like HubSpot AEO make it possible to see exactly where your brand stands across major answer engines, how competitors compare, and what to do about it. The same research found that buyers start with an average of 7.6 potential vendors and narrow this to 3.5 before making their final decision.

Here, you identify which segments are the most valuable and warrant individual personas so you can target them in the best way that encourages the likelihood of conversion. Group customers into segments based on shared characteristics, needs, and behaviors. B2B buyer personas help businesses tailor their marketing, sales, and product development efforts to effectively reach and engage their target audience. This approach helps companies stay competitive, align their efforts with customer expectations, and maximize their ROI by focusing resources where they matter most.

A B2B marketing approach that works for one business may not work for another, but that’s not to say we can’t learn something from the pros. As companies return to brand-led strategies, marketers want to build trust and loyalty with buyers. Surveyed marketers share that they’re focused on those popular Gen Z channels for B2B content.

Step 8. Refine B2B Buyer Personas As Needed

According to Gartner’s research on the new B2B buying process, a typical buying group for a complex B2B solution includes 6 to 10 decision-makers, each arriving at the table with 4 to 5 pieces of independently gathered research. You use a b2b buyer persona to guide your entire marketing strategy. A b2b buyer persona is a research based profile that represents a key audience segment for your business. A customer interview is a direct conversation with customers or prospects to learn about their experiences, goals, and decision making process. Sales, marketing, and customer success teams often provide the most valuable insights because they interact directly with prospects and customers.

What’s inside a B2B buyer persona?

You can, and should, create different personas for your most important segments. First, you identify the right accounts with your ICP, then you use your b2b buyer persona to craft the right message. While demographic insights (age, job title, company size) provide a foundation, the real power lies in understanding the person behind the title. A good buyer persona framework organizes the information into a clear, usable format.

Within minutes, the AI had done the work, provided the shortlist, and Penn switched his vendor. Penn said he asked Gemini Deep Research to identify five new providers for a current SaaS vendor that had recently raised its prices. Penn provided an example where generative AI summaries helped him switch from his current vendor to a new one. As mentioned in the introduction, studies show that 32% of buyers discover new B2B vendors using generative AI chatbots; other top sources for discovery include web search (SEO, which is strongly related to AEO) and word of mouth. B2B buyers are increasingly using generative AI tools to research problems, explore solution categories, and identify potential vendors. B2B marketers have distinct reasons to prioritize AEO — reasons that go beyond general digital visibility.

Why are they looking for a solution like yours? You can start by developing extensive product knowledge. Buyers are becoming less receptive to aggressive marketing and more inclined to buy from companies that tailor their approaches and add value at every stage of the sales process. One way you — as a sales rep — can capitalize on this trend is by consistently following up with prospects after closing.

• The former category describes your intended audience on a superficial level, while the latter describes their motivations.
• Change fatigue, poor timing, or a lack of internal readiness can quietly stall momentum before it starts.
• This typically includes attributes such as industry, company size, revenue range, growth stage, geographic footprint, and technology stack.
• You can measure conversion rates, average call length, lead quality, and more, helping you refine your approach over time.

HubSpot’s customers are other businesses, not individual consumers. B2B marketing is the process of promoting and selling products or services to other businesses rather than individual consumers. This guide covers proven methods, real examples, data-backed trends, and expert insights to help build an effective B2B marketing strategy in 2026. Marketing to businesses differs from marketing to consumers, which is why B2B marketing requires distinct strategies.

What content types would help the individuals represented by your buyer persona? You’ve just spent time teasing out patterns and trends from your interviews, so don’t fixate on creating personas based on things like job titles. Now it’s time to turn your data into something meaningful and tease out patterns. Different types of surveys will help you get insights into your buyer personas' pain points, needs, and even their jobs-to-be-done. You can also easily segment and analyze survey data using the right tools. As you get more of this data, you’ll see patterns emerge — in behaviors, emotions, actions — which you can use to build your buyer personas.

Use these account-based selling tips and you’ll develop an approach that helps you close more B2B sales — right away. As part of your sales process, you should be able to identify and track where your prospects are in the sales journey. Organize your audience segments and make your marketing stronger.

Before diving into external research, start with what you already know. Creating a persona that truly reflects your ideal customer requires a thoughtful approach grounded in solid research. This b2b buyer persona focus translates to sharper messaging, more effective campaigns, and ultimately, faster growth. The core benefit is enabling personalization at scale, which directly boosts performance. Creating a solid b2b buyer persona isn’t just an academic exercise.