I recently had a conversation with a client about customer personas. She was interested in learning more about what they are, why they’re important, and how to develop them. After we talked, I realized she’s certainly not the only one with questions about personas. So, let’s take a closer look at what they are and how using them can benefit your brand.
Let’s start by defining a persona. For our purposes, a persona is a semi-fictional archetype representing key traits of your ideal customer. Businesses utilize actionable data (often research) to build personas with the hope of accomplishing the following:
- Developing a deeper understanding of their customers’ needs, wants and desires
- Determine key traits, such as: age, income, marital and family status, media habits, hobbies, brand preferences, shopping habits, etc.
- Identify specific attitudes, concerns, criteria and events that drive prospective customers to choose a company’s products or services versus the competition
- Help guide product development, marketing, customer service and other areas of a business
Once the data is collected and organized, a customer persona is built, which includes the following data points:
- Fictional name, photo, etc.
- Demographic information
- Triggers and barriers for purchasing a product or service
- Media consumption habits
- Key influencers
- Marketing messaging
When we work with clients to develop customer personas, our process includes research, data analysis and placing the persona copy into an easy-to-read, branded layout. Once approved, a client shares the personas with everyone in their organization (i.e. C-suite, marketing, sales, customers service, etc.) so people have a deeper understanding of their customers and what makes them tick.
If you’re interested in seeing what a final customer persona looks like, go to Google Images and search “customer persona profiles” for a wide variety of samples.
Interested in exploring this topic in greater detail? Drop us a line and we’ll get back to you!