How To Create Customer Personas For Your Marketing

A customer persona is a fictional model of an ideal client.  It is based on market research, actual data about your existing customers, and a few (educated) assumptions. It generally includes demographics (age, gender, location, and occupation) as well as psychographics (motivations, likes, fears and pain points).

This enables you to understand and then relate to your audience that you want to market your products and services to. Depending on your business, you could have as few as one or two personas, or as many as 10 or 20.

Why Are Customer Personas So Important To Your Business?

Customer personas help you understand your customers or clients better. This will make it much easier for you to tailor your content, messaging, product development and services to meet the specific needs and concerns of your customers.

After all, if you do not know who you’re aiming your efforts at, how are you going to sell your products or services?

How Do You Create Personas?

Before you start customer persona development, it’s important to collect as much background information and research as you can. Then with that information at hand, ask yourself the following questions.

To make this process easier, you can download our Customer Persona Template.

Their Demographic Profile

Demographic information is a great place to begin. It’s easy to obtain and establishes a clear picture of who your customers are. For example, ask yourself the following:

• How old are they?
• Where do they live?
• What is their job role or title?
• What is their salary?
• What is their education level?
• Their hobbies and interests?

What Are Their Pain Points And Fears?

You are in business because you’re solving a problem. This is vital component in your persona development, so go into detail.  For example, ask yourself the following:

• How does that problem affect their day-to-day life?
• What is keeping them up at night?
• What are their goals?
• What do they value? What don’t they care about?

What Is Your Marketing Message?

A clear and powerful marketing message needs to be simple and focused directly on what’s in it for them. For example, ask yourself the following:

• Convey how you will solve their problem
• Explain what makes you different from the rest
• Focus on educating them about the benefits of working with you
• Create an image in their minds of life after they engage with you

Where Will You Find Your Ideal Customers?

To market and sell to these personas you need to understand how they consume information. For example, ask yourself the following:

• What social networks do they visit?
• What digital platforms are they most active on?
• Which sources do they trust the most, friends, family, co-workers, or industry experts?

With thoroughly prepared personas you will be armed with the understanding you need to confidently make decisions and develop your content plans.

Don’t forget you can download our Customer Persona Template to get you started.