There are a lot of super trendy buzz words and terms in business, and “customer persona” is one of them. Simply stated, a customer persona is not a real customer (or a real person for that matter). Rather, it’s a fictitious person created using a combination of raw data and educated guesses that you believe represent your potential customer (for that reason, you will no doubt have more than one customer persona). Customer personas, once created, are used as a road map for creating sales and marketing content for your products and services. Ultimately, if done right, it can also lead to improved sales revenue.

Putting a name and a background to these personas — let’s just call them people, even if they are made-up people — helps you to better describe them, ultimately leading you to create what you need to attract real-life people like them to your business.

Getting started with personas

There has been a lot of research that shows this exercise is well worth your time. In fact, companies that exceed lead generation and revenue goals are over twice as likely to create buyer personas, and are consistently effective at maintaining them, according to research from Cintell.

Let’s get started!

Three to five customer personas (all different people) are typically what you will need to represent your buying audience. And, what you want to know is:

  • Who is this person? If it’s a business professional, you should determine their job title(s).
  • What does this person value?
  • What problem is this person trying to solve? What keeps them up at night?
  • What are the best methods to communicate with them?
  • What obstacles exist? Are there other people or exterior factors that will prevent them from buying?

Start filling in the blanks

It’s important to remember that customer personas are created using lots of research! This can be a fun exercise, but it requires using solid facts (culled from sources like your existing customers, sales team feedback, website traffic, social media, surveys, and more).

Depending on whether or not your product is suited for B2B or B2C audience, the way you will answer the questions above will vary. For example, if you are targeting a stay-at-home mom, it will make plenty of sense to ask questions about her household income level, the type of car she drives, her age, and her ethnicity.

“Customer personas are used as a road map for creating sales and marketing content for your products and services. Ultimately, if done right, they can also lead to improved sales revenue.”

On the other hand, if you are selling your product to a business person, their household income and type of car they drive are likely irrelevant. Instead, you will want to discover factors that include business objectives and the problems they need to solve. For example, a product manager might be concerned with finding a way to shorten the time it takes for his team to bring a product to market — and you’ll want to learn as much as you can about his struggles.

These questions are a great start, and as always the internet can provide you with many templates to help you define your sample customer personas. Once complete, they can be extremely helpful in creating your marketing message.

Yes, a customer persona is important

When you know who you’re really talking to, you can provide exactly what your potential customer wants.

If your business needs help creating customer personas, or updating your existing profiles, Lumen Marketing can help. We specialize in helping businesses identify the unique traits of their buyers, and then create smart, creative marketing campaigns that get results. Give us a call at 720-722-2987, or click on the blue button below.

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