Buyer Persona
Quick definition
A buyer persona is a semi-fictional profile of a typical customer, built from research and data, that describes their goals, challenges, behavior and how they make decisions.
What a persona includes
- Role or situation, and background.
- Goals and motivations.
- Challenges and objections.
- Where they look for information.
- What triggers them to buy.
- Who else influences the decision.
How to build one
- Interview customers and prospects, and talk to sales and support teams.
- Review analytics and CRM data.
- Look for patterns across real people rather than relying on assumptions.
- Write one or a few personas, not dozens.
- Revisit them as the market changes.
Using personas
Personas help decide which message, channel and offer fit which audience, and give teams a shared picture of who they are writing and designing for. They are a simplification. Update a persona when data shows otherwise, and do not let it replace talking to real customers.
Persona and ideal customer profile
An ideal customer profile describes the best-fit company, typically in B2B. A buyer persona describes a person within it.
Example
A project-management app interviews its customers and finds two groups: team leads, who want visibility over deadlines, and freelancers, who want simple time tracking. It writes a persona for each, with different landing-page messages and email content for each.