“Who’s our ideal customer?” That question summarizes the purpose of personas. As the fictional embodiment of real-world data and behaviors, personas provide a stand-in to tailor and align messaging, buyer journeys, and customer-facing activities. Personas have been standard practice in marketing for the past 20-plus years, evidence of their value in identifying and reaching intended audiences. As personalization becomes more prevalent and targeted, actionable personas are as important as ever for marketing teams.
Yet, personas are only as valuable as they are useful. And many marketing teams find the ones they’ve developed are not as applicable as they would like. Avoiding the pitfalls of underperforming personas requires a mix of quantitative analysis and direct feedback—and an absence of assumptions about how customers think or what they’re really after. To create effective personas, marketers must understand the two primary features.
Elements of Performant Personas
Effective personas satisfy two criteria: empathy and relevance. Marketers must identify meaningful signals in buyer behavior data and combine them with human insight to create accurate portraits that can guide positioning and nurture streams.
Empathy: One of the central tenets in sales and marketing is to put yourself in the customer’s shoes and visualize your offerings from their perspective. Most marketers can do this, but the danger lies in substituting assumptions for informed judgment. Understanding the drivers of buyer behaviors and decision-making requires a data-driven mix of demographics (such as age, education, occupation, etc.) and psychographics (habits, beliefs, preferences) to bring personas to life.
Relevance: For personas to be broadly adopted and widely used, they must address the goals, challenges, and pain points of customers—and then surface that information in ways that all internal teams can leverage. Personas should be made available to all teams and account for customers’ buyer journeys and preferred content channels. Since markets and buyer behaviors are often in flux, marketing teams must update personas periodically to keep them relevant.
When developed with empathy—genuine understanding of buyer motivations—and relevance to stakeholder goals, personas are powerful tools for targeting messaging and tactics.
Getting Personas Just Right
Beyond avoiding presumptions, effective personas require marketers to dig deep into customer data and stories, enlisting the help of other teams that work with buyers and users throughout the customer lifecycle. Technology is invaluable for gleaning insights from vast datasets and visualizing the cadences of decision-making. A few best practices:
Start with hard data and stories: Personas are built with data and shaped with anecdotes. The answers to questions like “Why did this shopper abandon this purchase?” or “Why did this customer decline to renew?” aren’t always apparent in data alone. Tapping various data sources provides the most comprehensive and fine-grained view of a persona. Customer relationship management (CRM) software and online analytics are excellent customer data sources. You can augment this with market research such as surveys, interviews, and information from online communities. Be alert for nuances in first-hand accounts that may shine a light on hidden value or a new differentiator.
Create and validate cross-functionally: Relevant personas align with the products or services they buy or use. This means that any team that works with customers is a potential source of their wants and needs. Sales reps talk to customers daily and will likely know their true motivations best. Customer advocacy and success teams also work directly with target audiences, giving them an insider’s perspective. Product teams are a valuable ally for understanding exactly what customers need and what problems your offerings solve. Consult these teams for real-world validation.
Quality over quantity: Although personas should provide incisive insights into specific customer traits, it’s not practical to create a persona for every possible buyer sub-type. Marketers can start by identifying a few core types and scale from there as needed. A handful of distinct personas can provide more value than a glut of superficial profiles. A good test is whether teams can easily remember core personas and apply those insights in their own roles. Much as with products, simplicity drives adoption and implementation.
Future-Proofing Your Personas
To keep your personas up-to-date and actionable, they must feature established core characteristics that remain constant amid changing market conditions and trends. Defining stable traits such as primary motivations, pain points, and decision criteria is key.
By establishing regular reviews and updates, you can capture the latest trends and customer feedback. In this way, a few tightly segmented and firmly established personas serve as a secure base for your go-to-market initiatives. With personas as a north star, your team can continuously create data-driven and emotionally resonant marketing, regardless of how markets (and times) change.
