Buyer personas are fictional representations of your ideal customers. They may seem like they belong in a Game of Thrones novel, but they are actually the secret weapon to talking to your target audience as if you’d known them for more than 10 years.

Persona research is based on thorough primary research conducted with a mix of your prospective and existing customers. The research should answer questions like:

  • Why do they buy from you or your competitors?
  • What do they like about you?
  • What could you improve?

In a nutshell, persona research helps you understand your ideal customer's needs, and preferences as well as their pain points and challenges. Without buyer personas, you risk wasting time, resources, and money on ineffective marketing campaigns and missed opportunities.

Creating detailed buyer personas helps you tailor your messaging, marketing campaigns, and content to better resonate with your target audience, provide value and, ultimately, accelerate your growth.

The Do’s

  • DO conduct research to inform your personas
    The first step towards avoiding guesswork. Use qualitative research to really hone in on the pain points and challenges of your target audience. The more information you have, the more accurate your personas will be.
  • DO involve stakeholders in the persona creation process
    This includes everyone from sales teams to customer service and product development teams. Each department may have different insights into the target audience that can be used to create more accurate personas.
  • DO focus on the needs and pain points of your target audience
    Understanding what makes your target audience tick is crucial for creating effective messaging and valuable content. Where do they hang out? How do they find new research suppliers?
  • DO create multiple personas to address different segments of your audience
    Different segments of your audience may have different needs and pain points. For example, if your research agency caters to both data analysts and user researchers, these personas will have very different pain points and challenges so it's important to create separate personas that address both of these segments.
  • DO use diverse, inclusive, and descriptive names
    This helps them become more “real”, more memorable, and easier to reference in conversations.
  • DO include examples from existing clients
    Attaching your personas to real-life examples helps establish a reference point and ensures that your persona work is congruent with reality and you’re not building a non-existent “dream client”.

The Don’ts

  • DON'T make assumptions about buyers based solely on anecdotal evidence
    Guesswork can be detrimental to growth. If you cannot afford to do a full-fledged research project, you can talk to your existing customers (or anyone in your company who is in constant contact with them) or ask them to fill out a feedback survey. Some data is better than no data at all.
  • DON'T limit your personas to title and demographics only
    Include information like job responsibilities, pain points, challenges, and goals. Be as specific as possible and consider adding a “jargon used” and “preferred tone of voice” section to each persona.
  • DON'T perpetuate stereotypes or implicit biases
    Strive to be gender-neutral whenever possible. Avoid stereotypes and biases based on traits such as race, culture, age, sexuality, etc.
  • DON'T create too many personas 
    The rule of thumb would be 2-3 for SMEs and 4-8 for bigger companies. Find the balance between too specific and too broad personas. It's more beneficial to have a few well-defined personas than to create too many that are too generic.
  • DON'T neglect to update your personas regularly
    As your brand, your audience, and the market evolve, so should your buyer personas. Regularly updating them can help guarantee that your marketing strategy remains relevant and valuable.

Creating buyer personas is essential for effective marketing campaigns. Do conduct qualitative research, involve stakeholders, focus on needs and pain points, create multiple personas, use descriptive names, and include titles. Don't make assumptions, limit personas to demographics, let biases influence personas, create too many, or neglect to update them.