How to create a customer persona
- Robyn Grayless
- Sep 13, 2023
- 3 min read
Create targeted content because you know who you’re writing to and what pain points to address.
In the world of digital marketing, content is king. However, creating compelling and valuable content that resonates with your target audience is easier said than done. To succeed in content marketing, it's essential to understand your audience. This is where customer personas come into play.
What is a customer persona?
A persona, often referred to as a buyer persona, is an archetype that represents your customers’ key traits. It should include their motivations, behaviors, and demographics. Personas enable you to create targeted content because you know who you’re writing to and what pain points to address.
The information you use to create your persona should come from actual sources and educated guesses, including information gathered from:
Existing relationships
Surveys
Aggregated data
Why customer personas are important
Customer personas help you excel in your content marketing efforts because you know who you’re writing content for.
For example:
Increase the value and relevance of your content when you know the goals, pain points, and demographics of your target audience
Improve your SEO because you’re better able to target keywords that matter to real customers
Use your resources (time, money, and manpower) efficiently when you write for real people with real problems rather than undefined notions
What are three core components of personas?
A persona should include enough information about your customers so you can:
Understand their personal and professional goals
Recognize their problems and provide solutions
Align your products, services, and messaging
To get started, focus on these three core components:
1. Demographics
Start with your own customers and social media followers as you begin to compile demographics.
Demographic details include:
Age and stage of life
Location
Spending habits and income
Interests and online activities
Problems they’re facing
Once you’ve compiled your demographic information, research the people who advocate for your competitors.
Pay attention to the hashtags your competitors are using, who’s engaging with competitor content, etc. Add this to the demographics you’ll use in your persona.
2. Pain points
Identify what your customers are trying to solve for — and the roadblocks that stand in their way.
Begin by listing out pain points you see in:
Social media posts about your brand
Social media posts about competitors
Questions from customers
Work with actual quotes from your existing customers or social media followers. This will help you:
Empathize with them
Understand how they express themselves
Communicate more effectively
3. Goals
List your customers’ goals, drawing on the information you’ve collected to this point.
These goals provide motivation for your customer to take action or make a purchase. This is essential to understand when working through updates in your products and services, or when crafting your messaging.
Use the same channels as before when beginning this list:
Social media posts about your brand
Social media posts about competitors
Questions or survey results from customers
What does a customer persona include?
Aside from demographics, pain points, and goals, your persona should include:
A picture of a real person
A name
At-a-glance details
Customer persona examples
How to use your buyer persona
Your persona can be used for a variety of purposes. First, make sure it’s accessible across your organization and create multiple personas if necessary to fit each demographic you serve. As your company grows you’ll have access to more customer insights that you can use to refine and alter your personas so you can stay relevant with your audience.
Use your new customer personas to:
Create better customer alignment across your company
Refine your offerings
Communicate your solutions to customers
Proactively identify objections your customers may have
Influence your web copy, social posts, and ads
Create custom audiences for social media ads
Use relevant keywords in all online content
Customer persona template
To help you create a personalized customer persona, we’ve created this template with step-by-step instructions. Simply click the link below to download as a PDF.
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