What Is Customer Persona? Create Consumer Persona for Brand

Understanding the audience is the first step to any successful marketing or brand-building campaign. Assumptions are the termites of customer relationships. And a customer’s persona is the first step in determining who is the core audience. Customer’s personas are semi-fictional characters that represent an ideal customer. They are essential for getting accurate information about the target audience. However, many companies skip this step because they say they already know who their audience is. Even though most businesses should know who they are trying to reach, mistakes can happen. All old and new brands can benefit from continually updating these personas.

So, where do you start? 

What Is a Customer Persona?

A customer persona is a comprehensive description of an ideal client. The customer persona entails information regarding demographics, interests, employment history, and family size as if the persona were a genuine individual. If this appears to be a description of a real person, it is because the brand or marketer conducted an extensive and intricate study. Actionable customer personas give insights into the customers’ decision-making processes, including the unique attitudes, worries, and criteria that motivate potential consumers to select the business, their competition, or the status quo. They are far more than a one-dimensional profile or travel map of the people a company  needs to persuade. The components of a consumer persona are the customer profile and buyer insights. Customer profile refers to the audience’s demographics, whereas customer insights provide the when, how, and why of  business prospects’ purchasing decisions. 

One might develop anti-personas for clients one would not like to attract. 

What Are Some Other Names for Customer Personas? 

Depending on the industry, department, or intended usage, “customer personas” may be referred to by a different term. For example 

• User persona 
• Audience persona
• Buyer avatar
• Customer avatar
• Ideal audience avatar
• Buyer profile. 

Why Are Customer Personas Important?

There is only one boss. The customer. And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.

Sam Walton – Travis Biggert

The above statement completely demonstrates the power position customer’s hold over a business. Some of the core benefits a business can gain by defining customer persona are: 

• An Understanding of Customer Needs/Interests
• Segmented/Targeted Marketing 
•  Knowledge of Where Customers Spend Time
•  Better Quality Leads 
•  Consistency Across the Business
• Richer Closed-Loop Analytics
• Better Product Development 
•  Identify Negative Personas 
•  Better Partnership with Your Sales Team 

Get to Know Your Customers

Quantitative vs. Qualitative Research: What’s Best to Create Customer Personas?

How to Create Qualitative Personas?

Qualitative research enables the discovery of critical insights from a small sample size. Typical illustrations include user interviews and usability testing. Involving a small number of individuals, qualitative research is less effective while being simpler to do. 

1. Customer feedback 

It is essential to conduct online or open-ended surveys to discover how consumers define their motivations and demands. The objective is to get into consumers’ thoughts and ensure that the personas are founded on what real people believe, not simply assumptions. 

2. Phone and face-to-face interviews 

Conversations with current customers may give useful insight into their purchasing habits, their motivations, and the terms they use to describe the product or service. Conducting interviews may be labor-intensive and costly. However, the responses can be enlightening. 

3. Web and exit surveys 

These surveys are meant to have a single question appear at a predetermined time on the business website. 

How to Create Quantitative Personas?

Quantitative research helps to test or prove a notion that qualitative research uncovered. Nonetheless, it employs enormous sample sizes, such as surveys and website traffic analyses. One may identify statistically significant trends and have more confidence that the findings accurately reflect the reality for all users. It is safe to state that the use quantitative facts can be used back up to the qualitative personalities. 

1. Engage in qualitative research 

This method facilitates the discovery of user objectives, actions, and attitudes. 

2. Establish Hypotheses Regarding Segmentation Alternatives 

Utilize qualitative research to generate many methods for user segmentation. Every business in the market currently desires a diverse pool of candidates to evaluate. 

3. Collect Quantitative Data on Segmentation Alternatives 

Ask specific questions for each segmentation alternative. During a site survey study, for instance, one may inquire about the duration and frequency of applicants’ website usage. The objective is to collect more information for the following phase. 

4. Classify Users According to Statistical Cluster Analysis 

Use statistical techniques to steer business toward a segmentation model instead of only validating the current hypotheses. 

5. Develop a Persona for Every Segment 

Collect the cluster analysis data and make it believable by adding names, images, and anecdotes. 

How to Create A Customer Persona?

There is no one way to make a customer persona, so each one will be a little different. That makes a lot of sense. After all, different companies care about different parts of their customers’ lives. For example, a company that helps people lose weight will want to know about their diet and exercise habits, while a financial company will be more interested in how they save and spend their money. 

But most customer personas include some basic questions, and these categories can give a good place to start. Here are some questions to help a business to figure out who ideal customers are:

• In terms of demographics, what is their age? Job? Marriage status? Income and levels of education? 
• Values: What do they prioritize? Are they spiritual? What is their political affiliation? Do they have strong opinions on contemporary issues? 
• What does a typical day in their life look like? What is the most satisfying part of their day? The most annoying? What modifications to their everyday routine do they wish they could make? 
• What are the most significant challenges a customer’s character is facing? How are they attempting to address this issue? 
• What goals does the individual want to accomplish? What are their ambitions and aspirations for the future? Their business? Their children?

Wrapping Up

Customer personas are a tool. As with all tools, they are only as effective as their users. Small and large organizations may use customer personas to enhance their marketing efforts and establish effective customer journeys. They assist the business in efficiently reaching the target market, enhancing conversions, and strengthening client loyalty. Even though many businesses fail to understand their significance, consumer personas may be one of the most critical components in helping defeat competition.