Persona

Definition

A persona is a research-based profile that depicts typical characteristics, motivations, and behaviours of a segment within a target audience. Companies use personas to understand key traits and pain points of potential buyers, allowing teams to tailor messages, products, or services to real needs and interests. Personas help keep marketing and communication strategies relevant and focused.

Why Use

• Improves the precision of messaging and content creation.
• Aligns teams around shared understanding of target customers.
• Supports product development based on actual user needs.
• Enhances lead qualification and sales conversion rates.

Core Concepts

• Demographic details: age, job role, location.
• Behavioural patterns: decision factors, buying process.
• Pain points: key challenges and unmet needs.
• Goals: what motivates the persona to act.
• Preferred communication channels and content styles.

Examples

Scenario 1: An IT firm creates a persona for "Finance Manager Fiona", age 42, city-based, frustrated by manual processes, seeking automated reporting tools.

Scenario 2: An agency develops a persona called "Startup Sam," 28, prioritises cost efficiency, makes purchase decisions in small teams.

Common Pitfalls

• Relying on assumptions rather than data for persona profiles.
• Creating too many personas, causing confusion and dilution.
• Failing to update personas as market needs change.

See Also

See also customer journey, segmentation, buyer intent, and lead scoring for related strategies.