What a buyer persona includes
- Role and context: job title, company type and size, or life situation for consumers.
- Goals: what they want to achieve.
- Challenges: what makes it hard.
- Buying behavior: who else is involved, what they compare and what makes them trust a supplier.
- Objections: the doubts that stop them from buying.
- Information sources: where they search, read and ask for advice.
- Their words: the phrases they use to describe their problem.
How to create one
- Interview recent customers, and people who chose a competitor.
- Ask your sales and support teams about the questions they hear.
- Look at data: analytics, CRM records, search queries and reviews.
- Group what you find into two to four personas, each with a name and a short summary.
How to use personas
Use them to choose keywords and topics, write copy in your customers’ own words, plan content for each stage of the customer journey and target ads. Base them on research rather than assumptions, and update them as your market changes.
Buyer persona example
A company that sells scheduling software to physiotherapy clinics interviews eight clinic owners. They learn that “Maria, clinic owner” has two therapists, wants fewer missed appointments, distrusts software that needs training and reads recommendations from other clinic owners. The company now writes pages about no-shows, offers a ten-minute set-up and publishes case studies from small clinics.
What to ask in a persona interview
- What made you start looking for a solution?
- What did you try first and what did not work?
- Who else was involved in the decision?
- What nearly stopped you from buying?
- Where did you look for information and which words did you search?
Buyer persona mistakes
- Inventing a persona from assumptions instead of interviews and data.
- Making it so generic that it describes everybody.
- Filing it away and never using it for content or ads.
- Creating a dozen personas when two or three would do.
Buyer persona FAQs
How many personas do I need?
Start with one to three, for the customers who bring the most value. See target audience and customer pain points.
How do personas help SEO?
They show the questions and words customers use, which guides keyword research and content. See customer journey.