You can create the best product or service in the world, but it is useless if you do not know who to sell it to. This is exactly why you need to define your target audience. These are the people who are most likely to engage with your brand and buy from you.
You must understand their behavior, especially their likes and dislikes if you want to influence them and thereby convince them to buy from you. A powerful way to achieve this is by creating user personas. Here’s everything you need to know how to create your own persona.
What Is A User Persona?
A user persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer. It’s complete with a name, occupation, personality, needs, desires, and pain points, which resonate with that of your larger audience. We say personas are semi-fictional because they do not exist solely in a business’s imagination. Rather, it’s created by conducting thorough market research.
The market research process includes interviews/focus group discussions, identifying market trends, product trials, competitor analysis, and more. This raw data is analyzed by a team to obtain actionable insights. These insights are then compiled into a single document and presented to all relevant stakeholders. Based on the market research and analysis conducted, one gets a thorough understanding of the target audience. This enables marketers to create user personas that are supported by research. Market research is therefore crucial for brands to develop business strategies that cater to relevant customers.
Though they are used interchangeably, it is important to note the difference between a buyer persona and a user persona. A buyer persona applies to a person who actively purchases a product but may not actually use it. A user persona on the other hand is used for people who actively use a product or service and benefit from it. A Barbie doll is a great example of this. A parent may buy it for their kids but it’s the kids who actually use it.
Types Of User Persona
These user personas are categorized on the basis of the approach taken to define them. There are three broad categories as follows.
Proto Personas
This is the type of user persona building that requires no new research. You can sit with your team and create a persona basis your existing knowledge of (or assumptions about) your TA. As it’s not research-backed, the chances of inaccuracies are high.
Statistical Personas
Here you combine both qualitative and quantitative aspects of TA research. You’ll need to start off with a qualitative research approach to identify repetitive patterns among users. Now, the quantitative approach comes in; conduct in-depth interviews of a large sample size (100 to 500 respondents can be a good number). This method can give you a lot of data, but it can be quite time-consuming and expensive
Qualitative Personas
This is where you interview or have a focus group of a small sample size (say, 20 to 30 respondents) and keep an eye out for patterns. For instance, when you interview people interested in buying smartphones, you might notice that many of them share a common habit. The qualitative persona method is easier to create and requires fewer resources. However, it’s quite likely that you’ve missed out on certain traits or have overrepresented users with uncommon traits.
Why Do You Need A User Persona?
The great salesman, Michael Scott, once said, “People will never go out of business.” This certainly applies to marketing as well. It doesn’t matter what product or service you’re developing; you need a thorough understanding of who’s going to use it, what problems they face, and what they desire. And for that, you really have to humanize your audience, which can be done via a user persona. The below points should contextualize their importance better:
Determining The Target Audience
You could have a product or service that’s as ubiquitous as Parle-G and Amazon or something as niche as dive watches or GitHub. In either case, you first need to determine who your target audience is.
By creating a user persona, you’ll have a general idea of who your target audience is. Not just that, you’ll also find out what they want, their source of information, what struggles and pain points they have, and a lot more.
Your business may cater to multiple target audiences. The most important thing for you to do here is to know and understand your target audience very well. You must have compelling reasons for targeting a particular audience which must align with your business goals and larger vision.
If you are an adult diaper company, your target audience would be both elderly retirees as well as caregivers. You would have to understand the likes and dislikes of each group and accordingly create your marketing strategies. In the case of the elderly retiree, they might have a lot of discomfort due to age-related ailments and physical comfort is one thing they look out for. Caregivers on the other hand may have busy schedules and would want a brand which is easy to use with little hassle. These are needs your adult diaper brand would target.
Helps Develop Cohesive Processes And Business Strategies
It’s quite likely that in an organization, the different members or departments may not be in sync with each other.
Here’s an example: For a bicycle brand, the content division is inclined towards taking a casual and youthful communication approach. However, the social media team assumes that the TA is in the 35-40 y/o bracket, and thus the communication approach taken is semi-formal. As you can see, there’s a clear disconnect.
Here’s where user personas can come in handy. They can offer a company-wide understanding of your TA, providing a unified goal for all teams to work towards. A common goal emphasizes that the company is working for a larger purpose, bigger than each team. Having this understanding allows teams to communicate more effectively and be smoother with any conflict resolution.
Going back to the bicycle example, there will be less confusion if the TA is defined as white-collar employees who are athletically inclined, from age 25 to 40. The two teams can then reach a common ground in regards to their respective strategies, thus aligning it with the larger marketing objectives.
The user persona thus becomes something of a rule book. It serves as a point of reference to return to whenever there’s any confusion regarding the TA. They also help you determine areas to avoid, helping your business redirect efforts to more productive ones.
Helps Map The Customer Journey
No two users are the same; each has their journey with unique experiences, traits, conditioning, etc. Clubbing your entire TA into one kind of journey can prove to be a futile exercise. What do they want? What do they feel at every brand touch point? To answer these questions, you need to map the customer journey.
A customer journey map (CJM) represents user interactions with your brand at different stages. This journey map can’t be created merely from gut instinct. Thorough research into the customer’s behavior, needs, pain points, and touchpoints is required.
By now the user persona is well-established. This enables you to be more focused on the kind of customer journey you are targeting. You will then be able to adjust your sales funnel accordingly, which is the entire process of a prospective customer, from brand discovery to purchasing.
A CJM allows you to see all the steps a user takes in the funnel. It begins with their awareness of the brand, becoming a customer, and finally, acting as champions of the brand. The better your user persona is defined, the more effective your CJM will be.
Having a user persona does not just help with the above, it also helps in audience segmentation. Awareness of those buying a product or service and their respective journey makes it easier to categorize your audience on the basis of their user persona. This enables you to provide more targeted services and build stronger relationships.
Steps To Create A User Persona
Research To Find Patterns
The first step, of course, is to collect as much data about your TA’s behavior and motivations. There are three ways in which you can do it. The choice depends on why you want to build the personas and your resources. You’ll need to start off with a qualitative research approach to identify repetitive patterns among users. Now, the quantitative approach comes in; conduct in-depth interviews of a large sample size (100 to 500 respondents can be a good number).
Create Archetypes Of Your Target Audience
With the information you have, you can put a name, face, and personality to your persona. The number of personas you create can depend on how much data you’ve collected, the complexity of your product, and more.
If your product is golf clubs for left-handed people, the TA is very niche; so a single persona may suffice. If your business targets more than one market, multiple personas are needed. A business with a significantly diverse target audience (say, one that sells kids’ cycles and mountain bikes), having just one user persona may be ineffective.
Here are the factors you need to include when creating the archetypes:
Name
When you choose a name, factor in the gender of your target audience. It’s because if you give them a typical male name as ‘Rick’, the persona may be misinterpreted as a man. So, if your TA spans genders, androgynous names like ‘Ashley’ or ‘Sam’ may work better.
Demographics And Psychographics
Demographic data can help to segment target markets into more specific categories. This data includes the user’s age, gender, ethnicity, income or education level, etc. The persona needs personal and professional background to flesh out further. A persona could be Ricky, 35, a marketing professional with an MBA in digital marketing, who earns over ₹9 LPA annually.
The psychographics profile is everything related to the persona’s behavior. It covers what motivates them. It encompasses their beliefs, attitudes and perceptions. The emotional aspect of the persona is a crucial element of psychographics. What makes them happy and also frustrates them are important considerations. In essence, psychographics explain why a person behaves the way they do and choose your product. For example, when factoring in psychographic traits, the persona can be:
- Ricky, a tech-savvy millennial who loves to stay updated with the latest technology
- He’s always keen on buying new gadgets and they’re a source of pride for him
- Ricky is open to new technology but also critical. He researches products extensively and relies on reviews and recommendations before making a purchase.
Persona Goals
All user personas need a goal. It’s what motivates them to take whatever steps they take. Here, you get to kill two birds with one stone; the persona answers two questions: what your users want and how your product or service helps them achieve that goal.
Create Scenarios For Your Personas
This means incorporating a specific, real-life situation or story that your fictional personas might encounter when using your product or service. The scenario should ideally have a pain point or motivation that results in the persona interacting with your product, and what the outcome may be.
Such scenarios help in better understanding how your personas interact with your offering, facilitating decision-making and design choices. They allow the team to empathize with the user’s journey and tailor the product or service to meet their needs.
Make Sure Everyone In Your Team Is Aligned On The Persona
Once ready the personas need to be reviewed by the whole organization. Set up a meeting to discuss each persona in detail. Others may have feedback and suggestions, so be sure to incorporate them as needed. Everyone should be on the same page about who the TA is. This alignment will help tailor your product or service to better meet user requirements.
Example Of A User Persona
Name: Ricky Johnson, the tech-savvy millennial
Age: 34
Occupation: Marketing Manager
Background
Ricky is a professional, married with two children. He’s tech-savvy and uses his smartphone extensively for personal and professional purposes. Ricky’s always searching for the latest gadgets and wants to upgrade his current smartphone.
Goals
- Find the Perfect Smartphone: Ricky’s primary goal is to research and purchase a new smartphone that meets his needs, including advanced camera features, long battery life, and a sleek design.
- Stay Connected: Ricky wants a smartphone that ensures he stays connected with his family, friends, and colleagues. This includes excellent call quality, messaging apps, and social media connectivity.
- Productivity: As a marketing manager, Ricky needs a smartphone that supports his work-related tasks such as email, document editing, and project management apps.
Pain Points
- Overwhelmed by Choices: The smartphone market is flooded with options, making it challenging for Ricky to decide the best one for him.
- Budget Constraints: While he wants a high-end phone, budget constraints are a concern. Ricky is looking for value for money.
- Time Constraints: His busy work and family schedule leave him with limited time for in-depth research and shopping.
Preferred Features
- Camera Excellence: Ricky loves photography and values a smartphone with a top-notch camera for capturing family moments and work-related photos.
- Long Battery Life: With a busy schedule, Ricky needs a phone that can last all day without frequent recharging.
- Intuitive User Interface: Ricky prefers a smartphone with a user-friendly interface as he uses it for both work and personal purposes.
Shopping Behavior
Ricky typically starts his research online by reading tech reviews and user feedback on websites and forums. He also values recommendations from friends and colleagues. He often visits physical stores to test the phones in person before making a final decision.
Preferred Brands
While Ricky is open to various brands, he has a preference for well-established brands known for their camera quality and reliability.
Quote
“I need a smartphone that can keep up with my busy life and capture all the special moments with my family. It should be my reliable companion for both work and play.”
Summing Up
User personas can be powerful tools to rally your entire team behind the goal of providing the best experience to your customers. This can only be done if you have a clear picture of who your target audience is. It becomes easier when you define user personas. With them, you have a better idea of your customers’ expectations, how you can surpass them, and eventually foster a sense of brand loyalty.
FAQs
What Is A User Persona?
A user persona is a semi-fictional representative of your ideal customer. It comprises details about them such as where they live, occupation, likes and dislikes, etc.
How Do You Create A User Persona?
Market research is needed and internal discussions must be held to define business goals to help cater to prospective customers.
What Is An Example Of A User Persona?
Let’s say your brand makes tennis rackets. An example of your user persona could be a person who is 40 years old, works in finance, and likes to play sports on the weekend.
