Buyer persona

What it means

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional description of a typical customer based on real data and interviews. It captures their role and situation, goals, problems, fears, objections to buying, where they look for information and who else influences their decision.

The aim is for marketing, sales and the product to speak to a specific person rather than an abstract “target group”. The director of a small firm who cares about time and peace of mind needs different copy and arguments from the finance director of a larger company who cares about control and reporting.

A company usually has two to four personas; more are hard to keep in use. The persona is tied to the value proposition, which must answer the persona’s problems, and to the customer journey, which describes how the persona arrives at a purchase.

How it works in practice

We do not invent personas at a desk. We start from interviews with existing customers, the questions that arrive by email and phone, data in the CRM and the reasons customers leave. Five to ten interviews often yield more than an extensive survey.

A finished persona is used when writing website copy, planning content, targeting ads and preparing for sales conversations. It also helps decide which services to develop and which to keep as they are.

With multilingual services the persona can differ by language. A client looking for an accountant in Ukrainian often has different questions from a Slovak entrepreneur, such as residence, registration or understanding the system. Content for them should address their situation, not just be translated.

What to watch out for

The most common mistake is a persona built on wishes rather than reality. The company imagines an ideal customer who barely exists, and its marketing reaches people who do not buy.

The second risk is a persona created and then forgotten. Markets and customers change, and the persona should be checked against reality from time to time, for example against who actually bought in the past year.