5 Questions To Build Your Customer Persona

Every time you create a piece of content, put together a marketing plan, tweet or post, you remind yourself to focus on your customer, to hold them front and center in your mind. But, do you know who your customer is? Do you know what they like, what they do, where they hang out? It’s almost impossible to create content for your customers if you don’t have a picture of your customer in your mind. And, without that picture or persona, it is difficult, if not impossible, to ensure that everyone in your company is pulling in the same direction. 5 Things You Need To Know About Your Customer Personas are not just demographics – college-educated male, 40-50 years old, etc. Personas are about behaviors. Personas have names and personalities. So, how do you go about creating a persona for your customer? I like the five questions Shannon Prager of Leadit Marketing suggests you ask yourself when building your customer’s persona:

1. What are the demographics of your customer? Starting with the basics, describe your customer’s age, gender, income, family status, educational background, etc.

2. What are their motivations? This is key! To be able to connect with your customers you need to know what drives them to make decisions. What motivates them? What do they want? What brings them joy? What are they searching for?

3. What is holding them back? Your customers have problems they’re trying to solve. They have pain points they’re trying to alleviate. This is your sweet spot! By understanding what causes them pain, you can help them. You can provide them with content that solves their problem, leading them to the ultimate solution – your product or service.

4. How are they getting their information? This is critical for you to know. Where does your customer go for information? What channels do they use? Social media, the web, printed material, friends and family, thought leaders? This will tell you where you need to be, so they can find your content.

5. How do they prefer to interact? This is an interesting question that too many people skip over. Your customer takes in information in a certain manner. They prefer a certain tone – light and humorous or serious and straightforward. They may need hand holding or want to discover the information for themselves. They may want lots of details and in depth analysis or just a quick summary with clear and succinct points.

Eloqua and HubSpot have similar lists you may find helpful. How To Build You Customer Persona The best way to gather the answers to these questions is to interview your customers and potential customers. Ask and you shall receive. Once you have the answers to your questions, weave the information into a story, a narrative about a person, your customer. Give your customer a name and even a photo. Now, post your customer persona on your wall. It is your north star no matter what you’re doing or creating or planning. Share the persona widely in your company. You want everyone from customer service to finance to operations to make sure they always have your customer front and center. To create a persona for your target customer, answer these five questions: 1. What are the demographics of your customer? 2. What are their motivations? 3. What is holding them back? 4. How are they getting their information? 5. How do they prefer to interact? What other questions do you use when creating your customer personas? Picture by Ryan McGuire

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