6 Steps To Building Detailed Customer Personas

Customer Personas

​So, you are trying to market and sell a product or service that your company offers? It would benefit you, then, to learn how to build accurate customer personas - that is, learn who your ideal customer is and create a marketing strategy to target that specific audience. If you are not familiar with the process of creating a customer persona, don't worry. Here are 6 steps to building customer personas that will help you discover your ideal customer for more effective marketing. 

1. Gather Information 
You'll want as much information as you have available about your existing customer base. Who is buying your product? What are they saying about it? There are several methods of information-gathering: Look through your contacts database for tendencies in how customers react to your content; create a survey form on your website that will capture important information; interview customers over the phone or in person to find out what they like or dislike about your product or service. This first step is one of the most important, so take your time to do it right. 

2. Find Out Your Persona's Basic Demographic Information 
Whether on the phone, in person, or through a survey, you should have discovered each customer's demographic information: their race, gender, age, income, marital status, etc. In addition, you'll want to gather your persona's key company or business information, such as geographic location, company size, number of employees, markets served, and company type. Organize this data to highlight the most common demographics and direct your marketing campaign thusly.  

3. Discover Your Persona's Motivation
Why is your persona buying your product or using your service? What do they want out of life? What drew them to your solution? What kind of pain are they experiencing? How did they find you? (Google, Bing, Email, Blog, etc.)This is important to find out so that you can advertise exactly how your company can help them achieve their goals. 

4. Prepare for Conversations With Your Persona 
You never want to be stumped by a customer. Write up a list of objections to your product or service that customers have had or might have so that you can more effectively address those concerns in conversations with prospective clients. 

5. Create a Vernacular
You want to use language that your persona will understand. Make sure your marketing team understands how they should talk to your persona, including a general elevator pitch. This will ensure that everybody in your company is speaking to the customer the same way, and that your customer will comprehend your marketing message. 

6. Give Your Persona a Name
A name can really help your marketing team visualize the customer that they're selling to. Something simple like "Construction Corey" can go a long way towards envisioning that ideal customer. 

If you follow these 6 steps, you will be able to create a detailed and helpful customer persona. Feel free to contact us with any questions about creating a customer persona. 

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