The Customer Persona – A Checklist for Creation

If you’ve read anything written by the major marketing gurus over the past few years, you’ve probably heard that creating customer personas is the number one way to connect with both existing and potential customers. Depending on what you’ve read, the concept may be a little overwhelming. Don’t stress. The process doesn’t have to be that difficult. We’ve put together a simple checklist to help you create your first primary personas, so you can build on them from there as you see fit.

Step 1: Think of Your Ideal Customer

Spend some time asking yourself questions about who your ideal customer would be. Personas are research-based, semi-fictional profiles that humanize segments and guide messaging. They complement market segmentation, not replace it. Some example questions are:

1. Demographics: Are they male or female? How old are they? What level of education have they achieved? What is the customer’s income range? Where do they live? What type of job do they have and in what industry? What is their marital status? What are their interests outside of work? For B2B, include firmographics such as company size, industry and location. Note the person’s role in the buying committee.
2. Psychographics: In addition to demographics, explore their lifestyle, values and beliefs. What are their hobbies, interests and outside-of-work pursuits? What specific values or beliefs influence their decision-making?
3. Tech-Savviness: Consider their comfort with technology. Are they early adopters of new gadgets and apps, or are they more traditional in their tech usage? This insight can help you tailor your digital marketing efforts. Don’t assume that young people are tech-savvy and older people are Luddites. Tech is a psychographical aspect of most people’s lives.
4. Media Consumption: Explore their media consumption habits. Do they prefer reading newspapers, watching TV or streaming content online? Knowing where they get their information—primarily—can inform your advertising strategy.

Step 2: Think of Their Challenges

Next, think of this person and imagine the challenges he or she has in life or work. Especially consider the ways your business, product or service can help in those challenges. It also helps to document negative personas, profiles that are not a good fit. This reduces wasted spend and focuses work on likely buyers. Questions you may wish to ask yourself at this stage include:

5. Pain Points: What does your customer require for success at work or home? What challenges are most frustrating? What is needed from you to alleviate frustrations? What could prevent them from following through?
6. Purchase Influences: Explore what factors influence their purchasing decisions. Do they rely on online reviews, seek recommendations from friends and family, or prefer to research extensively before making a choice?
7. Brand Loyalty: Consider their loyalty to specific brands. Are they loyal customers who stick with trusted brands, or are they open to trying new products and services?

Step 3: Consider Communication

Once you’ve figured out a basic picture of your customer, it’s time to envision how you would communicate with him or her. With this information, it will be much easier to put together your marketing plan. Does your ideal customer watch TV, browse the internet daily, use Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube or Reddit? Does the customer use email for work or pleasure? These communication details will be critical in your future marketing endeavors. Make communication accessible with plain language and captions on video. Use adequate color contrast and descriptive link text to improve reach and usability. Consider these points:

8. Social Media Engagement: If they use social media, consider not only which platforms they are active on but also their engagement level. Do they passively browse, or do they actively participate and engage with content?
9. Preferred Content Type: Determine their preference for content type. Do they consume videos, blogs, podcasts, or infographics? Tailor your content creation to their preferred format.
10. Language and Tone: Understand their preferred language and communication tone. Some customers may appreciate humor, while others prefer a more formal and informative approach.

Step 4: Validate With Research and Data

11. Customer Interviews and Surveys: Interview customers and prospects to capture goals, tasks and barriers. Use mixed questions and look for patterns.
12. Web Analytics: Review traffic sources, device mix, top pages and behavior flows in tools like Google Analytics. See actions before conversion.
13. CRM and Transactional Data: Analyze CRM records, support tickets and purchase history to find high value segments. Note repeat buys and common triggers.
14. Social Listening and Search Trends: Monitor brand and category keywords in social platforms and search tools. Capture real questions, vocabulary and pain points.
15. A/B Testing and Campaign Performance: Run A/B tests on headlines, offers and creative across channels. Track which variants lift clicks and conversions by persona.
16. Privacy and Consent: Collect, store and use data with clear consent. Honor opt outs and comply with laws such as GDPR and CCPA.

While this may not be a “complete” marketing persona, these three steps will help you put together a basic example of a customer that you can refer to when creating marketing campaigns in the future. You’ll find it very easy to upgrade this persona to a more complete version over time when you see additional details that will be even more beneficial.

By expanding on these steps and diving deeper into the nuances of your ideal customer’s life and preferences, you can create more comprehensive and effective customer personas to guide your marketing efforts. Remember, the more you know about your customers, the better you can tailor your products, services and messaging to meet their needs and build lasting relationships.

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