Buyer and user personas are semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers. It’s important to note that buyer personas can be your user personas as well, but if they are not, it’s crucial to distinguish between the two.
User personas represent the end-user of your product and contribute to the product development and design. Buyer personas represent who purchases or approves the purchase of your product. They contribute to the messaging for your product.
Both persona types take the process of customer segmentation a step further and help build a more detailed picture of who your potential customers are. This allows you to better identify which segment of your prospective customers is truly your target audience. Additionally, by creating detailed buyer and user personas, you can better determine where to focus your time and generate more alignment across the organization.
By building and using personas:
Personas are created using market data and primary research on your customers. Your personas should answer these questions: Who does your product serve? What problem are you solving for them?
Demographics, such as age, location and income. These are important to consider, as they help you begin to define the customer. But demographics only provide part of the picture, so understanding the other components is crucial. |
Psychographics, such as a person’s values, attitudes, interests and beliefs. This information can be harder to collect, but you can uncover these insights through proper primary research and analysis. |
Behaviour, such as habits and understanding what drives your users. Researching behaviour leads to uncovering information about their goals, needs and pain points. Another element behaviour can touch on is a user’s communication preferences. That means what channels they use or respond to — essentially, how to speak to your audience and market to them. |
Pain points — look at what your user is really trying to accomplish. This leads you to better understand what the problem is you are aiming to solve for your target customers; you’ll also be able to assess the current alternatives they are using to solve their problem. Assuming you are speaking to your customer, you may realize you need to improve your product or service. |
Explain your product: Find out whether they see “value” in your product and get to the heart of what they need from it.
Creating too many or not enough personas (avoid combining distinct personas, known as using averages, as this will reduce their value) |
Not collecting sufficient data |
Overloading your personas with too many irrelevant details |
Forgetting that personas will evolve and change |
Your personas should be tools that help you understand who your customers are, what speaks to them, what motivates them and how to target them. Remember that high-value personas aren’t created from your hypothesis about your customers but from continuous research and analysis, which should properly inform you about your evolving target customers.
The following is an example of a buyer/user persona. Tip: Start with a simple template such as this and build on it as needed.
Lives in Toronto, Canada
Age: 26–36 years
Married, with 2 or 3 kids
Children’s ages: 4–10 years
Works full-time (dual-income household)
Overall sentiment
“My day can be incredibly busy, so I am looking for ways my children can use technology safely and still be learning.” |
Goals
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Behaviour & psychographics
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Pain points
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Key points to remember when building personas: