What is a buyer persona in marketing
Also known as: persona, marketing persona
A buyer persona is a description of a company's typical customer, with a name, context, goals, questions and objections, built from research with real customers. It is fictional in form and real in substance. It helps everyone writing ads, pages or content think about the same person, instead of writing for "the audience" in general.
An accounting firm for small businesses interviewed 15 clients and built this persona: Carla, 38, owner of a clothing store with three employees. She opened the business four years ago, handles the finances alone at night and is afraid of a tax penalty caused by a filing mistake.
What she looks for is not "the best accountant": it is someone who answers messages, explains without jargon and warns her before deadlines. With the persona defined, the ad stops talking about "complete accounting solutions" and starts talking about "no more checking tax forms at midnight".
A persona and a target audience are not the same thing
A target audience is a range: women aged 30 to 45 who own small businesses in a given region. A persona is one person within that range, with a routine, worries and reasons to buy. The target audience tells you who to show the ad to; the persona tells you what to write in it.
The two work together: the target audience feeds media targeting, and the persona guides the message.
| Target audience | Persona | |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Ranges and traits | One described person |
| Answers | Who they are | What they want and why they buy |
| Used to | Target media | Write the message |
Where the idea comes from
The concept was born in software design. Alan Cooper, a pioneering software developer, proposed the user persona and started using early prototypes of it in 1983, based on informal interviews with users. Marketing adopted the idea later, as the buyer persona.
Nielsen Norman Group, a reference in user experience, defines a persona as a fictional yet realistic description of a typical or target user of the product, and stresses one point: it has to come from concrete research with real users.
How to create a useful persona
- Talk to real customers. Ten to twenty interviews usually reveal clear patterns. Ask what made them look for a solution, what almost made them give up and why they chose you.
- Listen to the front line. Sales and support know the questions and objections that keep coming up.
- Look at the data. Your CRM, site analytics and surveys show where customers come from and what they buy.
- Write down what changes the message. Goals, fears, objections and the words people use are worth more than hobbies and favorite colors.
- Keep it to a few. Two or three well-built personas do more than ten shallow ones.
Common mistakes
- Inventing the persona in a meeting, without talking to a single customer.
- Filling the description with details that do not change any decision.
- Creating the persona and never using or updating it again.
- Confusing the persona with the ideal customer the company wishes it had, rather than the one it actually serves.
Frequently asked questions
What is a buyer persona?
A description of a typical customer, with context, goals, questions and objections, built from research with real customers.
What is the difference between a persona and a target audience?
A target audience is a range of traits, used to target ads. A persona is one person described within that range, used to write the message.
How many personas should a company have?
Few, usually one to three. Each persona has to justify a different message; if two get the same copy, they are the same persona.
Is a persona the same as an ICP?
No. An ICP (ideal customer profile) describes the company most worth serving, common in B2B sales. A persona describes the person who decides or influences the purchase.
How do you validate a persona?
Compare it with the data: do the customers who buy most and stay longest resemble it? If not, the persona was written from assumptions and needs rework.
Related terms
- ICPAn ICP, short for ideal customer profile, is the kind of company, or customer, that gets the most out of what...
- Customer journeyThe customer journey is the path a person takes from the first sign of a need to the purchase, and beyond it...
- Value propositionA value proposition is the clear promise of what customers gain by choosing an offer: which problem it...
- CopywritingCopywriting is writing meant to lead readers to an action: buying, clicking, signing up or requesting...
- Brand positioningBrand positioning is the place a brand wants to hold in customers' minds relative to the alternatives: what...
- Sales funnelA sales funnel is the model that splits a person's path, from first contact with a company to purchase, into...
Rodrigo Fávaro
Founder of ROO3, a marketing and technology agency in São José do Rio Preto, Brazil. Builds AI products running in production (Tobia, gerar.app, Pense Mercado) and maintains the AI Benchmark, a public ranking of AI models.
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