The Power of Personas Part 3: Making Customer Data Easy To Share and Use

To help you grow your business in the new year, we’re bringing you a four-part series on personas — fictionalized representations of your real-life customers. Learn more about the power of personas by checking out the rest of the series. Links are at the bottom of this blog.

It’s one thing to have solid data about your customers. It’s another to turn that data into a shareable tool everyone in your operation can use to make better business decisions. Personas, the powerhouse of the most successful businesses, provide an easy way to do this.

Give Life to the Data

If you’ve done any research into your target audience, you probably have lifeless data stored on your computer or on sheets of paper. Although useful, in its current form it’s difficult to apply. But you can give it life!

Turning your data into profiles will help you relate better to your customers. You’ll see them as real people, not just a theoretical audience. The concise design of personas also makes it easy to refer back to the information and quickly understand what makes your customers tick.

How Many Profiles Should You Develop?

If there is great diversity in your customer base or you offer several products or services, consider creating more than one profile so you understand each customer better. For example, when entering a new geographical market, you’ll likely encounter several types of customers. Or if you want to know who to sell your premium packing service to, you’ll need to know the best customer most likely to purchase it.

But don’t get bogged down by trying to develop too many profiles. Focus on three to five to begin with. Then create additional profiles later if needed or to diversify your business.

The Persona Template

For each persona profile you develop, consult the data you collected and use it to create an outline. Online templates can provide ideas on formatting your persona profile. Search “persona template” to find one or create your own. No one template is better than another. Choose whichever helps you organize and consolidate the information you need to understand and serve your customer well.

Many marketers believe giving a name to each persona makes the data more real. Some include a photo of someone who depicts the “persona.” If you go this route, assign each profile a name based on a role or characteristic: Patricia Professional, Frank the Family Man, Yeli the Young Homeowner, Overwhelmed Oscar, for example. Find an image that helps you “see” your customer better.

For our purposes, we’ll use a simplified template. Remember, the goal is to include information you and others can use to understand your customer and better position and promote your business. (Part 2 can help you understand the types of information to include in your personal profile.)

Persona Profile Example

Frank the Family Man
30s–40s, at least one child, lives in rural America, works in the city (If a family man who lives in the city is different, and you want to market to them differently, create an additional profile.)

Goals: Better work/life balance, stress-free home environment, balanced budget, career advancement, a happy spouse, etc.
Pain Points: Wants to move his family from town A to city B, without providing stress for his spouse and family.
Psychographics: Values family and believes that if he works overtime, he can get a more lucrative position at work to better provide for his family. He spends the weekend in nature with his kids and spouse. He doesn’t like to waste time.
Preferred Channels: Looks at the internet and his email on the train to work, either in the morning or after work. He listens to podcasts about being a good parent. He posts pictures of his family weekends on Instagram.
Personal Behaviors: Because his spouse also works, they split the responsibilities of picking up the kids from school or attending their evening activities. When he’s home, he avoids going online as much as possible.

Continue adding information to your personal profile until you and others have enough information to understand and market to this customer.

Moving Forward With Intention

Creating detailed persona profiles brings your customer data to life. With profiles, you and those you work with can better understand your customers’ needs, communicate more effectively with them and make informed business, marketing and product decisions. Start with three to five personas and share them with anyone you work with to ensure everyone is aligned.

Next week we’ll wrap up the series by exploring how to put your personas into action to create marketing and business strategies that truly resonate with your customers and grow your business.

The Power of Personas

Part 1: How Fictionalized Characters Improve Business Outcomes
How creating fictional representations of your customers can positively impact the outcome of your efforts

Part 2: Who Is Your Customer — Really?
And how do you know you’re marketing to the right ones or giving them what they want?

Part 4: Putting Your Personas To Work To Build Your Business
12 ways to increase your bottom line with personas