What is a Buyer Persona?

A buyer persona is a semi-fictional profile of your ideal customer, based on market research and customer data. It gives your marketing a face: you know who you are writing for, what problems that person has and how best to reach and persuade them.

What goes into a buyer persona?

Demographics (age, job title, industry, location), behaviour patterns, goals and ambitions, challenges and frustrations, information channels and objections to buying. Give the persona a name and a photo, so your team has a concrete, lifelike picture.

Buyer persona versus ICP

An ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) describes the ideal company you want to reach (size, industry, budget). A buyer persona describes the person within that company who makes the buying decision. In B2B you use both: the ICP for targeting, the persona for messaging.

Applying a buyer persona

Use the persona when writing copy, choosing keywords, drawing up a content strategy and designing drip campaigns. The persona is the filter you test every marketing decision against.

How many personas do I need?

Usually 2 to 4 per product or service. More than that gets confusing and splits your focus.

How do I create a buyer persona?

Through customer interviews, CRM data and Google Analytics. More at developers.google.com/search.