Persona
Strategy and planning
Strategy and planning
A persona is a description of one recognisable type of customer or user: what they want to achieve, what gets in their way and how they decide.
A persona is not an invented character with a nice name and a stock photo, but a summary of what you actually know from conversations, sales data, search behaviour and support. The point: being able to justify choices in copy, offer and channels.
Keep it small: two or three personas your team knows by heart beat ten long documents nobody opens. Per persona describe the job, the doubt and the decision moment.
In practice
Personas built on assumptions steer you the wrong way. Base them on at least a handful of real customer conversations and revisit them yearly.
Related terms
- Buyer personaA buyer persona describes a typical buyer: their role, goals, doubts and the questions they ask before deciding.
- User personaA user persona describes someone using your website, app or software: which task they want to complete and what gets in the way.
- Target audienceYour target audience is the group of people or companies you want to reach, described by characteristics, situation and buying behaviour.
- Customer journeyThe customer journey is the route someone travels from first contact to customer and beyond, including every touchpoint along the way.