How to Build an Effective Persona?

It goes without saying that every communication action you undertake is aimed at one or more specific audiences that you have defined in advance. But how did you go about defining them? Are you certain you have enough relevant detail to frame all of your campaigns? Worse still, is the target audience you have been focusing on truly the one interested in your services or products?

In order to ensure effective actions aimed at the people who are genuinely interested in and concerned by what you offer, it seems wise to determine your "persona" (or personas).

To put this term in simple terms: a persona is an imaginary character to whom we give an identity (a name and an appearance), and whose characteristics are drawn from data and hypotheses in order to make them as realistic as possible. But behind this character lies the actual group of individuals with the same type of profile — the very people you need to address. This approach humanises your target audience, making them more tangible and therefore helping you to better determine how to communicate your messages to them.

What is a "Persona" For?

Let us get into the details.

It is important to define an ideal, typical customer profile precisely so you know how to speak to them — and therefore refine your positioning. The initial desire may be to sell at all costs and to as many people as possible. But is this really strategically worthwhile? Would it not be more effective to take into account the profiles genuinely interested in your offering and invest in communication dedicated to them? It is, in any case, an effective way to save money or achieve a good return on investment.

Knowing your persona better drives the entire team to orientate its messaging and connect with that person's emotional sensitivities. If you know them well, you know what will resonate with them and how to reach them. In this way, through your communication actions, you can demonstrate that you have understood their challenge and that your product or service is perfectly suited to address it.

This is where it becomes important to recognise that the more detail you have about this person — let us call them Mr or Ms X — the more you can substantiate your messaging and make it relevant. Defining your persona allows you to understand their profile (both personal and professional), their habits, their thinking, and above all their challenges.

What Answers Do I Need to Obtain?

The more detail you have, the better your communication angle will be. Here is a non-exhaustive list of questions you should seek to answer when creating a usable persona for every stage of your strategic thinking.

Their identity First and last name Gender Age Where do they live? In which city? In what type of accommodation? Are they married, in a relationship, or single? Do they have children? How many? What is their sexual orientation? Are they religious? What faith? What are their political views? What did they study? What is their current profession? What is their career background?

Their personality Are they close to their family? Do they have a social circle? How do they spend their free time? What are their passions? What are their personality traits? How do others perceive them? What do they dislike above all else? What are their values? And in the workplace? What do they look like? Their appearance and their everyday dress style? Are they comfortable with technology? What equipment do they own?

Their habits Ask them to describe a typical day. What types of website do they browse? What types of books do they read? Do they play sport? Which one? What are their favourite television programmes? What places do they frequent? (Cinemas, bars, museums, restaurants…) What kinds of places do they visit? Where do they go on holiday? What are their indispensable everyday items? What features do they use most on their phone?

Their thoughts What are their main concerns before, during, and after work? What goes through their mind when they wake up in the morning or go to bed at night? How do they react when faced with a problem? What do they want to achieve in life? What is their deepest desire and why is it important to them? What emotions are associated with this idea of success? How do they see their life in the short, medium, and long term?

Their frustrations What obstacles are currently blocking them? What are their frustrations? What are their fears? What do they not dare to do? What negative emotions does this challenge generate?

How to Gather as Much Information as Possible, Simply?

The most effective approach seems to be entrusting this task to a consultancy and receiving a thorough ethnographic-style study. However, such studies are very costly and therefore cannot represent a viable investment for most organisations.

Now that you have your lines of enquiry and ideas for questions, all that remains is to begin your investigation. This phase will probably seem time-consuming — even laborious — but it is nonetheless one of the best methodologies for building effective action plans for the future of your business.

Although you may not have all the tools available to a specialist consultancy, you already have a good number of ways to legally collect a great deal of information right at your fingertips.

• Your customer files

There is no need to look any further when you first begin defining your persona. Simply dive into the documents right in front of you. Analysing this data will allow you to identify a number of trends, determine the similarities between profiles, the habits your customers share, and what drives them.

• Creating surveys

Sometimes, when you cannot find the information, it is worth asking directly. Distributing a survey remains a very good idea. You may not want to ask every question you have identified (far too much for the respondent), but at least the missing pieces and the more personal information. Do not hesitate to create different questionnaires, tailored to the different types of profiles you have already been able to broadly identify.

• Social media

If your business has one or more social media accounts, it may be time to put them to good use. Whether it is Facebook, Instagram, or another platform, these channels give you access to a certain amount of data about your online audience — particularly regarding demographic data and interests. Social media is also an excellent solution for distributing your survey on a larger scale. Another tip for collecting as much information as possible: publishing a paid post (an advertisement). Choose a fairly broad audience to reach all types of profiles and once again draw out trends by studying the results. Who mostly engaged with my post? Who clicked, "liked", commented? On what type of device did they view it?

• Other digital tools

As we said — make use of everything available to you! Do you have a newsletter distribution tool? Take note of who has signed up to receive your updates, who opens and reads your messages, who clicks on the included links. Are you running pay-per-click advertising? Take a look at Google Analytics. This tool also allows you to learn more about the type of profile taking an interest in your ads.

• Hypotheses

Allowing yourself to be guided by and to formulate hypotheses is also part of the persona-building process. Making a deliberate bet on certain characteristics will help you learn more about your target profile and also spark avenues you may not have considered. These avenues can then be transformed into questions for your surveys and enquiries. These hypotheses will be verified as you progress through building your persona.

Is this a method you have already used? What did you think of it?