Scouting potential customers and developing products for them is often the first step in marketing of a successful startup. Creating an accurate customer persona is vital in achieving this and is what we will discuss. By creating a scenario or artwork of the ideal customer, you are guaranteed to enhance your business strategy and even boost the chances of success for your new startup. The chance of driving growth and developing a product is only possible if you understand the customer’s necessity.

Key Note #1: Why Create a Customer Persona?

Customer’s Persona is a marketing tool that allows the company to focus on a certain portion of the market that is defined by certain activities or products and actually looks deeper into their life which consists of tastes and preferences. A critical understanding of these factors enables us to focus on making our customer’s solutions through products with utmost effectiveness. Here is why creating a persona is very useful:

Understanding Customer Needs:

With the detailed perspective that customer persona presents to you, defining the problems that they encounter becomes smooth sailing. Succeding in startup life becomes a walk in the park when you have clearly defined goals.

Picture a startup with a small group between five and seven people. The central issue remains: Is the entire team working towards the same audience user case? Drafting a persona supports this alignment and helps a startup to become more focused and cohesive.

Highlight #2: User Profile Vs. Customer Persona

It is critical to make the distinction between an end user profile and a persona of the customer:

End User Profile:

This is a loose, broader description of your target customer with only the demographic characteristic and certain behavioral traits.

Customer Persona:

. A persona is a picture of your target customer, but with more depth or detail. It is what he or she thinks, what motivates him/her; what are his or her goals, what is challenging in achieving those goals, and what sub-conscious objections come to his/her mind.

An end user profile tells general things, while a customer persona tells more about the action of driving the customer to perform certain actions or make decisions.

Highlight #3: 4 Steps for Defining Customer Persona

In order to define a customer persona, outline these four steps:

Build an internal persona definition together with your team:

Begin with bringing together your internal stakeholders so that you a clear definition of the customer persona that you intend to target. Draft a wellformulated idea of the customer using insights from the employees.

Stop Overthinking:

As always, one of the most common problems in the business is overworking the customer persona. This particular area is usually aimed at after a lot of work has already gone into the product or service. Further cycle may take exposure, which is the reason why the company is often unfocused.

Your next objective should be creating the persona after conducting 4-6 weeks of primary research, as well as getting closer to launching the product. Make sure that you don’t fall into the perfectionism trap.

Add Necessary Details:

A customer persona has to incorporate some necessary information about the customer. These details can involve things like age, income, occupation, level of accomplishment, challenges faced, and many others. The more precise the persona is, the better understanding of the customers you will have.

Primary Research:

To develop a customer persona, primary research is probably the most useful approach. It consists of collecting information from the customers directly via the means of surveys, interviews, or focus groups. This type of research gives a complete understanding of the problem, enabling the creation of a persona that encapsulates what the clients actually wish for.

Key Note #4: Sample Persona of a Customer

Let’s take a look at a specific customer persona associated with a certain product or service. This customer lives with the name Mr. Tommy Technology.

Background

Current Position: Staff Accountant at Founder Accounting Firm

School: Penn State Undergrad & Cornell for Masters

Relationship Status: Dating with two dogs

Demographics

Sex: Male

Age: 34

Combined Household Income: $125,000

Housing: Townhouse style condo located in a city area.

Goals

Goal within 5 years: Senior Accountant

Target Salary: $80,000 which will help purchase a single-family home.

Networking: Proactively expand professional networks.

Hobbies & Interests

Exercise: Runner

TV Shows: Game of Thrones

Favorite Meal: Pizza

Vacation: Enjoys going to the beach.

Challenges

Wants a more modern looking website but does not have the authority to make the final decision.

Difficulties facing “the young guy” in the office.

Common Objections

“Everyone in my company would love a new website. Unfortunately my boss has refused the idea.”

I want a new website, but because my boss isn’t a fan, I can’t do anything.”

Biggest Fears

Not proceeding through the corporate ladder as fast as desired.

Retirement being blocked by economic depressions

Having life pass by to quickly

This specific persona dives deep into a customer’s life beyond demographics, and captures their reasons, fears, and even objections.

Key Note #5: Important Six Features for Persona Development

These six features are essential to guarantee the effectiveness of the persona being developed:

Establish the Must Have Qualities of your Product:

A well-defined customer persona allows you to determine the must-have features of the product that responds to the customer’s needs. In so doing, it ensures that the product adds value to the purchasers, which in turn increases its likelihood of prosperity in the market.

Construct An Appropriate Team:

The customer persona should guide the selection of the team. Recruit personnel who appreciate the customers’ expectations and have previously interacted with such profiles. This greatly aids in producing a product the audience truly wants.

Develop Campaigns:

The persona greatly impacts your marketing strategies. Understanding the persona makes it possible to develop campaigns that address the customers’ needs, thus increasing conversion rates.

Partnership alliances:

These personas make it easy to identify what relationships will be most productive. This could include a marketing firm or a distribution partner. These collaborations help in meeting the audience’s needs.

Identifying Customer Influencers:

With a well-written persona, you can tell who shapes the decision of your customer. It can be family members, colleagues, or even social media influencers. Understanding these influencers enables effective targeting in marketing.

What To Do or Not To Do Decisions:

Knowing the customer persona enables you to make important business decisions. Understanding what to do is extremely important, but understanding what not to do is often more important. A clear persona ensures that you put least effort where it always matters the most.

Conclusion:

The customer persona is not a single exercise but rather a living tool that assists your business. If you are adjusting your product or working on the marketing strategy or even aligning the organization, you will always need to have deeply defined customer persona.

Final thought, depth matters—your persona should possess adequate deep information. A persona with greater depth enables informed business decisions, building the right product, assembling the proper team, and successful marketing campaigns.

To sum up, knowing who your customers are allows you to make smart business decisions, that ultimately leads to achieving success over time. Take the first step today, by creating a customer persona, and see to it that your team remains coordinated as you expand your business.