What the heck is a persona?

You’ve probably heard this word thrown around a lot in the marketing world. It looks a lot like “personal” or “personality,” and that’s essentially what it is — a snapshot of the characteristics, motivations, and needs of your ideal customer. In other words, it’s a clear outline of the audience you’re trying to reach.

Personas can be very detailed or more streamlined. The level of detail depends on the type and amount of information you actually have about your prospects. A typical persona includes demographics like age, location, education, gender, and income — along with assumptions or insights you’ve gathered from real behavior or data. If you have access to richer data, use it. And it’s completely normal (and often necessary) to create more than one persona, each with its own tailored messaging.

I recommend building your persona before writing any sales copy. Once you’ve fleshed out who you’re talking to, it becomes much easier to identify their challenges, perspectives, and needs — and to position your product or service as the solution.