Developing customer personas is a critical component of finding out who your best customers are. Many businesses find themselves targeting the majority of their marketing efforts at who they believe their best customer is, while their actual customers are being overseen. Don’t let your original thoughts and ideas leave you blind to the potential. Follow the tips below on how to make customer personas for beginners!
#1 Look at the facts
Business owners often run companies that fall within the realm of their own personal interests. This usually leads to owners believing their best customer is… themselves? Many business owners have their heart set on a certain desirable customer, but if you want to be where the money is (and who doesn’t!?), you need to step back and look at the facts.
#2 Do your research
Once you’ve looked at the facts, and chosen a desirable customer (or customers – but try to keep it from 1-3), do research to learn more about that demographic. Look through social media, read blogs, and compile both demographic and psychographic behaviours about the group.
#3 Talk to the customer
Even more so important than external research, gather some information right from the source – talk to the customer! If you run an online business, engage in conversation through social media. If you have a brick and mortar, engage in conversation with your target customers. Remember to ask what they like, how they think, and how they engage with your products and/or services.
#4 Think like the customer
You’ve now chosen your target customer and gathered your research, now it’s time to think like your customer! This step will likely be the hardest, as we all get stuck in our own ways. Use the information you gathered about your customers, and try to see your brand from their lens. This will help you get a better sense of where your company stands in the mind of your customers.
#5 Walk a day in their shoes
Finally, compile all of the previous 4 steps, and walk a day in their shoes. Use your company’s products and services in the same way you expect your target customers to be using them. You should also consider checking out your website to see if it’s answering all the questions your customer is asking.
The Personas
Don’t ever assume you know your customer. The steps above are an ongoing process, and should be re-done frequently. People change! Revisit creating customer personas for beginners as frequent as you need. Now that you have completed all the pre-work for creating customer personas, it’s time to get to work.
Click here to check out an excellent article written by Kim Kosaka on 10 examples of customer personas.
