1
When building a persona, it should not be built on averages. Why? Because it won’t “speak” to those who buy your products.
2
Say you sold blue hair dye and decided to look at the age range of your buyers. You see that in addition to the expected younger customer audience, you have a larger than expected number of customers who happen to range in age from 50 to 80 years old. Do you take the average age of all of your customers and begin to target market that specific age group? Absolutely not.
3
Instead, take time to consider why someone is buying from you, then break out your persona types from there. For your blue hair dye business, perhaps the 16-year-old uses it to be cool while the 75-year-old uses it as an opportunity to change up their grey.
4
Personas align your brand with its audience, and they guide you to speak to your buyers specifically rather than vaguely—because you have a three-dimensionally formed visual sense of your customers.
5
Also, to find out why someone is buying from you, you must talk to your buyers. Data about what ad they looked at and how long they hovered upon something can only get you so far. Seek to gain emotional depth in addition to the metrics. This only improves your range to understand and engage with your audience.
6
Action: Interview 2-3 people, who vary persona-wise from each other, to better understand why they buy from or like your brand.
7
“Good personality is not rare but you still need to find it out in a person.”
– Anonymous
8
(The importance of a well-considered persona…)

Extras