Before you design anything, develop campaigns, obsess over the details or demand leads, you need to define who you are speaking to. Then decipher what makes them tick. Audience personas are your marketing foundation. Without them, you’re guessing.
In this insight, we will break down how to build an audience persona that will help you to create smarter strategies and stronger results.
First, define and decipher
Before the design. Before the development. Your audience is not “everyone”. If you try to market to everyone, you’ll resonate with no one. Defining your audience means narrowing in on who your product or service is actually for. Every business has its own overall business goals, and this also impacts your marketing objectives. When you define your audience, you:
- Create messaging that speaks to their exact goals and pain points
- Know where to focus your budget instead of wasting it on the wrong channels
- Attract higher-quality leads that are more likely to convert
- Build brand loyalty, because people feel seen and understood
This is the emotional intelligence of marketing. Understanding before acting.
What is an audience persona?
Personas are defined as ‘fictional profiles that represent groups of similar people in a target audience’. They can help you figure out how to group your ideal clients and how to reach people on a more personal level while delivering the right messaging at the right time.
A well-formed persona reflects traits, not individual quirks. Remember, you may have multiple personas depending on your products and different services.
What you actually need to know
Spoiler alert: age, gender and job title alone aren’t going to cut it. Of course, this is a great start, but it doesn’t tell you why they buy, what’s holding them back, or what grabs their attention. You need to decipher and dig deeper into the psychology, behaviours and context that shape their decision-making. So what matters?
Goals and motivations
What is your audience trying to achieve? Professional success? Convenience? Peace of mind? Once you know what they are aiming for, you can position your service or product as the thing that gets them there faster.
Pain points and frustrations
These are the things that keep your audience up at night, or at the very least, annoy the hell out of them during the day. Whether it is a slow service, a lack of clarity, hidden costs, or tech that is more confusing than helpful. For us, our audience’s pain points are slow loading websites, outdated content, high traffic, but low leads and conversions. Understanding pain points means you can speak directly to them in your messaging, offering up your business and services as the solution.
Barriers to conversion
What is stopping them from saying yes right now? It could be price, lack of trust, unclear value or timing. This is gold dust for your marketing. What practical things can you do to help your audience?
Preferred channels
What platforms and channels does your audience actually use? Not the platforms you want them to be. If your ideal client lives on LinkedIn and you’re pumping money into Facebook or TikTok, you could be wasting your budget.
Their target audience
This one applies mostly to B2B/ If you are selling to businesses, you need to understand their audience too. Why? Because you’re not just solving your client’s problems, you’re helping their customers’ problems too. Double the relevance, double the value.
Decision-making factors
What tips the scale? Sometimes it’s an amazing offer, sometimes it’s trust signals like reviews or security badges and certifications. Sometimes it could just be that your brand is so strong and oozing credibility and clarity. Dig into what they need to feel confident pulling the trigger.
That’s the power of defining and deciphering properly.
Where to find this information
Like we have banged on about. Personas aren’t just plucked from thin air. You need to dig a bit, and here’s where:
- Review your enquiries: what are people asking?
- Talk to your customers
- Analyse website behaviour (tools like Hotjar, Google Analytics, read more about that here)
- Check reviews and forums
- Ask your sales and support team
What to include in your audience persona
- Name (make it relevant and realistic: Time-poor Tanya)
- Job title/ role
- Goals and motivations
- Pain points and blockers
- Preferred platforms/content types
- Buying triggers
- Common objections
- A quote or summary that captures their vibe
From persona to performance
Now you’ve got your personas, it’s time to make them work for you. Use them to:
- Write copy that speaks to them, not the void
- Choose marketing channels that hit where it hurts
- Tailor offers and messaging to align with their real goals
- Segment your audience for smarter targeting, whether that is email marketing, etc.
How to keep them alive
Personas should evolve with your audience. Review and update them regularly.
New data? New trend? New service you are offering? Rebrand? Update!!
Conclusion
Audience personas aren’t just another bit of marketing fluff. They are like a blueprint for everything you create. When you define your audience and truly understand what drives them, your marketing shifts from generic noise to targeted and genuinely compelling. So do the work. Get under their skin. And then? Get strategic. Define, Decipher, Design, Deliver.
