Create personas: The key to customer-centric strategy for companies

Personas are a fascinating concept that keeps popping up in the world of marketing and web development. They offer an unique perspective to get into the minds of your target audience and better understand their needs. But what's behind the creation of personas, and how do they influence the way we think about customers and users? In this blog post, we take a look at the exciting role that personas play in creative processes and shed light on why they are not only a tool but also a valuable guide in modern communication.

What is a persona? 

A persona is a fictitious but realistically designed character that represents typical characteristics of a target group based on data and research. This involves demographic information such as age, gender, occupation and place of residence, but also deeper aspects such as interests, values, goals, challenges and expectations. We expect a target group segment to react homogeneously to the messages we send. A persona is not based on an actual individual, but bundles common characteristics that frequently occur in a certain target group segment.  Personas are intended to make people's needs and motives tangible in order to better understand their decisions and actions.  A persona is often given a name, a picture and a short life story to make it appear as realistic as possible. This creates a vivid image of the group it represents.  

Why should companies create personas?

Companies should create personas because they are an indispensable tool for better understanding the target group and aligning web development, marketing and customer service specifically to the needs of users. Here are the key reasons why creating personas is central to a company's success: 

• Deeper understanding of the target group: Instead of relying on general demographic data or superficial market research results, personas allow companies to view the target group as individual people with specific needs, desires, challenges and behaviours. These detailed profiles help to better anticipate user behaviour and develop solutions that are precisely tailored to the target group.

• Holistic understanding of the context of use: Personas make it possible to understand the context of use and the challenges of the target group holistically. In combination with tools such as empathy maps, companies can gain deeper insights into the emotional and psychological aspects of the user experience. This comprehensive understanding helps to develop products and services that are not only functional but also emotionally appealing.

• Long-term success and adaptability: In order to adapt to changing needs and trends, personas should be continuously developed. Companies that regularly update personas and incorporate them into their strategic planning remain competitive and are better equipped to respond to market changes. This contributes to the long-term stability and success of the company.

• Increased empathy within the team: By creating personas as vivid, tangible representations of the users, the project team can more easily adopt their perspective. This strengthens the common goal of developing user-centred products and ensures that the team keeps the users' needs in mind throughout the entire development process.

• Consistency in communication: Personas create a common understanding throughout the entire company. Whether in product development, marketing or sales - all departments can refer to the same personas, which makes communication and collaboration easier. This avoids misunderstandings and ensures that all departments are focussed on the same target group.

• Targeted web development: With clearly defined personas, companies can develop web projects that are better tailored to the needs and wishes of users. The insights gained through personas make it possible to prioritise specific features, improve the user experience and create online platforms that offer real added value. This not only leads to higher customer satisfaction, but also to greater customer loyalty and ultimately to higher sales.

• More efficient marketing: Personas are a powerful tool in marketing. They help to develop targeted marketing strategies that are tailored to the needs and interests of the defined target groups. With personas, marketing campaigns can be targeted more precisely, resulting in a better approach to the target group and a higher conversion rate. They can also help to identify the right channels and shape the tone of communication so that it resonates with the target group.

Create personas in seven steps 

Creating personas is a multi-stage process that requires not only creativity, but also careful planning and analysis. The following steps ensure that your personas are not only precise, but also realisable and strategically valuable.

1. Target definition

Before starting to create personas, it is important to clearly define the goals. Companies should ask themselves: 

• Why do we need personas? 
• What specific goals do we want to achieve with them?
• How will the personas be used? 

This clarity helps to guide the entire process and ensure that the personas deliver the desired results. 

2. Collect data

The basis of every persona is sound data. This data can come from various sources: 

• Interviews with customers: Direct conversations with current or potential customers provide valuable insights into their needs, behaviours and challenges.
• Surveys: Quantitative surveys help to capture demographic data, preferences and behavioural patterns. 
• Analysis of user behaviour: Data from web analytics, social media platforms and CRM systems provide information on how users interact with the company.
• Employee surveys: Employees, especially those with direct customer contact, can share valuable observations and experiences. 
• Market research: Secondary data sources such as industry studies or market reports provide an overview of general trends and behavioural patterns within the target group. 

3. Segmentation of the target group

The target group is segmented on the basis of the collected data. This segmentation can be based on various criteria: 

• Demographic characteristics: age, gender, education, income, etc. 
• Psychographic characteristics: values, lifestyle, personality types, interests 
• Behavioural characteristics: purchasing behaviour, brand loyalty, preferred communication channels 
• Geographical characteristics: place of residence, region, cultural influences 

Segmentation helps to identify specific groups within the target group that can be represented by individual personas. However, you should not overload a persona. Characteristics that are not relevant to the project should be avoided.

4. Creation of the persona profiles

After the target group segments have been defined, detailed persona profiles are created for each segment. A typical persona profile contains the following elements: 

• Name and photo: A name and a photo (usually a stock photo) give the persona a personal touch and make it more accessible 
• Demographic information: Age, gender, profession, educational background, marital status etc. can help to visualise the persona. However, as the persona represents a segment, you should not limit yourself too much here.
• Goals and challenges: What does the persona want to achieve? What problems are they trying to solve? This information is key to understanding what drives the persona.
• Behaviour and habits: Information about how the persona spends their free time, how they make decisions and what media they use 
• Needs and expectations: What does the persona expect from a product or service? What needs must be met in order to satisfy them?
• Technological affinity: Information about the persona's use of technology and digital media to understand how they interact with digital products 
• Quotation: A fictional but realistic quotation that places the persona at the centre of their desires or challenges to encourage empathy 

5. Validation and prioritisation of the personas

The personas created should be validated to ensure that they are realistic and representative representations of the target group. This can be done by consulting with those who work directly with customers (e.g. sales, customer service) or by checking against other data sources. It can also be helpful to present the personas in internal workshops and obtain feedback from the entire team. Depending on the project, it also makes sense to prioritise the personas, as not all people in the target group have the same requirements and do not react to the functions of a digital product in the same way.

6. Integration into the development process

Once the personas have been validated, they should be actively integrated into the web development, marketing and service processes. Here are some ways in which this can be done: 

• Web development: Use the personas to prioritise features and functions that offer the greatest added value for the target group 
• Marketing: Customising messages, channels and campaigns to target the personas 
• Customer service: Training customer service employees to better address the specific needs of personas. 

7. Continuous updating 

Personas should be regularly reviewed and updated to ensure they still represent the target audience. Markets and target groups change, and personas need to reflect these changes to remain relevant and useful 

Through this systematic process, companies ensure that the personas created are accurate and useful to develop user-centred products and services that meet the needs and expectations of their target audience.

Conclusion 

Creating personas is a crucial step in gaining deeper insights into the needs, wishes and challenges of the target group. Companies that do not carry out this important step correctly or skip it altogether miss the opportunity to really understand their target group. This often leads to inefficient usability optimisation, less convincing web projects and a lack of customer loyalty. In short: personas are far more than just a marketing or UX tool - they are the key to sustainable business success.

Our experienced UX/UI design team is very familiar with the various methods for creating personas. Get in touch with us contact us so we can help you create personas for your organisation.