How do you segment your customers for persona creation?

1 Identify your customer segments

The first step to create customer personas is to identify the different groups of customers that you serve or want to serve. You can use various criteria to segment your customers, such as demographics, behavior, goals, pain points, or industry. For example, if you sell software for project management, you might segment your customers by company size, role, or use case. The idea is to group customers who have similar characteristics and needs, and who respond similarly to your value proposition.

2 Research your customer segments

The next step is to research each customer segment in depth, to gather relevant and accurate data and insights. You can use various sources of information, such as surveys, interviews, feedback, analytics, or social media. The goal is to understand your customers' problems, desires, expectations, and decision-making process, as well as their demographic and psychographic attributes. For example, you might want to know how your customers find, evaluate, and buy your solution, what benefits they seek, what challenges they face, and what influences their behavior.

3 Create your customer personas

The third step is to create your customer personas based on the data and insights you collected. You can use a template or a tool to organize and visualize your personas, or simply create a document or a presentation. The key is to make your personas realistic and specific, and include relevant details, such as name, photo, background, goals, pain points, needs, preferences, and buying journey. For example, you might create a persona named Sarah, who is a project manager at a small company, who needs a simple and affordable software to manage her team's tasks and deadlines, and who values ease of use, customer support, and testimonials.

4 Use your customer personas

The final step is to use your customer personas to guide your marketing and sales strategies, and align your team around your ideal customers. You can use your personas to create targeted and personalized messages, content, offers, and campaigns, that resonate with your customers and address their needs and challenges. You can also use your personas to segment your leads, qualify your prospects, and nurture your relationships, by providing relevant and timely information and solutions. For example, you might use Sarah's persona to create a landing page that highlights the benefits of your software for small businesses, and a follow-up email that offers a free trial and a case study.

5 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?