What is a good description of a 'buyer persona' or 'customer persona'?

Understanding Buyer Personas

A buyer persona or customer persona is a semi-fictional archetype that represents the key traits of a large segment of your audience, based on the data you've collected from user research and web analytics. Personas are used in marketing to help businesses understand and relate to an audience that they want to market their products or services to.

Creating a Detailed Persona

Creating a persona involves compiling detailed descriptions of fictional individuals who embody the characteristics of your target demographic. This character sketch gives life to the customer by including behavioral traits, demographic information, hobbies, goals, pain points, and other relevant personal details.

Benefits of Using Buyer Personas

The realization that every purchase is based on customer belief regarding satisfaction that the product or service will provide underscores the importance of a well-defined buyer persona. Since information available to the buyer can be imperfect or unclear, a persona helps businesses communicate more clearly and connect with potential buyers' underlying beliefs and needs, hopefully avoiding buyer's regret or future purchase avoidance.

Accounting for Different Perspectives

Understanding that different professionals, like an optometrist and a podiatrist, will see different aspects of a person, allows businesses to recognize that their buyer persona must account for varied perspectives and needs. Thus, combining the perspectives of different buyer personas can provide a full description of the target market and assist businesses in making informed decisions about product development and marketing strategies.