Best Practices for Developing Personas By: Jenna Erickson, Codal Inc ________________________________________________________________________________________ As you develop or enhance your website, you’ll likely encounter several potential methods for boosting the quality of your site and making your design more consistent. A persona is one of the best ways to do this. Personas have been around since the 1990s, and have been gaining popularity since then. They can be very valuable when it comes to promoting your business for marketers and designers. Here are some tips for developing your persona. What Is Your Company’s Persona? Your persona is the way that you communicate the data you’ve collected about potential customers. A persona is also a way to summarize this information in a way that is clear, concise, and easy to remember. The persona you choose is depicted as a person who serves as the mascot for your business, but isn’t a real individual. The persona can be a fictional character you create, an animated character, or a logo with human qualities. However, the persona should represent real people. Focus on creating one or a few memorable characters, as opposed to a large group of personas. Personas And Your Business In most cases, your persona is described in about one page. You can deliver this one-page document to clients and investors, but you can also refer to it so that you can stay on top of research trends. This document helps you to understand what is most important to your consumers. The execution of these ideas is what is most important. The actual look of your persona should have visual appeal and immediately attract the people in your demographic. For instance, a persona of a lightning bolt or light bulb represents innovative and great ideas. These symbols can be personified to give customers a better understanding of your technology business. Know the Purpose of Personas When you know where personas come from, you’ll have a better understanding of how to utilize it for your company. Alan Cooper invented personas in the 1980s so that he could relate to the customers who would be utilizing his software. Cooper conducted interviews with the people who would potentially be using his product.
Remember to take this approach when you’re creating your persona. The way the persona looks and the message the persona conveys should be a direct reflection of your customers’ needs and preferences. Conducting surveys or connecting with customers via social media, can help you finalize your persona design. When customers can relate to your persona, they are more likely to continue patronizing your business, and to tell others about your company. Be Clear About Your Goals What are you hoping to accomplish by developing a persona? Yes, you want your clients to be able to relate to you, but how will you achieve this? Does your company appeal to younger professionals who want to be both trendy and professional? When you’re clear about who you want to reach, you can use language and information that will let customers know that you truly understand them. Personas and The User Experience Customers can also use the persona as part of their user experience. It can serve as the cursor as clients navigate through your website. Or, your company’s persona can summarize each of your web pages and serve as the spokesperson on your social media pages. It can be the face of your social media accounts, or the customer service expert for your business. Customers can find answers to frequently asked questions or chat directly with you online by communicating with the persona to get the answers they need. There may be times when you may have to change the voice of your persona slightly as your business grows and your clients undergo life changes (i.e., marriage, having children, retiring, changing jobs, etc.) Be sure to stay true to your company’s brand, while appealing to your customers, and your persona will continue to be a great marketing tool.
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