A buyer persona built on stereotypes gives your campaign a weak start
Define an audience through the decisions people need to make: the problem that prompts action, the roles involved, the evidence they seek and the constraints they face. Use real enquiries and research to support those details. A buyer persona is useful when it changes a message or service decision; unsupported personality descriptions are less useful than a clear account of the buying situation.
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Discuss an ongoing marketing partnershipDescribe the buying situation before the fictional person
A professional service can involve several decision roles within the same organisation. The person experiencing the problem, the technical evaluator, procurement and the final approver may all influence the purchase. Giving them one invented name can hide those differences. Start with their responsibilities and questions instead.
Record the trigger that brings the service into consideration. It may be a planned change, a capacity issue, a new reporting requirement or a recurring operational problem. Then ask what makes the decision difficult: uncertainty about scope, internal approval, evidence of capability, implementation effort or the cost of disruption.
Personal characteristics belong in the profile only where they meaningfully affect communication or service delivery and can be handled appropriately. Do not infer a person’s needs, authority or preferences from an age bracket, a job title or a photograph. A practical audience profile can be detailed without becoming intrusive.
Separate what is known from what needs checking
| Profile statement | Evidence that could support it | Status and next check |
|---|---|---|
| The service is usually considered during a planned operational change | Recent enquiry wording and customer interviews | Observed in reviewed examples; test whether it applies beyond them |
| Technical reviewers want a clear delivery method | Repeated questions in sales conversations | Supported question; develop a concise process explanation |
| Procurement needs specific supplier information | Actual procurement requests | Confirm which requirements apply to this engagement |
| The final approver prefers a short decision summary | Interview or direct feedback from approvers | Assumption until checked; do not present as a universal preference |
A small set of well-understood examples is useful for generating questions, but does not establish the size of an entire market. Note where the evidence came from, when it was collected and what it can reasonably support. Contradictory examples are worth retaining because they may reveal a separate audience or buying situation.
Ask about recent decisions rather than ideal behaviour
In an interview, ask someone to describe a real recent purchase or supplier evaluation. What prompted it? Who joined the decision? What information was difficult to find? What caused a provider to be ruled out? These questions can reveal practical constraints that a general question about preferences may miss.
Compare those accounts with actual enquiry and sales records that the organisation is permitted to use. Look for repeated wording and differences between won, lost and unsuitable opportunities. Avoid turning every lost enquiry into a messaging problem; capacity, timing, scope and commercial terms may also explain the outcome.
The Australian Government’s market research guidance describes research into customers, competitors and offers using several methods. For a persona project, use that range to check important assumptions rather than rely on one workshop or data source.
If evidence is limited, publish an internal working hypothesis and a plan to test it. The profile can still guide an initial draft, provided the team knows which choices are provisional.
Make the profile change a real piece of work
A useful profile should influence a service page, campaign brief, sales resource or customer interaction. If technical evaluators repeatedly ask about the delivery method, explain it clearly. If the first researcher needs to brief an approver, provide a concise summary that can travel internally. If a common enquiry falls outside the service, make that boundary easier to find.
Work through a hypothetical advisory-service example. The initial assumption is that prospects mainly need a short introduction to the team. Reviewed enquiries instead show recurring uncertainty about what the first engagement includes. The resulting content priority becomes a scoped service explanation and a clear next step. No imaginary personality trait is needed to make that decision.
Keep the profile open to revision. Record which messages were tested, what customers asked afterwards and whether the audience definition still fits the opportunities the organisation wants. Treat a persona as a decision aid that changes with evidence, rather than a permanent description of everyone in a category.
Those questions can also improve routine publishing. Our guide to social content built from customer questions shows a related way to turn observed needs into useful editorial work.
