topic Should buyers persona be a real person? (Why not?) in Tips, Tricks & Best Practices

Should buyers persona be a real person? (Why not?)

JussiSalonen — Sun, 12 Mar 2023 01:28:14 GMT

Hi,
I'm new here. I'm a marketing student and in one of my classes, we (our team) were making up a buyer persona to target our campaign to.

The teachers feedback last week was to change the buyer persona to actual person instead of fictional one that we originally created.

I'm confused of this as I thought that the whole idea of buyer persona is that it is not a real person (even though it's based on a group of real people). I did some googleling and didn't find any source that would advice on having a real person as the buyer persona.

I feel like I want to challenge the teacher about this but I'm not sure on the grounds. Why it shouldn't be a real person? Could there be some deeper pedagogical meaning behind this that I'm just not aware of?

Could it be because we just made that persona up without doing any research on the matter? (Research was not requiered.)

Re: Should buyers persona be a real person? (Why not?)

MiaSrebrnjak — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 11:43:24 GMT

Hi @JussiSalonen,

This is an interesting question, thank you for reaching out!

I'll tag in a couple of subject matter experts to see if they'd like to share their input on this topic: @danmoyle, @jolle, @JenBergren. Thanks!

Cheers
Mia, Community Team

Re: Should buyers persona be a real person? (Why not?)

danmoyle — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 12:20:43 GMT

Hi @JussiSalonen welcome to the HubSpot Community! I admire you for asking "why" and not just following what your instructor said. In my opinion, they're making a mistake. Here's why: When you make your persona a "real person." someone with whom you've done business and you know, instead of thinking in generalities you will more likely think of that specific person.

Instead of thinking, "Persona Pat tends to ask these questions in a more technical social media like Reddit," you are more prone to saying something like, "The Pat I know never goes on Quora, so we should avoid that platform."

In the case of personas over the course of my career, I've found more value in trends and "tends to," rather than thinking of a specific person. With the caveat of course that research is critical, including speaking with the sales team and looking through the data in your CRM and even market research.

Re: Should buyers persona be a real person? (Why not?)

jolle — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 12:57:05 GMT

Hey @JussiSalonen, this is an awesome question! Thanks for the mention as well, @MiaSrebrnjak!

I'm with @danmoyle — personas tend to be the most valuable when they are based on real people, not tied to one specific person. It would be extremely difficult (probably impossible?) to find a single person who is a true representation of an entire segment of the population.

Research and experience from multiple team members, especially those working directly with customers, are both needed to create and iterate on personas over time, so it sounds like this may be a tricky exercise from your teacher.

Here's an awesome blog on persona creation from HubSpot, including this definition:

"Buyer personas are semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers based on data and research."

Hope this helps, and thanks again for sharing!!

Re: Should buyers persona be a real person? (Why not?)

danmoyle — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 13:02:20 GMT

Yes! Great resources too @jolle. Love the statement that one person cannot truly represent an entrire population. Great point.

Re: Should buyers persona be a real person? (Why not?)

JenBergren — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 15:56:09 GMT

Thanks for the tag @MiaSrebrnjak ! @danmoyle and @jolle covered it 200% awesomely.

@JussiSalonen Perhaps the teacher just wanted you to research real people instead of inventing all the data about your persona but they didn't choose their words well for the feedback. Research is definitely necessary, so it is odd it was not required for the assignment! Good luck with your conversation with the teacher! We're here to help more if needed!