How to Build a Reader Persona
Understanding what a reader persona is, and how it can enhance your blogging
In marketing we frequently build and refer to customer personas, also known as buyer personas. These are (mostly) fictional renderings of a specific person who represents the target demographic for a product or service, or for the business as a whole.
Customer personas are useful because they help us envision what people will want and need. Rather than asking ourselves “what would everyone want to read?” we can ask ourselves “what would Maureen want to read?” (assuming our buyer persona is named Maureen).
A specific example of this is keyword research. If you’re planning a blog post, you’ll be able to target more specific longtail keywords if you know the type of person doing the searching. There may be specific terms they would use, or differences in phrasing if they’re part of the younger generation trending toward voice search.
In the following sections I’ll walk you through one method for developing a reader persona for your writing. I’ll even show examples from how I built my reader persona, Maureen.
Step 1: Gather Data
Usually the first stage in effective planning is grouping relevant knowledge, and building a reader…
