What Are Customer Personas? How to Use Customer Profiling in Your CX Strategy

You can call it a customer persona or a buyer persona—they’re two words for the same concept. In short, the persona is a representation of your ideal customer (if you’re B2C) or client (B2B). Buyer personas include:

• Demographic information about your target customers
• Their behaviors, motivations, needs, pain points, and challenges

Typically, all that information is gathered in one place in the form of an infographic, presentation, or spreadsheet. You can think of it as a representative sample or an archetype of your existing or desired customers.

Here’s what a customer persona might look like:

You want to know what your ideal customer's motivations are, what they value in your and other brands, what kind of communication they prefer, what everyday problems they want to solve, etc.

To obtain this kind of insight, you must try to walk in your customers’ shoes. And since we don’t always share our customers’ taste in shoes, we need to try different tactic for gathering information about their attributes, motivations, and pain points. 

One place to start is a tactic called empathy mapping. Empathy maps are common in every UX department, and rightly so. They are simple frameworks split into four quadrants that are all about what your customers:

1. Say
2. Think
3. Do
4. Feel

With an empathy map, you can easily focus on real customer needs and feelings because you’re aiming to think the way they usually do. The key is to see things from your customers’ perspectives, and not from the perspectives you might have on certain customers.

Key Components of Customer Personas:

An ideal customer persona should include:

• Demographics: Age, gender, location, income, education, and occupation.
• Psychographics: Interests, values, lifestyle, and personality traits.Pain Points: The main challenges or problems they need solutions for.
• Buying Behavior: Purchase habits, decision-making process, and preferred shopping channels.
• Goals & Motivations: What drives them to seek out and purchase a product or service.
• Preferred Communication Channels: How they consume information (social media, email, websites, etc.).
• Objections & Barriers: Reasons they might hesitate to buy, such as price concerns or lack of trust.

Ideal Customer Profile (ICP)

An Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) defines the perfect company or individual that would benefit most from your product or service. It focuses on firmographics (industry, company size, revenue) for B2B businesses or key demographics for B2C.

Unlike a customer persona, which is detailed and human-focused, an ICP is broader and used to identify high-value prospects that lead to the most revenue, retention, and growth.

Customer Persona vs User Persona

A customer persona represents the ideal buyer of your product or service, focusing on purchasing behavior, demographics, motivations, and decision-making factors. It helps with marketing, sales strategies, and messaging to attract and convert leads.

A user persona, on the other hand, represents the end-user of your product, focusing on how they interact with it, their needs, goals, and pain points. It’s primarily used for product design, user experience (UX), and development.

While a customer persona helps drive revenue and sales, a user persona ensures a smooth and satisfying product experience, and in some cases, they may overlap if the buyer and user are the same person.

Importance of Customer Personas

Using customer personas is important for your brand because it helps you understand your target audience better, allowing you to create more personalized marketing, products, and services.

By using personas, you can tailor your messaging, improve customer engagement, and make better business decisions that align with your audience's needs. This leads to:

• Increased Revenue: Targeted marketing based on customer personas leads to higher conversion rates, as you’re delivering the right message to the right audience.
• Repeat Purchases: Understanding customer needs and preferences helps you personalize offers and recommendations, encouraging customers to buy again.
• Lower Marketing Costs: Focused advertising and content creation prevent wasted spending on broad, ineffective campaigns, maximizing your budget’s efficiency.
• Improved Product Development: Knowing what your ideal customers want allows you to create products that better meet their needs, increasing sales and customer satisfaction.
• Stronger Customer Loyalty: Personalized experiences make customers feel valued, boosting retention rates and increasing lifetime customer value.

4 Types of customer personas

We can distinguish four main types of user personas. All four types are useful when it comes to reaching potential customers with well-crafted messaging.

Competitive Persona

Competitive personas are highly goal-driven and focused on getting the best possible solution for their needs. They prioritize performance, efficiency, and results over price or brand loyalty. These customers often compare multiple options, read expert reviews, and look for industry-leading solutions.

To appeal to them, businesses should highlight unique value propositions, superior features, and measurable benefits, such as case studies or performance statistics.

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Spontaneous Persona

Spontaneous personas make quick, emotion-driven decisions and are heavily influenced by trends, urgency, and convenience. They are more likely to buy based on limited-time offers, impulse promotions, or strong emotional appeal.

Businesses can attract them with persuasive messaging, limited-time discounts, visually appealing marketing, and seamless, hassle-free purchasing experiences.

Humanistic Persona

Humanistic personas value relationships, trust, and brand reputation. They prefer companies with strong ethical values, excellent customer service, and personal connections. Word-of-mouth, testimonials, and community engagement play a big role in their decision-making.

To win them over, brands should focus on storytelling, personalized interactions, and demonstrating social responsibility.

Methodical Persona

Methodical personas are analytical and detail-oriented buyers who take their time researching before making a purchase. They rely on product comparisons, in-depth reviews, specifications, and logical reasoning to make decisions.

To attract them, businesses should provide comprehensive product information, transparent pricing, detailed FAQs, and clear demonstrations of why their product is the best choice.

Steps to Create Customer Personas

Ready to make your first cutomer persona? Follow these simple steps to complete the process from ideation to iteration.

Step 1: Conduct Research

The first step in creating customer personas is gathering data from various sources, such as customer surveys, interviews, website analytics, and social media insights. This helps you understand who your customers are, what they need, and how they interact with your brand. The more data you collect, the more accurate and useful your personas will be.

You will probably use some sort of tool or software here to do the heavy lifitng. For example, customer survey software solutions like these:

10 Best Online Survey Software

My picks and top suggestions, based on research and testing.

1. 1. Birdeye — Best survey software powered by AI
2. 2. Survicate — Best for in-site or in-app surveys
3. 3. Jotform — Best for automating your survey process
4. 4. Feedier — Best all-in-one experience management platform
5. 5. SurveyNuts — Best at ease-of-use for survey builders & takers
6. 6. Survey Planet — Best for device-agnostic teams (mobile, tablet, PC)
7. 7. Formstack — Best for employing logic & conditions
8. 8. LimeSurvey — Best open source survey software
9. 9. Google Forms — Best for Google Workspace users
10. 10. Crowdsignal — Best for customizing the look and feel of surveys & polls

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I've further outlined different methods for gathering cutomer data in the section below.

Step 2. Identify Key Demographics

Defining demographic details like age, gender, location, income, job title, and education level helps create a clear picture of your target audience.

These factors influence purchasing behavior and brand preferences, making them essential for tailored marketing strategies. Knowing your customers’ demographics allows you to craft messages that resonate with them.

Step 3. Analyze Psychographics

Beyond demographics, understanding your customers' interests, values, lifestyles, and personality traits helps shape a deeper connection with them.

Psychographics reveal why customers make certain purchasing decisions and what influences their loyalty. This information is crucial for building marketing campaigns that align with their beliefs and aspirations.

Step 4. Map Pain Points & Challenges

Identifying your customers' biggest problems helps you position your product or service as the ideal solution. Pain points could be anything from financial struggles and time constraints to frustrations with competitors’ offerings. Addressing these challenges directly in your messaging builds trust and increases the likelihood of conversion.

Examples of Customer Persona Pain Points

• High Prices: Customers feel that products or services are too expensive and may seek more affordable alternatives.
• Complicated Buying Process: A confusing checkout process or too many steps in decision-making can lead to frustration and cart abandonment.
• Lack of Trust: Customers may hesitate to buy due to unclear product information, poor reviews, or lack of social proof.
• Limited Time: Busy customers need quick solutions and may avoid products that require too much effort or research.
• Poor Customer Support: Slow response times, unhelpful service, or lack of assistance can push customers to competitors.
• Inconsistent Quality: Customers may be dissatisfied if they receive a product or service that doesn’t match expectations or previous experiences.
• Lack of Customization: If products or services don’t fit specific customer needs, they may feel that the offering isn’t relevant to them.

Step 5. Study Buying Behavior

Examining how customers research, compare, and purchase products gives insight into their decision-making process. Do they rely on online reviews, word-of-mouth recommendations, or discounts? Understanding these behaviors allows you to refine your sales strategy and optimize touchpoints throughout their journey.

Step 6. Define Goals & Motivations

Customers buy products for a reason—whether it’s to solve a problem, improve their lifestyle, or achieve a personal or business goal.

Identifying what motivates them helps craft messaging that speaks directly to their needs and desires. By aligning your brand’s value proposition with their goals, you increase the chances of conversion and retention.

Step 7. Segment & Create Personas

After analyzing all the collected data, group customers with similar traits and behaviors into distinct personas.

Each persona should have a unique name, background, and a detailed description that represents a key segment of your audience. This makes it easier for your team to visualize and market to different types of customers effectively.

If you already have a "backlog" of customers and you are looking to sort them into customer personas, you can use customer segmentation tools to divide and group them by similarities:

Easy Customer Segmentation Tools

Use these to collect, source, and organize any customer data you already have.

1. 1. CRM Creatio — Best for dynamic customer segmentation
2. 2. Sprout Social — Best for comprehensive social media analytics
3. 3. Akita — Best for targeted customer lists
4. 4. Velaris — Best for personalized experiences with predictive analytics
5. 5. Google Analytics — Best free customer segmentation tool
6. 6. Pendo — Product adoption platform with analytics and targeted messaging
7. 7. Qualtrics Customer Experience — Generate customer insight and segment users
8. 8. Heap — Low-code data platform for customer journey insight
9. 9. Totango — CS platform with segmentation features
10. 10. Baremetrics — SaaS analytics platform

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Step 8. Validate & Refine

Customer personas should be tested and refined regularly based on real customer feedback and evolving market trends. As your business grows and customer needs change, updating personas ensures they remain relevant and useful. This ongoing process helps maintain a strong connection with your audience and improves overall marketing performance.

Methods for Gathering Customer Data

Creating accurate customer personas requires collecting both qualitative and quantitative data to understand your audience's behaviors, preferences, and pain points. By using a mix of research methods, businesses can develop well-rounded personas:

• Customer Surveys: Use online surveys to collect demographic details, preferences, and feedback from existing customers.
• Interviews & Focus Groups: Conduct one-on-one interviews or group discussions to gain deep insights into customer motivations and pain points.
• Website & Analytics Tools: Analyze data from Google Analytics, heatmaps, and user behavior tracking to understand how customers interact with your site.
• Social Media Listening: Monitor social media platforms and online forums to identify customer discussions, concerns, and trends.
• Customer Support & Sales Feedback: Gather insights from sales and support teams, who interact directly with customers and understand common questions and complaints.
• Competitor Analysis: Study competitor reviews, testimonials, and marketing strategies to identify gaps and opportunities in your industry.
• Purchase History & CRM Data: Use customer relationship management (CRM) systems to analyze past purchases, preferences, and engagement patterns.

Resources for Creating Customer Personas

Building effective customer personas requires the right tools and research methods. Below are some valuable resources to help gather data, analyze customer behavior, and create detailed personas.

1. Survey Tools – Platforms like Google Forms, SurveyMonkey, and Typeform help collect customer feedback and demographic information.
2. Analytics Tools – Use Google Analytics, Hotjar, and Mixpanel to track website behavior, user engagement, and traffic sources.
3. Social Listening Tools – Tools like Hootsuite, Brandwatch, and Sprout Social monitor customer conversations and trends on social media.
4. CRM & Customer Data Platforms – HubSpot, Salesforce, and Zoho CRM store customer information, purchase history, and interaction data.
5. Competitor Research Tools – Use SEMrush, Ahrefs, and BuzzSumo to analyze competitor content, SEO, and audience engagement.
6. User Testing & Feedback – Platforms like UserTesting and Crazy Egg provide insights into how real customers interact with your website or product.
7. Persona Templates & Generators – Use Xtensio, HubSpot’s Make My Persona, and Miro for ready-made templates and AI-driven persona creation.

Examples of customer personas: B2C vs B2B

Some people think that personas are just for B2C companies. This is simply not true! There is always a real person on the other side of the table (or rather, the screen). But the truth is, there are some differences between personas for B2C and B2B. Let’s examine them closely by using two fictional examples.

Example 1: A B2C persona for a car rental

Background information (demographics and personality traits)

Name: Mark Explorer

Age: 30-40

Location: Seattle, Washington

Occupation: Senior Manager at an advertising agency

Motivations and aspirations

Mark loves to travel; he wants to visit every country in the world to gather great memories, take breathtaking pictures, and share his experiences with friends and loved ones.

Problems and challenges

Mark struggles with finding the best deals for his trips. Plus, he’s looking for services that will streamline his arrival and help him explore his destination. Although he’s making decent money, he doesn't like spending too much on his trips.

Behaviors

Before leaving his hometown, there is always a lot of planning involved. He has to know where to go, how to get there, and how to get around the city and the region. If possible, Mark always rents an economical and comfy car (AC is a must!).

With that done, the next step is to think about what to offer that might resonate with Mark and people like him. Things to consider might include a fleet with ample trunk space for luggage, free tourist guides for every customer, partnerships with hotels, blog posts about local attractions—seeing things from your customers’ perspective can illuminate infinite possibilities!

Example 2: A B2B persona for a marketing automation tool

Background information

Name: Sally Marketer

Age: 30-40

Location: Chicago, Illinois

Occupation: Marketing Manager in a large corporation

Motivations and aspirations

Sally has a lot of work to do every day. She wants to spend less time managing her company’s marketing activities.

Problems and challenges

Although Sally has an assistant, she feels like she’s still working too much. Repetitive actions (e.g., posting on the company’s social media accounts) take too much time. Because of that, she can’t concentrate on more important strategic goals.

Behaviors

Sally has an everyday to-do list that’s full of activities that could be streamlined or even automated altogether. She has to deal with them first before she has time to focus on more meaningful work.

Again, this is a perfect starting point to craft a message that responds to Sally’s needs and problems. You can highlight time-saving features in your website content, offer premium-tier services that take even more off Sally’s plate, and offer video tutorials that explain how to set up the most helpful features of your product.

Customer Persona Template

Background information

Name: [Name your persona]

Age: [How old are they?]

Location: [Where do they live?]

Occupation: [Are they a student? A professional? What’s their level of seniority?]

Motivations and aspirations

[What do they spend their day doing? What drives them to action?]

Problems and challenges

[What are their pain points in their personal life and/or work? Remember to consider both, whether for a B2C or B2B customer.]

Behaviors

[What are their habits? What does their day look like now, and how could it be improved?]

To learn more about persona creation, we also have an exhaustive guide to show exactly how to create personas that reflect the motivations of your actual customers.

Designing Messaging and Customer Journeys

Using customer personas to shape messaging and customer journeys ensures that businesses communicate effectively and provide a seamless experience tailored to different audience segments. By understanding each persona’s needs, pain points, and motivations, companies can craft personalized messages that resonate, whether through email marketing, social media, or advertising.

Remember: A well-designed customer journey aligns with these personas by guiding them from awareness to purchase with relevant touchpoints, such as educational content, personalized recommendations, and targeted offers.

Use personas to improve your CX strategy

Creating a customer persona is an ideal starting point for your entire CX strategy. The more your get to know your customers, the better-equipped you’ll be to deliver a world-class experience.

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