Who are you talking to? How to create an audience persona

Image by Vilkasss from Pixabay

When you're creating content for a particular audience, it helps if you have them clear in your mind as if they were a real person. One of the simplest - and most fun - ways to do this is to create a persona.

What is a persona?

A persona is a research-backed, semi-fictional profile that represents your ideal audience member.

Personas are used by a wide range of organisations - we have used them in newsrooms to understand how a story will land with our readers, in marketing to work out how to pitch a service, and with community groups wondering how best to connect with the people they are here to serve. Usually you would have a number of personas to cover different sections of your audience.

Why are personas so effective?

• They bring the data to live in a way and focus our attention on the people we're trying to reach rather than numbers in a spreadsheet.

  
  

• They help us imagine ourselves in their shoes and understand what would make people come to us - and how we can shape our content to suit their routines, challenges and interests.

Here's an example persona for a fictional library hosting arts workshops and events, which we created for a training session for community groups

By giving her a name, age and face, Sarah starts to seem like a real person. The rest of the information gives clues about the ways in which you can connect with her.

She's a working mum so doesn't have a lot of time. The spare time she has she likes to spend with her kids - preferably away from screens - but she also needs some time to unwind. The library might offer a book club where her kids get to play while she talks with adults, or some kids' craft activities during which Sarah can have a cup of tea in the cafe.

Scrolling on social media is part of her daily routine so the library could aim to catch her attention by posting about its sessions in local community Facebook groups or by setting them up as Facebook events. Photos of happy children and relaxed adults at one of the library's craft sessions could catch her eye on Instagram if you post late in the evening.

How to create a persona for your organisation

Here are some of the things you need to know about your audience/potential audience to start to understand them better:

• Demographics: Age and life stage, where they live, digital literacy.

• Motivations: Their goals, their values, their relationship to your organisation.

• Behaviour: How they find information, when they are free, spending habits.

• Barriers: The practical things and ideas that stopping them from taking part.

You may already know a lot about your audience from talking to them or by collecting and analysing your data, but the more you know the more you can start to build up a picture.

Here are 4 ways to find out more about them:

1. Ask them in person: If you get to meet them face-to-face then engage them in conversation. You don't have to pry into their personal lives, but they may be comfortable talking about the reasons they got involved with your organisation - and maybe what, if anything, was putting them off.

   
   

2. Use a survey: Depending on the demographic of your audience and how you interact with them this could be an online survey send out through your newsletter or shared on social media, or it could be printed and handed out to people in real life. Don't forget to follow GDPR best practice around collecting and storing data.

   
   

3. Look at data from your website and social media: You can find out a lot about your users from social media analytics - everything from which topics they most engage with to what sort of pet they have. Your website analytics can give you an idea of what people are most interested in reading about, the times of day they visit your website and which regions they live in. Look for patterns that will help you understand what your audience has in common with each other.

   
   

4. Ask your staff and/or volunteers what they have noticed: Don't discount anecdotal evidence from the people in your organisation who spend the most time with your users.

Create your own persona

We have put together a worksheet that will help you create your own persona. Download it here.

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