Getting to Know Your Patient/Consumer: Personas 102

In Creating Persons 101, we address the reasons why researching your ideal consumer is so important: it’s impossible to know exactly what to say to someone when you don’t know who that person is.

Know thy audience! Rule #1.

But how? Where do you start? Good question.

You can start with surveys and focus groups of your existing patients or clients. With a simple survey you can glean information from your existing clients to help inform and complete a picture of who your ideal consumer is. You can also check out your own Google Analytics data. Who’s visiting your site? Where are they coming from? What other places online are they visiting? Where do they live? What time are they accessing your site? These are just a few of the questions that Google Analytics data can provide answers for.

Basic Demographic

A good place to start as you look at the data you already have about your consumer is the key demographic they’re part of. how old are they? Male or female? Where do they live? Is it a rural or urban area? Apartment or house? Who do they live with? How did they vote in the last election? What ethnicity are they? Are they religious? What’s their household income? What level of education did they complete? How big is their household? Do they have children? Pets? In-laws who live with them?

Career Goals

There should be some information about the persona’s career. A career is a big part of who your client or consumer is. Having this piece of the puzzle can help a lot when you draft your consumer messaging. What’s their job title? What do they do? How big is the company? What’s the industry? What is their specific role? What are their goals for the future?

Values, Fears, Dreams

Having the basic demographic pinned down, it’s time to get to know this person on a more personal level. This is where the persona’s “why” and more specific questions come in. To fully understand your persona’s motivations and why they’re your ideal consumer, you need to understand the way they think, and what matters to them most. What are their dreams? How do they plan to make them a reality? What are the obstacles for making the dream come true? Is this something your organization can help with? What are their main personal values? What brands do they purchase? Why?

Personal Interests and Habits

Outside of their career and dreams, what is this person like? What hobbies do they have? Do they read? What do they most like to read? What are their influencers? What social media platforms do they use? Do they have any pets? ·What are their favorite news sources?  Do they read reviews on services or produces before making a decision? Are there brands they avoid? Why? How do they prefer to communicate? Text? Phone? Email?

Get Creative

Once you’ve determined the answers to many of the questions above, you can start to have some fun with your persona. If she’s a teen girl, maybe there’s a vernacular she’s accustomed to using. What quotes might she live by? Who might her biggest idol be? What saying or expression might reflect her belief system? What is her attitude toward her peers? Her elders? The world in at large? Elaborating on who this person is can help you connect with them, informing your messaging.

Staying Focused

Defining your persona or ideal client, even giving him/her a name, not only serves to increase your understanding of the profile better, it helps you stay focused and organized in the crafting of your message. Every sentence, every word, must pass through the filter of “would this matter to Polly Persona?”

 When we at KineticHealth developed our “Every Step of the Way” campaign, we began by talking to women who’d given birth in the geographic area. We talked to providers who cared for them, and the support staff who worked with them. We examined the data available from internet analytics and databases. And then we got to work. And these highly targeted efforts drove results - see “External Campaign | Pregnancy Care” for the resulting collateral.

What makes your consumer or patient tick?

Struggling to put a face to your message? We can help.