How to Choose Your Three Key Personas
A Guide for Strategic Focus
Selecting the right personas is crucial to drive your business forward. Without clear direction, you risk wasting time, money, and resources targeting the wrong people. At Astrava, we help you focus on the personas that matter the most to your business growth. Here's a structured approach to selecting your key three personas.
There are two effective methodologies you can use to choose your target personas: the Representative Persona Approach and the Business Goal Alignment Approach. Let’s explore them in detail.
Method 1: Choose Representative Personas
Start by selecting three personas that represent different facets of your business:
Primary Persona: This is your bread-and-butter customer, the core of your revenue stream. They are already buying from you, and your focus should be on retaining them and expanding their spend.
Secondary Persona: This persona offers “quick wins” and is cost-effective to target. They may not yet be loyal customers, but they are easy to convert and provide significant short-term value. You will require a strong lead generation campaign to achieve the desired volume of these customers.
Emerging Growth Opportunity Persona: Look towards the future with this persona. They might be higher-value clients, a new persona for a product launch or represent an aspirational market that you want to grow into long-term.
Method 2: Anchor on Your Business Goals
You can also focus on the personas that align with your company’s current and future objectives. This methodology involves identifying companies and job titles that contribute most to your revenue, growth, and operational goals.
Step 1. List the personas in consideration: In Excel list the personas that align with your goals from your Ideal Customer Profiles. Ideally 5 - 8.
Step 2. Define ranking criteria: Each persona is to be ranked against key criteria for your company, I would suggest to involve key management in your company, but here are four suggestions:
Fit with your company i.e. they operate in your key sectors and you share the same values and ethics.
Customer Lifetime Value i.e. the average order value x frequency of purchase x average customer lifespan (years of sales).
Stability ie what is the stage of their company life cycle - start up, growth, maturity, decline.
Strategic direction ie they are moving in the same direction as your company’s growth aspirations
Step 3. Rank the persona against the criteria: Use a Progression Ranking Scale ( Six Sigma) 0, 1, 3, 9 of the Persona to your key company criteria for selecting the best persona.
0 = Non existent / very low
1 = Low
3 = medium
9 = strong
Step 4. Add some Astrava magic: You could take this to the next level, and rank your criteria. Not all elements of your criteria carry the same weighting and importance. So you can add a little excel magic with a formula to take this criteria importance level into consideration….
Step 5. Use the tallied scores to define your key personas: Use excel to add up the scores in order to see your top three scoring personas. Save the other personas for future phases.
The goal is to prioritise personas who will drive your long-term growth whilst meeting your immediate business needs.
Make Your Persona Selection Today!
Choosing the right personas isn't a one-off task, it’s an ongoing strategic process that shapes your marketing efforts. Want help finding your 3 key personas? Sign up today to take advantage of the April Accelerator offer and secure your spot before prices rise in May.
