Buyer personas
and positioning
Buyer personas and positioning that whoever runs your ads can put to work tomorrow: who the customer is, what starts the search, what worries them and where they look. Then one sentence on where you stand against every alternative.
Free: a 30-minute call, an action plan and a price range in writing.
Useful facts, not a
stock photo and a name
Who they are in terms that change the sale: homeowner or landlord, new practice or established one, budget owner or influencer.
The event that starts the search: a leak, a move, a lease renewal, a bad experience with the last provider.
What stops them from calling: price fear, past bad contractors, not knowing what to ask for.
Where they look and whom they ask: Google, Maps, Nextdoor, Facebook groups, a neighbor, an industry directory.
What tips the choice: reviews, a fast reply, a clear price, a specialist rather than a generalist.
From data to a
position you can hold
Data
Sales history, interviews, search phrases and reviews, gathered during customer research.
Groups
Customers sorted by what they need and what they are worth, usually into two or three groups.
Profiles
One page per group with the trigger, objections, channels and the phrases they use.
Position
Where you stand versus competitors and DIY, written as one sentence you can defend.
Use
Audiences, keywords, ad angles and page structure that follow from the profiles.
Personas inside
a full plan
Prices in US dollars, final.
Personas and positioning together with the audit, research, channel plan, budget and KPIs.
- 2 or 3 buyer profiles
- Positioning statement
- Targeting and ad angles
- Walkthrough on Zoom
A review of personas you already have, or a session to sharpen your positioning.
- First 30 minutes free
- Concrete edits, not theory
Buyer personas and positioning without the fluff
Many buyer personas are useless. A stock photo, a name like "Marketing Mary", an age range, a list of hobbies, and nothing that changes a single ad. The buyer personas and positioning I build answer working questions instead: what makes this person start looking, what makes them hesitate, where they look and what finally gets them to pick up the phone.
Positioning is the second half. Once you know who you serve, you decide where you stand compared with the alternatives, including the alternative of doing nothing or doing it themselves.
Where the personas come from
Everything is grounded in customer research: sales data, short interviews with recent buyers, search phrases and reviews. If two groups of customers buy the same service for different reasons, they become two personas. A roofing company might have the homeowner with storm damage, who needs speed and help with the insurance claim, and the landlord with several properties, who wants predictable pricing and one contact person.
Each profile fits on one page and includes the phrases customers actually used. Those quotes are what make the profile useful for a copywriter or an ad manager.
From personas to positioning
With the profiles in hand, I compare them against the competitor analysis. Where do rivals already compete hard? What does your best buyer care about that nobody promises clearly? The answer becomes a positioning statement of one or two sentences, for example: "for homeowners in the North Shore suburbs who need storm repairs handled fast, including the insurance paperwork".
It should feel slightly uncomfortable, because it leaves people out. That is the point. A business that speaks to everyone sounds like everyone.
How I use them in campaigns
- Google Ads: keywords grouped by trigger, ad copy that answers each group's main doubt, separate landing sections where needed.
- Meta ads: creative angles per persona, so the platform can find look-alike buyers from the people who respond.
- Website: service pages ordered by what each group looks for first, with answers to their objections near the call button.
- Follow-up: email and text sequences that address the doubts which slow each group down.
Where your industry falls under Meta's special ad categories, such as housing, credit or employment, targeting options are limited. Personas then work through the message rather than through filters, which my article on Meta special ad categories explains.
A quick example from a service business
Take a residential cleaning company in a large metro. The data shows two very different buyers. The first is a busy two-income household that books a recurring clean, cares about the same cleaner every visit and wants to pay by card without calls. The second is a landlord or property manager who books move-out cleans between tenants, cares about a fixed date and an invoice, and returns several times a year. One website headline cannot speak to both. The plan gives each a separate service page, separate ad groups and a different first question in the follow-up. Same company, two personas, two messages.
Keeping personas alive
Personas go stale. Prices change, new competitors arrive, the economy shifts what people prioritize. I suggest a short review once or twice a year: look at the last few months of sales and reviews, call two or three customers, update the profiles. It takes an afternoon and keeps the ads from drifting back to generic.
Price and next step
Personas and positioning are part of the $1,900 audit and strategy described on the marketing strategy page. If you only want a second opinion on existing profiles, a $65 consultation is enough.
Where personas
get used
Personas and
positioning questions
What is the difference between a persona and positioning?
A persona describes the buyer: situation, trigger, doubts, where they look. Positioning describes you: the place you take in that buyer's mind compared with the alternatives. You need the first to write the second. Without a persona, positioning turns into a slogan.
How many personas does a small business need?
Usually two or three. One is often too few, because most businesses have at least two kinds of buyers with different reasons. More than three rarely helps a small team, since nobody has the budget to write separate ads and pages for six groups.
Do personas still matter when ad platforms target automatically?
More than before. Google and Meta increasingly choose the audience themselves based on your ad and landing page. That means the message has become the targeting. If the ad speaks clearly to one buyer's trigger, the algorithm finds more people like them.
What about Meta's special ad categories?
If you advertise housing, jobs, credit or financial products, Meta restricts targeting by age, zip code and other details. Personas still help, because you reach the right people through the message and creative instead of filters. Real estate also has Fair Housing rules to respect.
How much does this cost?
Personas and positioning are part of the $1,900 audit and strategy, which also includes the research they are built on. A consultation at $65 an hour works if you already have profiles and want them reviewed.
Know who you
are talking to
Describe your two best customers in a few lines. I reply within one business day. Or book a free 30-minute call.