The sixth eBook in the Foundations category. It walks the customer choice in detail - the cost of trying to serve everyone, the four-criteria fit test, the high-value segment patterns to look for, the profile sheet that turns a segment into a real person, and the way to commit to a first target market without closing doors forever.
Members ebook·5 chapters· 15 minute read
Chapter 4
Customer Profiles and Personas
Turn a chosen segment into a one-page customer profile that the website, offer and channels can be designed for.
A segment is a category - landlords, working professionals, first-time managers. A customer profile is a person inside that category, sketched in enough detail that copy can be written for them, channels can be chosen for them and offers can be shaped for them. Without the profile, the segment stays abstract and the business keeps speaking to no-one in particular.
The profile doesn't need to be elaborate. A single page, six headings, a real name borrowed from a real customer if it helps. The point is to make the customer concrete enough that everyone in the business is picturing the same person.
By the end of this chapter you'll have a profile sheet for your chosen segment and a sense of how to use it without falling into the trap of designing the business for a fictional character.
The full chapter has the six-heading profile sheet, the four sources to draw from and the rule that keeps the profile honest.
The six-heading profile sheet
Customer profile - one page, six headings
1. Who they are - role, situation, life stage
2. What they're trying to do - the actual job to be done
3. What gets in the way - the friction they hit today
4. Where they look for help - channels and trusted sources
5. What 'good' looks like to them - the outcome they want
6. What they say - one or two real quotes
How to fill in each heading
Who they are. "Lucy, 38, marketing manager at a 200-person tech firm, two kids, mortgage, has been in her current role 18 months." Specific enough to picture. Drawn from a real customer where possible.
What they're trying to do. "Hold her workload together without crashing - get through the week, sleep, be present at home, not snap at her team." The actual job, not the product category.
What gets in the way. "Can't get a therapy slot that fits her diary. Doesn't want open-ended therapy. Doesn't want to talk to her GP about it. Worried about confidentiality through her employer." Real friction, not generic.
Where they look for help. "Google, Instagram, a couple of trusted friends, occasionally an HR webinar at work." Where they actually go - not where you wish they went.
What good looks like. "Tools she can use this week. Six sessions she can see the end of. A therapist who explains what they're doing." The outcome from her side, not yours.
What they say. "I just need someone to give me a structure I can follow for a few weeks." One or two real quotes from real customers carry more weight than any persona document. Capture them when you hear them.
Four sources to draw from
First, conversations with five real customers in the segment. Second, the wording of recent enquiries - the actual phrases people use when they ask about your service. Third, reviews of competitors in the same space. Fourth, threads in forums or community groups where the segment talks among themselves. Together these four sources keep the profile honest.
The honesty rule
A profile is useful when every claim on it could be backed up by something a real customer said or did. The moment the profile starts including invented preferences, made-up demographics or wishful thinking, it stops being useful and starts being a creative-writing exercise. Strike anything you can't source.
What to do this week
Talk to three real customers in your chosen segment for fifteen minutes each. Ask about each of the six headings, in plain language. Write the profile sheet from what they said, not what you assumed. Pin it next to the strategy template.
The recurring principle this chapter sits on is start with the customer. The profile is the customer made concrete. The next chapter, Choosing Your First Target Market, commits to the segment and writes the calendar for revisiting the choice.
The rest of this chapter walks through the practical steps, the templates and the checklists you need to put it into action. It includes worked examples, copy frameworks and the small decisions that make the difference between a plan that sits in a drive and one that gets used.
Inside you'll find a step-by-step playbook, a downloadable template, a checklist you can run this week and a short list of common mistakes to avoid before you start.
The full action plan, broken into weekly steps.
Ready-to-use scripts, templates and checklists.
Worked examples for different sized businesses.
Common mistakes and how to avoid them.
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