How to create customer personas

In this post, I’m walking through the second step in my digital marketing strategy framework, persona generation.

If you missed the first step on situational analysis, you can read the post here. You’ll also find a free resource download here.

Why does persona generation matter?

Persona generation matters because the goal is simple, understand who the ideal customer is. Who they are, how they work, what shapes their decisions, and which problems push them toward a product like yours.

Just like situational analysis, this step works best with a mix of AI-driven methods and human input. Start with the human side. Speak directly with top customers. Go beyond asking why they work with you. Ask when the need first became clear. What happened in the moment they realised their existing solution failed them?

For example, if your product supports presentations, ask whether a slide broke mid-meeting, or a question came up with no clear answer, using their old tool. Those moments often trigger buying decisions. Stories like these highlight pain points and selling angles that don’t always show up in internal planning.

Look at frontline intelligence

Sales teams and customer support hear real feedback every day. Patterns show up quickly when you listen closely. What customers ask for, where they get stuck, and how they describe their work all help shape a realistic picture of who the product fits best.

Operational data also adds value. Tools like Hotjar reveal where users pause, hesitate, or drop off on your site. Time spent on certain pages or repeated friction points often signals unmet needs. Those signals deserve a place in your persona research.

Then widen the lens. Reddit threads, forums, social media comments, Trustpilot reviews, and Glassdoor feedback all of these spaces hold unfiltered opinions. Pulling insights from them builds a grounded, detailed view of what people expect and what frustrates them.

Setting up Google Alerts for product names or your company name brings in ongoing insight with very little effort. Paid tools like Mention add another layer by tracking brand signals and conversations across the web.

Incorporate AI

From the AI side, tools focused on persona generation offer speed and structure. Platforms like Delve provide workflows where website data and social signals feed directly into persona models. Those tools save time and help surface patterns faster.

Another route involves building a custom persona tool. Google AI Studio works well for this. You can create anonymised customer datasets, store key attributes in a CSV, and feed that into your own system. The result feels more tailored because the inputs match your business.

Paid tools help, but building something bespoke often delivers deeper insight over time.

One last point. Customer Persona work never stays finished. Markets shift. Feedback changes. Website traffic rises and dips. New complaints appear. All of those signals belong back inside your persona research. Treat personas as living references, not static documents.

When personas evolve, messaging improves. Product decisions sharpen. The fit between customer needs and solutions grows stronger.

I hope this Digital Spark helped.

I’ll be back soon with step three in the digital strategy framework.