How Personas Make Writing Powerfully Personal

How Personas Make Writing Powerfully Personal

With so much emphasis on clicks, KPIs (key performance indicators) and SEO, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that marketing and writing are both essentially human endeavors. Each message in a creative brief or written by a small business owner or startup employee will be read by real people. Using personas is a compelling way to stay close to that universal truth. The simple act of holding a real person in your mind as you craft a key message or type up a blog article will influence and even change what you write.

You can build personas on two separate sides of the fence: your brand or company should have its own persona, and your audience can be represented by multiple personas to illuminate the nuances of your distinct target groups.

The Pink Pineapple Post Persona

When I was dreaming Pink Pineapple Post into life, the brand persona came to me as part of the development. After years of working in corporate settings, I was craving a space to truly be myself. Working inside of established brands taught me to suppress some natural inclinations that are part of my writerly voice, so I knew for sure I wanted to give myself permission to interject plenty of humor, a dash of irreverence and even a sprinkling of sexy.

My persona is a souped-up version of my authentic self. I think of it as helpful and approachable, generous in sharing hard-won knowledge, smart without pretention or judgment. It’s also vivacious, sometimes flirty, funny and never too serious, well-written without being overly polished. Having my brand persona clearly defined helps guide my content creation from top to bottom. At a high level, it shapes the “angle” or entry point of an article — the hook. Additionally, it provides a lens through which I can choose any specific examples I might incorporate, with a preference for content that’s witty or maybe even a little boundary-pushing. It also drives small details, like word choice and sentence cadence. When I edit my work, I benchmark it against my brand persona. Is it too straight and rigid? Can I amp up the playfulness?

One of the most impactful tips I read when starting Pink Pineapple Post was to write to a single, real person — as in literally writing for that person and only that person to read. How much more personal does that feel to you? The idea here is that when content is deeply personal, it also has a deep, universal appeal. Reader, I will not tell you who my real person is, but know that I have taken this tip to heart. Truly, I have a few people queued up and pull them out to sit in my brain depending on the topic.

My Cool Aunt Kroger

Perhaps one of my all-time favorite brand personas is the one we used when I first started writing for Kroger back in 2009. My boss at the time described her as “your cool aunt, the one you call when you need help with something in the kitchen.” I knew instantly who he meant, because you see, I have just such a cool aunt: My aunt Terri. Her lasagna recipe is literally the only one I’ve ever used, written on a sauce-stained index card. She’s my phone-a-friend for crab cakes, yeast rolls and so much more. This evocative persona provided an instant framework that helped filter topics we would cover, striking the right balance between inspiring and educating. Obviously this persona would use simple language, always be helpful and ever at the ready to dispose food prep and entertaining tips.

Kroger also took considerable time and money to develop very robust, multi-dimensional customer personas. One of the smartest things about these personas was that they were hard-wired into the data. It was a you-are-what-you-eat sort of scaffold, where regular purchases made up the skeleton and additional demographic data put meat on the bones. Each persona had a well-defined approach to their diet – when food-as-medicine is the goal and expense is no object, you know who that person is. Layered on top of that were additional insights spelling out if the persona was parental, if they put a premium on convenience or liked to host friends and family for food and fun.

Understanding these distinct audiences created a solid foundation for creating content that would feel relevant and fresh, feeding the need for kitchen confidence.

7 Super Famous Brand Personas in Haiku Form

Can you guess the brand? A behemoth brand’s persona is hiding in each haiku.

A fruitful future,

visionary pioneer,

ahead of the curve.

Swoosh for speed and skill,

motivated athletes

gear up for greatness.

Timeless optimist,

bringing smiles and joy,

fizzing, thirst-quenching.

Stay at home, away,

be a local insider.

Discover your place.

Profits come second,

With planet-friendly fashion

From the eco-warrior.

Crowned the king of search,

knowledgeable guide

to click, seek and find.

Wear the skin you’re in,

advocate for real beauty.

Every shape, age, shade.

Shakespeare loved wordplay, often using puns and sexual innuendo.