What is a client persona? Is it a fad, or something practical and useful in marketing your firm? In simple terms, it’s an exercise to understand your prospects and how you can improve your fee income. 

A client persona is a simple model, or sketch, representing part of your target market. It may just be a few words, but when done well, it can help you and your team understand your prospects’ interests, livelihoods, pain points, needs, thinking, and the ways you can help them.

Why a client persona is a great tool

Putting a name and background to the people you are talking to, whether in person, in writing, or through your marketing, helps improve the effectiveness of that conversation. 

What’s more, it makes it much easier for your team to align and understand where you are taking your firm. Having a client persona can often transform your marketing from vaguely focusing on your target market to being laser-focused on exactly the type of client you want to attract.

Why bother?

There are three great reasons for understanding your clients. What’s more, you shouldn’t do all of the work in developing that understanding. Building the client personas can be a team-building exercise in its own right.

1. Client personas help you get into character and communicate more effectively with prospective clients. You, and your team, can increase your understanding of how your clients think, feel and behave.
2. The models can reveal opportunities for a different fee structure, or offering. You can become more relevant to your client’s needs, by understanding where your service meets client needs.
3. A client persona can help align your whole team with your thinking, marketing and client service needs. Anything that unlocks the power of your team is worth considering carefully.

What’s changed? I never bothered before!

The marketplace is becoming increasingly competitive, so understanding your prospects is more important than ever. All your marketing, whether it’s Facebook ads, great blogs, phone calls, or networking, is competing for a limited amount of your prospect’s time.

To capture their attention and energy, you must be specific. Prospects want to work with an accountant who genuinely understands their world. The more you demonstrate that you understand their world and are tailoring your services to how they want to work with an accountant, the greater the likelihood that your firm will win their business.

Online advertising, particularly on platforms like Facebook, now allows or even demands you to use advanced demographics to place your ads. Client personas help you create more targeted and relevant advertising that speaks directly to your ideal clients.

The importance of creating client personas

The goal is to create between one and five client personas for your firm to represent the majority of your target audience. These personas should be specific enough to be actionable and provide clear guidance for your marketing strategy. Unlike saying, “We market to the owners of SMEs,” which is too broad to be meaningful, client personas dig deeper into the people who make up your niche. By doing so, you can create more focused messaging that connects with the individuals you’re looking to attract.

Client personas aren’t just about finding a niche, they’re about understanding the unique characteristics and challenges of the individuals in that niche. By creating these personas, your firm will be better positioned to build stronger relationships, improve client satisfaction, and ultimately drive growth.

What goes into your client personas?

Creating client personas helps your firm win bigger and better clients by focusing your efforts on the type of clients you truly want. A client persona represents a significant section of your target audience. The personas you create should answer most of the following questions and may include other details that are particularly useful for your firm’s marketing:

• Name – what will you call this persona?
• Job title (how they name it, not you)
• Key information about their company (size, type, etc.)
• Location: urban/suburban/rural
• The bottom line of their company (assuming they run one)
• Salary/household income (possibly different/ relevant)
• Family (involvement in their company etc.)
• Demographics (age, gender, education etc.)
• Their goals and challenges (much more than ‘to build a business’)
• Their main and secondary problems
• How you help solve these issues
• Their values and fears (lead to great pain points)
• Hobbies or interests
• Literacy: How do they work and learn?
• Where they get business advice and news
• How do you help them?
• Typical objections during the sales process
• Marketing message: What is the most relevant ‘elevator’ pitch and surrounding phrases?
• Buying Motivation: What are their biggest reasons for buying your services and why you rather than your competition?
• Buying Concerns: What did they worry about when they initially signed you up, and how did you resolve those issues (others will likely feel the same, which can improve your onboarding process too)

Where to get this information

Gathering information for your client personas comes from a range of sources. You’ll need to be creative and combine different methods to generate meaningful insights, rather than just data. Some sources include:

• Informational interviews: Real interviews with clients and potential clients. What can your team add to these insights if they frequently interact with them?
• Social media: Listen to what your target audience discusses and the style they use in their profiles. Even if they don’t use social media, this is valuable information in itself.
• Your website: Analytics data like the most viewed pages, time spent on each page, and top search queries reveal what interests your audience.
• Facebook insights: If you have a Facebook page, it can offer valuable insights about your followers, including demographics and engagement levels.
• Surveys: Tools like SurveyMonkey or informal surveys when clients call can reveal additional information that you might otherwise miss.
• Client database: What do you already know about them from your own CRM? It’s worth diving into your existing data for patterns and insights.
• Your team’s knowledge: Your team’s experience with clients can be invaluable. Don’t overlook what they already know.

How to create your client persona in 3 steps

Creating client personas might seem like a daunting task, but breaking the process down into three simple steps makes it much more manageable. Use the following steps to guide your team through the process of building accurate and valuable client personas.

1. Consider broad characteristics of potential personas.

Start by defining the broad characteristics of the 3-5 client personas you might create. This helps outline the initial scope and where your team should focus their research and data collection. Be prepared to refine these characteristics as you gather more specific details. For example, a fictional firm called Smiths & Daughters, a small accounting practice in a county town, initially sees four main groups of clients:

• Farmers: Represent a significant segment of existing clients and might lead to a dedicated client persona.
• Manufacturing firm owners: This group could be segmented further if you identify that buyers vary between MDs, FDs, owners, and central purchasing groups. If these distinctions are important, each might warrant its persona.
• Local SMEs: While a broad category, breaking it into more specific sub-groups such as “ambitious start-ups” or “rapidly growing IT companies” helps refine your marketing efforts.

• Mature and growing businesses: Segmenting your client personas based on business lifecycle stages can help target those who are looking for stability and sustainable growth.

It’s crucial not to overwhelm yourself by targeting too many personas. Focus on those groups that have the greatest potential to become your ideal clients.

1. Break down the groups into specific buyer personas

Once you’ve identified the broad categories, delve deeper into who the actual buyer is for each group. For example, your “Ambitious IT Companies” might include different types of decision-makers:

• The founder: A hands-on business owner who is looking to grow and keep control of the firm.
• The venture capitalist-backed founder: Primarily focused on scaling the business rapidly and preparing it for a profitable exit.
• The finance director (FD): With day-to-day operations handed over to a management team, this persona makes key financial decisions.

1. Pool your understanding and create short sketches

Bring together all the information you’ve gathered from steps 1 and 2 and create concise sketches of each persona. For example, Smiths & Daughters ended up with four clear client personas, each representing a unique target group:

• Tenacious Tim: Tim has built his IT company from scratch and wants to grow it as a long-standing family business. He currently turns over £1.2M with a net profit of £X.
• Fact-Driven Fiona: Fiona, the FD, is in charge of the financial decisions for a rapidly growing IT business. She has a strong focus on data and is looking for an accountant who can provide robust financial advice and reporting. Fiona represents a common decision-maker within similar-sized firms in this segment.

How to use your client personas

Once your client personas are created, they become a powerful tool that can transform your marketing strategy and client engagement. Here’s how to effectively use your client personas:

1. Refine your marketing messages

With detailed client personas, your marketing messages become more focused and relevant. Instead of casting a wide net, you can craft messages that speak directly to the needs, goals, and pain points of each persona. 

For example, you’ll know whether to emphasise cost savings, compliance support, or growth strategies, depending on the persona you’re targeting.

1. Target advertising more precisely

The psychographic and demographic data you’ve gathered will enable you to run more targeted ad campaigns. Platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google Ads allow you to target specific characteristics, making your advertising efforts more cost-effective and likely to reach the right audience.

For instance, you might create separate ad sets for “Tim, the Tenacious IT Entrepreneur” and “Fiona, the Fact-Driven FD,” each with unique value propositions.

1. Improve client relationships and engagement

Understanding your personas on a deeper level helps you build stronger client relationships. With a clear picture of what each persona values, you can customise your service offerings, communication style, and even onboarding processes to fit their needs. 

For example, if you know that “Celia, the Compliance-Focused Owner” is worried about regulatory changes, you can proactively send her updates and resources to keep her informed.

1. Align your team around a unified vision

A well-defined client persona doesn’t just help in marketing, it aligns your entire team around a shared understanding of who you’re serving and what they care about. When everyone from your marketing team to your client-facing staff is on the same page, it creates a consistent and cohesive experience for your clients.

How to use your client personas

Once your client personas are clear, you’ll know who you’re targeting, how to approach them, and where to focus your efforts for the best ROI. Each persona’s information helps refine your messaging and ads.

For example, Bert, a price-sensitive business owner, would respond to messages about discounts or cost-efficiency. In contrast, Celia, who values support and long-term relationships, would prefer to hear about stress-free compliance services and ongoing advisory support.

Using personas like these ensures your content and ads are tailored, making your efforts more effective and creating stronger client connections.

Why client personas are essential for your firm

Client personas are a vital tool for understanding and targeting your ideal clients more effectively. By taking the time to create detailed personas, you can tailor your marketing, refine your messaging, and build stronger relationships with the clients that matter most to your firm. When used correctly, client personas will help your business stand out, attract the right clients, and drive long-term growth.