45 Questions to Create Useful Buyer Personas

Actionable marketing personas dig beyond what happens in the moment a buyer is deciding whether or not to buy. These personas dig into who these people are and what's important to them. Here are 45 questions you can ask yourself and your team when creating your buyer personas. No, you don't need all of them. Because personas that dig too deep aren't useful. Figure out what's relevant to your brand and how your brand will interact with your people. And leave the rest in the dust.

What Do We Want Out of These Personas?

1. What do we need to know about these people?

2. What’s relevant to how they’ll interact with us?

3. Who do we want them to become?

Who Are They? What's Their Life Like?

4. What gender do they identify as?

5. How old are they?

6. Where do they live?

7. What’s their family or relationship situation?

8. Do they have kids? Want kids?

9. What do they hate about their day?

10. What do they love about their day?

11. Where/how do they shop?

12. Who are their friends?

13. What level of education have they completed?

14. What do they like to talk about with their friends, family, or coworkers?

What's Their Work Like?

15. What do they do for a living?

16. How much do they earn?

17. What kinds of companies do they work for?

18. What industries do they work in?

19. How do they get to work?

20. What’s their work environment and culture?

21. How long have they been in their current role or with their current employer?

22. How many people do they manage?

23. Who do they report to?

24. How many people on their team?

25. How many people in their company?

26. How do they compare themselves to co-workers?

27. Do they think there’s more to learn about their profession?

28. Do they spend time with their co-workers outside of work?

29. What do they hate about work/their job/their company?

30. What do they love about work/their job/their company?

What Drives Them?

31. What do they want to achieve?

32. Why do they do the work they do?

33. What are their political or religious leanings?

34. What do they worry about most? What problems do they most want to solve? (at work? At home? In their relationships? In the rest of their lives?)

35. Who do they want to impress?

36. Who do they want to become?

How Do They Connect to the World?

37. When do they like to read about this kind of stuff? How frequently?

38. Where do they read about this kind of stuff now? Which influencers do they trust?

39. What social media channels do they use?

40. What kind of entertainment do they enjoy (favorite music/sports/movies/tv/books/podcasts/etc.)?

41. What do they like to eat?

42. Do they travel? Where? When? With whom?

43. What news sources do they trust?

44. What do they share online? Where? Why? With whom?

45. How do they learn about new stuff? New tools? New articles?