The decorative kind lives in a slide deck: a stock photo, a fictional name, a list of demographics nobody consults again. The working kind answers writing questions: what situation sends this person searching, what has already disappointed them, what objection sits behind their politeness, what outcome would make them tell a friend. If a persona cannot settle an argument about a headline, it is decoration.
Not brainstorms. They come from the language in your inquiries, the questions repeated on calls, the reviews customers write for you and your competitors, and the last ten deals you lost. Our own site is built on three: the service business owner drowning in their operation, the local brand fighting for its market, and the founder with a product to launch. Every solutions page speaks to exactly one of them.
Two or three personas cover most businesses; twelve is procrastination. Write each money page for one persona's exact situation, and let the honest overlap handle everyone else. The test is recognition: when the right person lands, the page should read like you have met them.
Two or three, tied to genuinely different buying situations. Split personas only when the message would materially change, not when the demographics do.
Ten real conversations and your inbox beat any survey. Collect the words customers actually use; those words become your headlines.
They drift as your offer and market do. Reread them quarterly against recent inquiries; when new objections keep appearing, the sketch needs updating.
Everything in this glossary, we build and operate for real businesses. Thirty minutes maps it to yours.