Every entrepreneur knows how important is to define and validate a customer persona. However, when it’s time to put it in practice, many startups fail. Validating a customer persona requires time and effort, but it’s the best way to get to know who your ideal consumer is and how to target them.

Validating the customer persona is a key step to any business. So, how can you create it in an effective way? How can startups validate their customer personas without spending a fortune? What are the biggest mistakes made in this process? 

To answer all of these questions, we spoke with Kameel Vohra, Large Display Global Product Marketing Manager at Dell. Vohra is a marketing professional focused on growth, who leverages data analytics to drive marketing strategies. 

Ready to learn more about customer persona validation? Check out this article and don’t miss the interview with Kameel Vohra.

The Definition of a Customer Persona

Before stepping into the validation process, it’s important to understand the concept of a customer persona. Therefore, we asked the specialist to describe it in a nutshell.

According to Kameel Vohra, “a customer persona is a document that describes a particular customer or customer segment. It’s a very concise definition, as concise as possible, but it will allow you to effectively target a customer, market, or audience.”

The Validation Proccess

After you define your customer persona, it’s time to validate it. The first step to validate your customer persona is to go out on the streets and interview real consumers. In order to have a good amount of data, you need to talk to at least eight customers personally.

The next step is to interview your audience and customers online. There are a few tools such as SurveyMonkey and Typeform that can help you with this task. According to Vohra, this is the time to reach between 200 and 300 people. Online surveys are an inexpensive way to reach a large set of customers and get a great collection of data.

An Ongoing Process

One of the biggest mistakes that many entrepreneurs make is not frequently updating their customer persona. The validation process is an ongoing one that every company needs to do. In Kameel Vohra’s opinion, small businesses should try to do it every couple of months or quarterly. 

Customer Validation Presentation EIA Hong Kong
Kameel Vohra at EIA Hong Kong 2019

Keep in mind that this is an investment that will bring better results for your business; don’t see it as a waste of resources. Analyze the differences and understand the variations to scale in a sustainable way.

Three Mistakes to Avoid

When creating your customer validation process, there are some common mistakes that you must avoid:

  • Don’t think your customer is everybody. You need to be very specific in order to reach your goals.
  • You can’t clump different customer personas. Each persona needs its own marketing/sales mechanisms.
  • Just because you’re already selling doesn’t mean you don’t need to validate your persona. The process will help you to better understand your target and increase numbers.

If you’re in the process of creating a startup, make sure to dedicate time to customer persona validation. Your business will thank you!

Don’t forget to watch the video and check the EIA blog to learn more!