Enrich your writing by characterising your customers
Many businesses use something called customer personas (sometimes known as buyer personas). They’re fictional profiles designed to represent your ideal customers - often built around age brackets, job titles, income ranges, and a few lifestyle details.
They can be useful for things like planning campaigns, segmenting audiences, or briefing freelancers on your brand. But when those profiles stay surface-level, the result isn’t just flat content. It’s wasted effort, missed opportunities, and marketing that doesn’t seed returns.
This is where characterisation comes in. As a creative content writer, I think about audiences less like data points and more like characters in a story.
Your audience is made up of real people with real backgrounds, quirks, frustrations, and goals. By thinking about your customers as characters, you give yourself the chance to write with empathy - not just broadcasting what you offer, but speaking directly to what they feel and need.
When you start thinking this way, your writing stops sounding generic and starts sounding human. It’s the difference between describing a persona and understanding a person.
Why most buyer personas fall flat
Traditional buyer personas tend to look impressive in a presentation deck - neat bullet points, demographic stats, even a stock photo to bring them to life. But when you sit down to write? They rarely give you much to work with.
That’s because humans aren’t bullet points. They’re not defined purely by their job title, their income band, or the fact they “enjoy yoga and fine dining”.
When you only scratch the surface, your content risks sounding surface-level too.
Characterising your customers means going deeper. Asking the kind of questions a writer would ask about a character in a story:
What motivates them?
What frustrates them?
What do they secretly hope will change?
What pressures are they under?
How do they see the world?
Answering these questions takes your writing beyond ‘target audience’ and towards real empathy.
Suddenly, you’re not just producing content for a persona. You’re writing for a person.
And when your writing reflects real people, the business impact shows up in higher engagement, stronger trust, and content that works hard for you (even while you’re off the clock).
Where creativity gives you the edge
Most businesses build audience personas with data. And that’s important - you do need to know the facts. But if you stop there, you’re only working with outlines.
Creative writing adds the colour. Writers don’t just create characters who fit a profile; they create ones who feel real. They think about backstory, quirks, contradictions, and desires. They ask: What’s driving this person forward? And, what’s holding them back?
Apply that lens to your customers and suddenly you’re not just noting that they’re “a small business owner in their thirties”. You’re seeing the late nights, the client pressures, the juggling act between ambition and exhaustion.
You’re seeing the stakes.
And when you can see the stakes, your content gains an edge. It stops reading like generic marketing copy and starts reading like something written with understanding - and that makes it far harder for your audience to scroll past.
That sharper edge is what makes your business stand out in crowded markets, and it’s why creative-led content has more pulling power than data alone.
Writing with empathy through character arcs
When a novelist builds a character, they don’t just map out who that person is - they think about who they’re becoming.
Characters have arcs. They start somewhere, face challenges, and (hopefully) move towards resolution or growth. Even the unlikable ones go through some kind of transformation.
Your customers are no different. They’re on their own journeys - navigating frustrations, searching for solutions, and chasing outcomes.
If you only write to who they are, you risk missing who they’re trying to become.
Characterising your customers means recognising their arc:
The starting point: Where they’re struggling now.
The conflict: The obstacles, doubts, or barriers in the way.
The transformation: The outcome they’re working towards and how you can help them get there.
By framing your content around this arc, you’re not just empathising with their current struggles. You’re aligning with their ambitions and showing them what’s possible (with your help).
That’s where empathy really comes alive in writing - when you can say, “I see where you are, I understand what you’re facing, and here’s how we can move forward together.”
For a business, that alignment is what turns content into a growth tool - guiding customers towards the very outcomes you exist to deliver.
How to create content that connects
Connection doesn’t happen when you shout the loudest. It happens when someone reads your words and thinks: “Oh.. that’s me”.
When you characterise your customers, you stop writing at them and start writing to them.
You use their language, reflect their challenges, and share stories that feel like they’ve been pulled straight from their world.
That’s why storytelling in marketing works so well. It’s not about spinning a tale for the sake of it. It’s about showing your audience that you understand theirs. And when people feel seen like this, they’re far more likely to listen, trust, and eventually buy.
The best content feels less like a sales pitch and more like a conversation. Character studies help you find that balance - turning what could be cold marketing copy into something warm, human, and engaging.
That’s when content stops being a box-ticking exercise and starts driving measurable returns for the business.
Stronger storytelling starts with your audience
Great stories don’t happen without great characters. The same is true in business. If your audience feels one-dimensional in your content, your storytelling won’t land.
But when you build your customers as characters, the narrative of your business becomes more compelling. Suddenly, your blog posts, emails, and web copy aren’t just about what you do - they’re about what your audience can achieve.
That shift in perspective is the sprinkles on top of the cake. It moves your content away from broadcasting features and towards building relationships. It turns marketing into a story where your customer is the protagonist, and you’re the guide helping them along the way.
Businesses that master this shift don’t just tell better stories - they win more customers and keep them for longer.
Character studies aren’t just for novels they’re for your customers too
The tools creative writers use to bring characters to life are the same tools you can use to enrich your content. It’s about empathy, depth, and seeing your customers as more than just data points.
Characterising your customers doesn’t mean inventing stories. It means understanding theirs and showing them you’ve been listening all along.
Businesses that understand their customers at a character level don’t just write better copy - they shape their future.
They become resilient in changing markets because they know what their people value. They gain predictability because trust and loyalty make revenue steadier. They move from being one of many to being the brand people carry with them, talk about, and return to without question.
When you see your customers as characters, you’re not just filling a content calendar. You’re safeguarding relevance, earning cultural trust, and building a business that lasts.
If that’s the kind of foundation you want in your marketing, let’s have a chat over a brew.
