Tips for writing good personas

The difference between a persona that works and one that doesn’t is specificity. Generic descriptions produce generic writing. This page catalogues patterns we’ve seen produce publishable posts.

Rule one: be ruthlessly specific

Vague personas produce vague writing. Concrete personas produce concrete writing. Always.

Compare:

Weak: “Helpful food blogger. Writes casually. Audience is home cooks.”

Strong: “Emma, a home cook in her late thirties who runs a food blog from her kitchen in London. She writes for other working parents who want to cook real meals on weeknights without fuss. Her voice is warm, confident, and occasionally self-deprecating. She’ll admit when a recipe doesn’t work first try. She uses ‘you’ a lot and avoids the passive voice. She’ll cite specific grocery stores (Waitrose, Tesco, Aldi) for ingredients. She never says ‘artisanal’ or ‘craft.’”

The strong version is 100 words; the weak version is 14. The strong version will produce posts that read like they came from an actual blog. The weak version will produce posts that read like an AI was told to sound friendly.

Rule two: name specific things

Concrete details anchor AI writing. Examples:

Name actual places, brands, or products they’d mention casually.
Mention specific opinions they’d hold. “Prefers King Arthur flour over Gold Medal.” “Doesn’t trust sauce recipes that don’t start with fat.”
State explicit no-fly-zone phrases. “Never says ‘leverage’ or ‘synergy.’”
Give one or two catchphrases or rhetorical habits. “Often starts posts with a one-line question. Often closes with a concrete tip.”

Each concrete detail is a nudge that pushes the writing away from generic.

Rule three: define the audience as precisely as you define the voice

Don’t just say “for home cooks.” Say:

Their life context. Busy weeknights? Leisurely Sundays? Dorm-room cooking?
Their skill level. Complete beginners? Confident but ambitious? Semi-pros?
Their constraints. Budget? Time? Equipment?
Their goals. Eat healthier? Impress guests? Save money? Learn a cuisine?

The writing calibrates to who’s supposed to read it. A vague audience produces writing that serves nobody.

Rule four: say what to avoid

Every persona benefits from an explicit don’t list. Common useful bans:

Specific jargon or buzzwords you hate.
Filler phrases. “In today’s fast-paced world.” “It’s no secret that.” “When it comes to.”
Generic AI tells. Excessive exclamations. “Let’s dive in!” “Without further ado.” Three-bullet summaries nobody asked for.
Structural tics. “In this post, we will discuss…” “In conclusion,…”

Include at least five. AI writing without explicit bans drifts toward average.

Rule five: the persona is not your brand manifesto

A common mistake: cramming brand positioning, business goals, and marketing objectives into the persona. Don’t. Those belong in the campaign objective.

The persona answers how the writing sounds. Brand and positioning answer what the business is. Mixing them produces posts that read like ads.

Patterns that tend to work

The expert who writes for peers. “Senior X with deep experience, writing for mid-career Y who want to level up.” Confident tone, technical where it should be, no hand-holding. Good for B2B and professional niches.

The friendly guide. “Knowledgeable enthusiast writing for beginners who’re curious but intimidated.” Warm, patient, demystifying. Good for hobby and lifestyle niches.

The contrarian voice. “Practitioner with strong opinions, writing for people who are tired of the usual advice.” Direct, challenges received wisdom, cites specific counter-examples. Good for thought-leadership blogs.

The field-tested reviewer. “Regular user who’s actually tried things, writing for people considering buying.” Specific, honest about trade-offs, never rated-everything-five-stars. Good for product-review sites.

Patterns to avoid

The brand persona. “Witty, bold, modern voice that empowers creators.” This is marketing-speak, not a person. Produces marketing-speak writing.

The blank canvas. “Friendly, helpful writer.” Undefined. Produces undefined writing.

The contradiction. “Formal academic tone but also casual and fun.” AI cannot split the difference and will pick one at random each post.

The ex-colleague. “Just like my boss Dave at my last job, enthusiastic and dad-joke-heavy.” Unless Dave is your co-author on this site, using real people’s quirks by name reads strangely.

Editing vs rewriting

If a persona isn’t working, try editing first. Add 5–10 specific do’s-and-don’ts. Run Generate Post again. Compare.

Rewriting the whole persona from scratch is sometimes faster than a heavy edit, especially if the original was a template that was too generic. Start over, apply the rules on this page.