A buyer persona is like a character profile of the customer: who they are, what they want, and what their life is like. It expands on the generic “what they want to buy” info and puts a name and a face to it (buyer personas tend to have clever, alliterative names like “Personal Trainer Pete” or “Freelancer Fiona”). It also helps you to understand their underlying motivations for engaging with your brand, and hopefully for buying your product.