How do you research web copy users and develop personas?

To research web copy users and develop personas, start by gathering data from analytics tools, customer surveys, and social media insights. Understand their demographics, behaviors, interests, and pain points. Conduct interviews or focus groups for deeper insights. Utilize keyword research to identify what topics they search for online. Analyze competitors to understand market positioning and gaps. Once you've gathered sufficient data, create detailed personas. Outline their backgrounds, goals, challenges, and preferred communication channels. Craft narratives or stories for each persona to bring them to life. Use these personas to guide your web copy, ensuring it resonates and engages your target audience effectively.

This "web copy users" name doesn't exist. Users don't use "web copy", they use the product represented with copywriting. Should be called "web audience", and the copywriting on the website is only a part of branding/marketing, to attract audiences and make them want to buy from your brand.

I agree with Rafi above and the left side. But I'll say the powerful method would always be interviews and surveys. Try to talk to your customers, because they're human, after all. You can also try to convince/attract new kinds of customers, not just the current ones, based on your company's mission and goals.

The fastest way to write copy is to understand the different types of users your product serves and ask the right questions to build the narrative. That's why home pages are the hardest to write. You need to balance the copy to appeal to different users without making it sound irrelevant for the other types of users. The tricky part is to not only appeal to the end user, but also the decision makers, the managers and the people who have a say in delivering the product to the eventual end user.

You have to make your persona a REAL, relatable person. And I'd suggest making it ONE instead of 5... Try to solve one customer's multiple problems instead of 5 people with 5 perspectives with problems. Doing one persona doesn't mean alienating other customers, it's just makes your products/services become more appealing to relatable people. It's NOT true regarding the "too specific" or "too generic", nothing's too specific or generic as long as it's a real person with real problems.

I keep it simple with 4 photos of target customers, and their problem or question underneath. For example for a wine bar, it could be a young woman with "What non-alcoholic drinks do you have?" Apart from featuring a menu, this question prompts other ideas. Are they driving? If so, where's the nearest car park? Or drop-off point for passengers?

Controversial view, but I wouldn't recommend the use of personas. A persona only provides you with limited information about who a person *is*, but not what they're trying to *do*. Instead, interview your customers and find out what they are struggling with (watch out for phrases like "I hate it when...", "I'm worried about...", "I'm tired of...") and what their ultimate goal is ("I want to...", "I'm trying to...", "It's important that I..."). Find out what's pushing or pulling them towards your product as well as what anxieties they have and what might be holding them back. Using this information will help you craft copy that is specific to your target customer's needs (their 'jobs to be done'), rather than copy that's based on a 'type'.

Web copy (or website copy) is the "front door" to welcome customers into your brand. Only the people who resonate with your messaging will stay and buy from you.

No one is consuming or using "web copy", they are REAL humans searching for help of some sort, and come across your website to look for solutions. Do your best to communicate why you're here and what problems you're solving. And last, personas or not, always use real human as references.