Who the brand would be if it were a person. The key that makes content sound like them.
"People keep saying brand persona. I smile and nod, but I am not sure what it really means."
Time to actually know it
The short answer: a brand persona is who the brand would be if it were a person. Their personality, their values, their way of speaking. Once you know the persona, you can write content that sounds like the brand instead of like you, which is exactly what a client wants.
Think of two coffee shops. One is a calm, careful, premium brand that speaks gently and rarely jokes. The other is loud, playful, and full of slang. Same product, completely different persona. If you write the playful one's posts in the calm one's voice, the content fails, even if the words are good. The persona is what tells you which voice is right.
Answer three questions about the brand: If it were a person, what is their personality? How do they talk? What do they care about most? Pull the answers from the brand's real words. That short description is a usable persona, and it makes everything you write fit better.
Hold steady, BFF Team. We keep going together.
– Lala