If you’ve ever read a squeeze page or watched an ad and thought, “God, this feels like it was written by a robot,” you’re not wrong. Most of what passes for marketing today skips the part where we actually understand who we’re talking to and who we’re speaking as.
That’s where brand archetypes and buyer personas come in—not as buzzwords, but as essential tools for brands that want to connect, convert, and actually matter.
Part 1: The Brand Archetype (Who You Are When You Speak)
Your brand archetype is your role in the story. It’s not your mission statement. It’s your narrative identity.
Are you the Hero, challenging the status quo and pulling your clients into the next chapter of their life?
The Sage, offering calm wisdom and clarity?
The Rebel, burning down broken systems so something better can rise?
When you define your brand archetype, you’re setting the tone for everything that follows:
- The words you choose
- The metaphors you use
- The kinds of stories you tell
- The way your audience feels when they read or hear you
A clear brand archetype gives your team a compass. Your designer. Your strategist. Your copywriter. Even your clients.
It’s not just helpful—it’s necessary.
Part 2: Buyer Personas (Pre-Buyer)
This is where most people get lazy.
They say “women, 25–40, urban, into wellness.”
Cool. That tells me nothing.
The pre-buyer persona is the emotional profile of the person before they buy.
This is where the squeeze page lives. The first ad. The voice note. The Reel.
This is the moment where your brand needs to feel like a mirror.
So we dig.
We ask:
- What do they believe right now?
- What are they sick of hearing?
- What do they secretly hope is true?
- What language do they respond to (and what makes them roll their eyes)?
We build out a backstory. Not a demographic. A character.
We name them. We give them a job. A Tuesday night routine. An inbox full of crap they don’t read.
Because once you understand how they think, you can write for them.
And when they read your content, they’ll say:
“Holy sh*t. That’s me.”
That’s when they lean in.
Part 3: Buyer Personas (Post-Conversion)
The mistake brands make? They stop writing for the person once they buy and just use them as a case study and social proof. It typically reverts back to ME ME ME, I AM BRAND- and the business only shows themself as the character.
Wanna know what helps?
Pro tip: Have you ever shared 6 competitors to say I want to get here, instead try saying, these people- these are my buyers? These are my pre- buyers. Your competitors got there because they connected with more people than you. So now figure out who you want to connect with instead of copy paste and hope you outdo them.
But the moment someone becomes a client, their identity shifts.
Their fears shift.
Their language changes.
The brand needs to meet that.
So we build the after persona too.
What do they need now?
What reassurance do they crave?
What transformation have they stepped into, and what support keeps them there?
The same voice doesn’t always speak to the before and after. So we write both.
Because loyalty comes from being seen continuously.
Not just when we want the sale.
Our Process: Mapping the Characters
We start with deep character work—not just for the buyer, but for the brand.
- We build backstories
- We define psychological triggers
- We write internal monologues
- We label tone responses (what they want to hear, what shuts them down)
Then, we test everything we create through these lenses.
Would our pre-buyer resonate with this line?
Would our post-buyer believe this CTA?
Would our brand archetype say it this way?
The goal is emotional congruence. Strategic resonance.
And conversion that doesn’t feel like manipulation—just recognition.
Because when you know who you are, and you know who you’re talking to?
The message lands. Every time.
At OMNIA: This is a Living Library
At OMNIA, we don’t stop at one persona. We build a living library of pre- and post-buyer identities.
We typically create 4–6 core personas to start, each with:
- A name
- A backstory
- Emotional and psychological drivers
- How they enter the brand story (pre-buy)
- How they evolve within it (post-buy)
And every time a new personality shows up in the data or in the room—we add to it.
Because every message, every page, every piece of content should be written to someone. Not everyone.
Most brands get lazy. They only show the after. The glossy client. The case study. The smiling success story.
Because the pre-buyer is who we’re trying to reach. That’s the tension that converts. That’s the human moment that matters.
So we map all of it. Because if you’re not speaking to the right persona at the right moment?
You’re not building a brand. You’re just throwing content at the wall and hoping someone feels seen.
Comments +