The Buyer Persona: The Basics Managed Marketing Services Karen Levy Newnam

Agenda The Buyer Persona Relevance in Content Marketing Best Practices Getting Started Putting Your Personas to Work

What is a Buyer Persona? Forrester Research Interactive Marketing Forecasts, (US ) Characterization of your ideal customer based on: Demographic Information Biographic Information Digital Footprint Common Pain Points Common Goals Purchase Behavior

What Buyer Personas Are Not Real People General Job Titles Target Markets Hobbies All Inclusive

Why Should I Care About Buyer Personas?

The addition of new influencers and the demand for readily available content necessitate a more collaborative next generation B2B marketing strategy. Sources: Forrester and Nielson 5x more dependent on content than they were 5 years ago 70-90% of the buyer’s journey Is complete prior to engaging with a vendor pieces of content prospects engage with prior to making a purchase Awareness Interest Consideration Evaluation Purchase Satisfaction The B2B Buyer’s Journey Has Changed

Success Depends Upon Aligning Marketing to the New Journey Hello Solutions Provider

Why are Buyer Personas Important You have to know who you are targeting in order to successfully develop messaging and imagery that motivates the prospect’s behavior.

The New B2B Buyer’s Journey You have to determine the right content to attract, convert and close Awareness Interest Consideration Evaluation Purchase Satisfaction What Content in Each Stage Will: Attract a CTO Convert a CTO prospect to a CTO lead Close by turning the CTO lead into a CTO client

Why Care About Buyer Personas? Better-quality leads Improved lead generation capabilities Consistency of communication Better product development

Best Practices

Best Practices for Creating Buyer Personas Focus on motives behind behaviors Pay attention not only to what someone is doing but to why they are doing it

Best Practices for Creating Buyer Personas Keep personas fictional but still realistic No one has a one-size fits all customer, so you should not define your persona by describing one real person IT Mary Chief Technology Officer Mid Sized Commercial Company Karen Newnam SR Director Marketing Services Mid-Market Marketing and Marketing Company

Best Practices for Creating Buyer Personas Choose one primary persona to begin all other personas become secondary Remember the more personas you create, the more content you need. Do you have the resources? Personas (5) x Buying Stages (4) x Buyer Questions per Stage (5) = 100 pieces of content Personas (2) x Buying Stages (4) x Buyer Questions per Stage (5) = 40 pieces of content HubSpot: Introduction to Buyer Personas B2B Buyer Personas – Content Marketing Essentials

This Seems Complicated. How Do I Get Started?

The Process Conduct Internal Research Write Your Questions Conduct Surveys & Interviews Analyze Data Create Content

The Essentials For personas to become useful tools, they must be based on interviews gathered from salespeople, customer service interactions and the buyers (customers) themselves. Personas must help us identify how we can help buyers manage and expedite change. That’s really what buying is all about. Ardath AlbeeArdath Albee Why Marketers Are Keeping B2B Buyer Personas In the Closet

Consider the Buyer in General Terms Industry Role in the company Demographic information Purchase motivators Purchase deterrents Competitive alliances

Focus on What the Buyer is Trying to Achieve What’s important to them and driving the change? What’s impeding or speeding their need to change? How do they go about change? What do they need to know to embrace change? Ardath AlbeeArdath Albee Why Marketers Are Keeping B2B Buyer Personas In the Closet

Focus on What the Buyer is Trying to Achieve What’s important to them and driving the change? What’s impeding or speeding their need to change? How do they go about change? What do they need to know to embrace change? Ardath AlbeeArdath Albee Why Marketers Are Keeping B2B Buyer Personas In the Closet

I Have This Data… Now What?

Sample Template GOALS: Integrate business and technology Champion innovation Enable corporate vision Enable cross departmental collaboration CHALLENGES: Achieving goals with tight budget Rolling out changes with small staff Determining which solutions best match corporate needs IT Director Dan OBJECTIONS: We are not early adopters I want to know someone has already tested the solution I don’t want to talk about solutions that don’t provide a timely ROI ACTUAL QUOTES: I don’t want to have to train the entire company on how to use a complex, new system I can’t afford to lose time during implementation IT Director Dan BACKGROUND: Tenure 5-10 years Started as IT manager Reports to CTO or VP IT DEMOGRAPHICS: Skewed male Age years IDENTFIERS: No admin gatekeeper Will take calls if relevant Determines viability per subject line No time for lengthy marketing docs Will take time for demo if relevant Risk adverse Concerned first with ROI and cost savings

Linking Personas To Marketing Messages Now that you understand your buyer’s challenges, where they go for information and what helps them make decisions in the buying process, it is time to put that information to work. Hello Solution Provider

Linking Personas to Marketing Messages 1.Use your personas as a baseline to determine content needs 2.Use the data to customize content, so it speaks to your prospects’ needs 3.Segment your prospects based on persona, so you can align content to resonate with your prospect’s unique responsibilities and challenges

What’s Next

Learn More: There Is So Much Information Out There upcloseandpersona.com buyerpersona.com

Create Your Own Buyer Persona 1.Talk to your sales team 2.Identify customers 3.Conduct Interviews 4.Create one relevant persona 5.Share it with your MaaS team, so they can customize your content to that persona

Your Marketing as a Service Contacts AT&T Chelsea Albers Marketing Account Manager Dell Cortney Doucette Strategic Account Manager

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