Do Buyer Personas Really Matter?

Lisa Zwikl Director of Accounts SmartAcre, Inc.

Twitter: @getsmartacre linkedin.com/in/ltorphy

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lzwiklgetsmartacre.com

Reach them with personalized, relevant and helpful content

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buyer personas are: Semi-fictional representations of your ideal customer based on real data and research around customer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals.

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buyer personas are not: rocket science.

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a tool like HubSpot helps!

Do personas matter?

Reason 1: Leads nurtured with targeted content produce an increase in sales opportunities of more than 20%.

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Source: DemandGen

Reason 2: 56% of U.S. email users unsubscribe from a business or nonprofit email subscription because of content that is no longer relevant.

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Source: ChadwickMartinBailer

If you do not know your audience, your

content and marketing strategy

will fail.

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buyer personas should influence:• Content strategy • Marketing tactics • Key messaging • Campaigns • Event promotion • Content promotion & outreach • Personalization • List segmentation • Form fields • Reporting & analysis

How do I develop buyer personas?

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steps to create a buyer persona

1. Identify questions to ask to develop your persona, tailored to your

organization and industry.

2. Determine how you’ll research your personas (interviews, surveys,

data).

3. Compile research and answers to your questions through keyword

searches, comments on related content, LinkedIn, social media, etc.

4. Build a complete persona to use across content and campaigns,

focusing on benefits and motives. Simply put: WHY.

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persona profile checklistPersona Detail Questions to Ask

Role

What is your job role? Your title? What is a typical day like? What skills are required? What knowledge and tools do you use? Who do you report to? Who reports to you?

Company / Organization What industry or industries does your company work/is your role in? What is the size of your company/organization?

Goals What are you responsible for? What does it mean to be successful in your role?

ChallengesWhat are your biggest challenges? What does my product help you solve? What are the common objections to our product / service?

Where do they go for infoHow do you learn about new information for your job? What publications or blogs do you read? What associations and social networks do you below to?

Story How do you prefer to act with vendors? What key moments matter? (I want to know, buy, do, go)

buyer personas are: A continual process. More data = stronger persona development.

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mistakes to avoid

• Making stuff up • Focusing on trivial details • Focusing only on demographics • Developing too many • Interviewing the wrong people • Setting it and forgetting it • Not using personas to influence your marketing strategy

Now what?

use personas to: Generate awareness, build trust, create relationships.

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Use. Improve. Test. Measure.

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use

PERSONAProblem, Common

Misconceptions, Challenges, Goals

AWARENESS CONSIDERATION DECISION

Have realized and expressed symptoms of a potential problem or opportunity (Researching Phase) – Educate them around the problems and symptoms they have

Dig deeper into the problem or symptoms – Is there any additional info that you can provide on this topic/solution, without talking about your business yet?

Have clearly defined and given a name to their problem or opportunity -Increase their engagement with you and awareness of how you fit intothe solution

Have defined their solution strategy, method or approach - Help them with their buying decision

CEO at a company with less than 50 employees, tech industry

Improve performance of the management team

Executive Reference to Improving Management Performance: Understand, Motivate and Deliver

Self-assessment of the management team to identify areas for improvement

Case study of a similar company with less than 50 employees, highlighting the improved performance

Request a Consultation OR Demo (of the analytics & performance app platform)

Build out and track KPIs - Is already familiar with using CRM and spreadsheets to track performance (not reliable, definite gaps in picture)

Key KPIs Every CEO Should be Tracking (and what you might be missing!)

From Spreadsheets to Analytics Platforms, How to Get the KPIs You Need for a Successful Team

Case study of a similar company with less than 50 employees, highlighting the KPI changesand how they were trackedusing app

Request a Consultation OR Demo (of the analytics & performance app platform)

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improve

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testTest titles or messaging before launching

a major campaign to determine what

resonates best with target personas.

Results: • Generated 72 conversions pre-launch • 9 new leads pre-launch • “Reserve your copy” email had a 24.21%

open rate and 32 downloads • Case study: tiny.cc/ebook-LVHUG

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measureAll of those things I said personas can

influence? You can measure that!

How: • Use persona views to see number of

contacts, leads, MQLs, customers • Use top performing content reports to

determine what offers really convert • Check google analytics for referral

sources and engagement metrics

Customers = People. Content should be useful.

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Blogs How-to videos Social content

Case studies Content offers

Live demo Free trial

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simple, but…

Always ask yourself these three easy questions:

1. WHO is this for?

2. WHAT is in it for them (does it answer a question, solve a problem,

meet a goal, address a challenge, encourage action)?

3. WHY does it matter?

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resources

HubSpot • Persona development worksheet: tiny.cc/persona-LVHUG • Introduction to buyer personas: tiny.cc/persona-video-LVHUG

Other • Google docs (easy way to create and update personas during

meetings) • HubSpot scorecard: tiny.cc/HUG-scorecard

THANK YOU! | lzwikl@getsmartacre.com

lehighvalley.hubspotusergroups.com

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