Buyer Personas and Segmentation: One Is Not Like the Other
Creating buyer personas and developing segments do not necessarily require the same processes. So what are the steps for identifying buyer personas?
Creating buyer personas and developing segments do not necessarily require the same processes. So what are the steps for identifying buyer personas?
Lately, when I’ve been speaking to marketers about their go-to-market strategies, nearly all of them have at least mentioned creating buyer personas as part of their plan, but frequently neglect using these roles when it comes to marketing execution. It’s clear that many marketing leaders understand the importance of buyer personas on the overall customer experience, but perhaps are not so clear on how to actually determine them and use them to create strategy, content, and campaigns.
Oftentimes, a marketing leader will begin a strategy session or campaign review by sharing the names they’ve given each persona, an avatar or headshot, the interests that define each persona, education level, and several other identifying characteristics. They will typically highlight three to four of these so-called personas and take great delight in giving them full personalities.
From there, the conversation progresses to discussing overall marketing campaigns, email marketing, and other approaches and strategies. While the named ideal customer profile, or buyer persona, is nice, it seldom goes further than the introductory conversations around how to target these prospects. Suddenly, the marketer defaults to using demographic information (e.g. geography, products owned/installed, title) and perhaps behavioral attributes (e.g. downloaded a white paper, watched a video) to segment their customers. This is segmentation at its best – not proper buyer personas! Usually, the interests, names, and other descriptors used to assemble the buyer personas mentioned earlier are relegated to PowerPoints that gather dust in our hard drives.
According to the Buyer Persona Institute, buyer personas are “built from the real words of real buyers…telling you what prospective customers are thinking and doing as they weigh their options to address a problem that your company solves.” It’s more than just a touch point on a customer’s journey – it’s providing content and messaging based on real insight from customers and prospects. And, according to a study by Aberdeen Research, marketers who use personas and map content to the buyer’s journey enjoy 73 percent higher conversions.
Buyer personas should represent an entirely new marketing approach for your company. Fair warning: Done correctly, there are no silver bullet shortcuts, and creating buyer personas will require the marketing team to do substantial research, calling on customers, prospects, and even former customers or individuals from lost deals to determine who actually comprises a buying audience and what drives them to make a purchase.
With these tips, you should be fired up about creating strategy and campaigns that really resonate with your future buyers. I highly recommend diving into Buyer Personas to get the techniques you need to be a world-class marketer.