DESIGNING A PERSONA THAT TELLS A STORY

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Chris LoDolce@chrislodolce#HubSpotting

ALEX CRUMBSenior Partner Professor, HubSpot Academy@Alex_Crumb

TODAY’S AGENDA

1. Why do you need to design a persona?

2. How is a buyer persona created?

3. What does a set persona do for your business?

4. Learning comprehension

5. Next steps and immediate action

1 WHY DO YOU NEED TO DESIGN A PERSONA?#KnowYourAudience

The Granddaddy of Them All!Inbound Personas

Know your persona,attract an audience.

You need to create a buyer persona to understand which type of work you

should hang in your website’s window.

FLICKR USER DON BURKETT

• Who they are

• What they spend ($$$)

• How much time they have

• What they worry about

• Their doubts

• Their hopes

NEED TO KNOW

Create the persona and write it down.A buyer persona is just make-believe until its definition is written down.

2 HOW IS A BUYER PERSONA CREATED?#holistic

• Role: CEO, marketing janitor, HR, and dad

• Goals: Grow the business (with specifics)

• Challenges: Technical knowhow, big risky moves, bandwidth

• Age, Income, Education, and Location

• Story

SPECIFICS

Who’s telling this story?

Time to take a left turn.The story is where it happens.

IMAGINE YOUR PERSONA, AND YOU’LL UNDERSTAND YOUR CUSTOMER.

Interview existing and former clients and customers.

Interview your sales team.

Review your revenue data.

DISCOVERING THE STORY

Interview your marketing team.

Where did the persona succeed or suffer?Consider every point in the buyer’s journey.

HOW IS A BUYER PERSONA CREATED?

WRITE THE STORY OF THEIR JOURNEY TO YOUR BUSINESS.

You are telling the persona’s story.You are the answer at the end.

Story:Peter has successfully run his business since its founding five years ago. While things are imperfect, he is a perfectionist. He’s familiar with all of his business’ shortcomings, but usually only finds innovative solutions for half of them. Time and resources are in short supply.

His business degree and agency experience makes him more daring than the traditional owner. He uses Twitter, Foodler, Instacart, Instagram, and Spotify. He wishes business was so straightforward.

Peter empowers his limited sales and marketing teams with free software solutions. He hired his teams of quick learners all himself. He has faith in everyone’s ability and doesn’t believe in outsourcing. He thinks that’s a Band-Aid solution.

He doesn’t want a contractor or a “solution.” He wants a partner.

3WHAT SHOULD YOUR BUYER PERSONA LOOK LIKE?

The persona is your target now.Remember, inbound is holistic, and the persona is the granddaddy!

• Keywords: To attract

• Blogs: To educate

• Offers: To inspire

• CTAs: To entice

• Landing pages: To convert

• Social: To delight

All doors in are made for the persona.They can come in via social, email, or organic.

• Industry: You know how to work with these types of prospects

• Value: You know how valuable they are to you and how

valuable you are to them, even down to the dollar

• Needs: You can imagine what solutions they need from you

• Objections: You know where they’ve been burned before

and what they dislike

A BUYER PERSONA LOOKS FAMILIAR

A PERSONA FITS A PROFILE. IF THEY’RE SPEAKING WITH YOU, IT’S BECAUSE YOU DID THINGS RIGHT.

Collaborate internally and externally to craft the persona.

Make their influence felt in all other HubSpot tools.

Stay focus, while remaining flexible.

BEST PRACTICES TO PREPARE

Create the persona in your HubSpot portal.

4 LEARNING COMPREHENSION.#ABL

ACTIVITY TIME

Total time: 10 minutes

1. Observe the original persona example.

2. Improve the persona’s story.

3. Apply the lesson.

ORIGINAL

ROLE: Business owner

IMPROVED

ROLE: Business owner, staff babysitter, sales leader, graphic designer.

ORIGINAL

GOALS: Dominate.Crush it.

IMPROVED

GOALS: Creativity, loyalty, and agility in business. To thrive and scale predictably.

ORIGINAL

CHALLENGES:Low marketing skill. Running biz takes time.

IMPROVED

CHALLENGES:Confidence in tech is low. Can’t trust team. Unsure how best to act.

KEEP ASKING QUESTIONS!Always be learning.

5NEXT STEPS AND IMMEDIATE ACTION.#HeckYeah

1. Meet with your sales and marketing teams.

2. Assess the quality of your prior best customers.

3. Even interview customers when possible.

4. Compile data based on research: background, needs, revenue.

5. Create 1 brand new persona in the HubSpot tool.

6. Begin a new campaign to target this persona.

NEXT STEPS

• 20 Questions to Ask When Creating Buyer Personas [TEMPLATE]

• 12 Tools & Resources to Help You Create Better Buyer Personas [BLOG]

• Introduction to Buyer Personas [VIDEO]

• How to Make the Customer the Hero of Your Story [BLOG]

• What you Should Learn from 2 Exemplary Buyer Personas [BLOG]

RESOURCES

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THANK YOU.