HOW BUYER PERSONAS WILLCHANGE YOUR LIFE(or at Least Your Market ing)

Presented by:

Holly Yalove, Principal & Chief StrategistV I E O D e s i g n

@HollyYalove

Happy to meet you!

vieodesign.com

@HollyYalove

Holly YalovePrincipal & Chief Strategist

vieodesign.comhttps://twitter.com/HollyYalove

@HollyYalove

1. What is a Buyer Persona?

2. Buyer Personas vs. Target Markets

3. 5 Ways to Use Buyer Personas to Guide Your Marketing

4. 7 Steps to Crafting Effective Buyer Personas

What Well Cover

@HollyYalove

What Is a Buyer Persona?

What is a buyer persona?Buyer personas are fictional but data-drivenprofiles of your ideal or actual customers.

@HollyYalove

Buyer Personas Provide More Insights Than Target Markets

@HollyYalove

TARGET MARKETS vs. BUYER PERSONASDemographics +Psychographics

Demographics

Age, gender, location Employer and job title Daily functions and responsibilities Role in the buying process Personal and professional goals Challenges and pain points Preferred sources of information Where they spend their time online Personal background Buying habits Hobbies and free time activities

Gender Age range Annual income Location

@HollyYalove

Buyer personas provideinsights for making marketing decisions like Where to place ads

What products and services to highlight in your marketing

Which social media networks to use

What blog posts to write

What design changes will improve your website conversions

@HollyYalove

Specific, Detailed, AccurateBuyer Personas

1. Reflect the goals and motivations of your ideal customers

2. Help you develop and course-correct your marketing strategy

3. Enable you to deliver content that will attract the right prospects

4. Allow you to delight your customers throughout your relationship

5. Increase your return on investment (ROI)

@HollyYalove

Buyer personas work best in combination with lifecycle stages in a content mapping process.

Each persona will act differently and need different things at each stage of the buying process.

Free Resource: Mapping the Buyers Journey Worksheethttp://bit.ly/kamamapping

http://bit.ly/kamamapping

@HollyYalove

What Are the Stages of the Buyers Journey?

1. The Awareness Stage.2. The Consideration Stage3. The Decision Stage

Free Resource: Mapping the Buyers Journey Worksheethttp://bit.ly/kamamapping

http://bit.ly/kamamapping

@HollyYalove

5 WAYS TO USE BUYER PERSONASTO GUIDE YOUR MARKETING

@HollyYalove

WEBSITE DESIGN STRATEGYDoes your website design appeal to your ideal buyer? Layout Use of color Navigation style Font choices Contact options Contextual marketing and personalization choices Interactive components Device use considerations Accessibility and ADA compliance

@HollyYalove

WEBSITE CONTENT STRATEGY

Content style and tone Use of humor Use of industry jargon Blog topic choices Types of media used Call-to-Action (CTA) wording Content offers

Is your content targeted to your ideal buyer persona?

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SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION STRATEGY

Think about Knowledge of industry jargon Various search types:

pain points & challenges products & services branded searches & staff names

Use data and analytics to guide your decisions

Does your keyword strategy consider what your buyer persona is actually searching?

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SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY

Platform choices Hashtag choices Frequency choices Time of day considerations Media preferences Contextual references

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For instance...do you remember Jazzercise?

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Why Buyer Personas MatterEMAIL MARKETING STRATEGY

Segmentation Use of personalization Days and times to send Email template design Subject line strategy Body copy length CTA style

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Sohow do you create effective buyer personas?

Lets take it step-by-step

7-Step Guide for Crafting Effective Buyer Personas

@HollyYalove

The right questions will: Get to the heart of motivations

and challenges

Help you better understandbuying decisions

Find Out Which QuestionsYou Need to Ask

@HollyYalove

The wrong questions will: Give you a false sense of progress

Lead to important marketing decisions based on inaccurate data

@HollyYalove

Everything you ask should:

Be customized based onyour industry

Cater to the type of prospect youre targetingB2B? B2C?

Consider the kind of conversions youre seeking

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Focus initial questions onone buyer persona.

Even if you have several, its best to start with the most important persona rather than trying to develop them all at once.

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When choosing questions:Dont stop at whatWhat social network do you use most?

Take the time to get to whyWhy is Facebook more convenient for you than Twitter?

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Employer, job title, and daily functions Personal and professional goals Challenges and pain points Preferred sources of information Where they spend their time online Personal background Buying habits Hobbies and free time activities

Start with these general categories:

@HollyYalove

Crafting Effective Buyer Personas: An Inbound Marketing Master Class [ebook]

Includes a Buyer Persona Worksheet

http://bit.ly/kamapersonas

Heres a resource for later

http://bit.ly/kamapersonas

@HollyYalove

Collect Data that Addresses Your Questions

Gather as much information as possible Remember that not all data is equal Focus on data that helps identify your

customers needs Use a wide variety of resources

@HollyYalove

Potential Resources Team insights (e.g. sales, customer service,

and support) Customer and prospect interviews or surveys Customer social media activity/engagement Demographic data from your contact lists Search engine and social media analytics Market research and public records A closed-loop marketing software like HubSpot

Collect Data that Addresses Your Questions

@HollyYalove

Interviews & Survey Tips

Strike a balance between long-time customers and more recent ones; each group provides different insights.

If possible, talk to those who chose your competitors and find out why.

Gather enough data to identify trends, but not so much that youll never finish analyzing it.

Collect Data that Addresses Your Questions

@HollyYalove

Find the Patterns in Your Data

Gather your data into one place: Google Docs Evernote Excel Or whatever tool is easiest for you

When you see patterns: Identify trends Look for the relationships these trends have

to each other

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Find the Patterns in Your Data

If you see more than one clear group of people emerge, start with the persona that offers the best ROI for your business.

@HollyYalove

Trends to look for include:

What content is performing the best? Which value propositions are featured in your top-

performing content? Which platforms are earning the most engagement? What content formats do your leads respond to best? What content, channels, and CTAs are getting the

best conversion rates?

Find the Patterns in Your Data

@HollyYalove

Find the Patterns in Your Data

Trends to look for include:

What traffic or engagement not only results in the most leads, but the most closed customers?

How do customers behave on your website and engage with your brand after theyve madethe purchase?

How are potential customers using their discretionary income?

What are the most common barriers to purchase?

@HollyYalove

Dont Go Too Broad. Casting a Wide Net = Bad Leads

Target the exact people you want to reach.

The attempt to reach everyone ends up only attracting a few (its too generic).

Once youve sifted through the data, its time to fill out a buyer persona worksheet!

@HollyYalove

Your worksheets provide structure,but a list is not enough. Add the motivations behind behaviors.

Start Writing Your Primary Buyer Persona

Write a narrative document that describes your personas life and his or her needs and goals for:

Work life Free time Family life And beyond...

@HollyYalove

Start Writing Your Primary Buyer Persona

Discerning their motives helps you anticipate what they want, and what theyll want next.

Why do they prefer Facebook to Twitter? Why do they engage more during the afternoon, or on Saturday mornings?

Your persona needs to be specific enough to be realistic, but stillrepresent a group of people.

@HollyYalove

Make It Easy to Use on a Daily Basis

Finalize your persona document in a format thats easy for your team to use and return to regularly.

Suggested chapters include:

1. Job and demographic info2. Describe a day in the personas life3. The personas challenges and pain

points4. Where the persona goes for

information5. Common objections to products and

services

@HollyYalove

Give your persona a catchy name thats easy to remember and use for reference (e.g. Marketing Mike or CEO Sarah)

Enrich your final persona with real customer quotes and an appropriate stock photo

Write an ideal elevator pitch for that persona

Get it out to everyone on your team Start planning campaigns that target your

persona

Make It Easy toUse on a Daily Basis

@HollyYalove

Revamp Your Marketingwith Your Persona

Create content directed to your idealpersona, including:

Website pages Blog posts Premium content offers Social media posts Email marketing Any other applicable marketing materials

@HollyYalove

If youre thinking UhhhI havent been marketing to my persona:

Dont worry; its surprisingly common. Focus on revamping your essential sales tools first, and

then produce new content that fits your persona. Take it step-by-step. Start with:

High-traffic pages and posts Homepage copy Key sales materials

@HollyYalove

Homework With your new persona in hand, review the key

elements of your website and marketing materials.

Make note of anything that doesnt directly address your persona, and take steps to correct it.

@HollyYalove

Remember, PersonasAre Never Done

Just like people, buyer personas are always evolving

Go back to the data regularly Keep building personas based on

the needs of your target customers

@HollyYalove

HomeworkSet a reminder for yourself 3-5 months from now to review your buyer personas in light of the results you see during that time.

@HollyYalove

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Questions?

@HollyYalove

Lets Connect!

vieodesign.com

@HollyYalove

/in/hollyyalove

Holly YalovePrincipal & Chief Strategist

https://twitter.com/HollyYalovehttps://www.linkedin.com/in/hollyyalove?authType=NAME_SEARCH&authToken=WLGM&locale=en_US&trk=tyah&trkInfo=clickedVertical%3Amynetwork%2CclickedEntityId%3A57358923%2CauthType%3ANAME_SEARCH%2Cidx%3A1-1-1%2CtarId%3A1479414183204%2Ctas%3Ahollvieodesign.com