| Meet Bill, he’s the owner and CEO of a
growing, mid-sized manufacturing company. Bill is in his early 40s, wears glasses and
tries his best to squeeze in an early-morning workout whenever he can. He prefers to wear
golf shirts and khakis, donning a suit only when he has to. Bill drives a late model SUV
with a booster seat in the back seat for his four-year-old daughter. He’s harried,
and worries about managing his company’s growth. He wants to leverage technology to
increase operational efficiency and customer satisfaction, and to offset the rising costs
of doing business, but doesn’t know where to start.
Helen is his director of sales. She’s 32, single, a
competitive runner, and is partial to 80s rock. She drives a new BMW convertible. She
struggles with managing a dozen salespeople, many who are 10 to 15 years older then her.
Helen wants the company to invest in a new CRM system to replace the contact management
they long ago outgrew, but wonders how she’ll convince Bill and the company’s
CFO to spend the money.
Bill and Helen are not real people, but they're examples of
one of the most powerful tools you can use to better connect with prospects and customers:
persona-based marketing.
Persona-based marketing is part Hollywood characterization
and part business analytics. It involves constructing a fictional customer—based on
real-life data and intelligence—and then using that character as the touchstone for
promotional and selling decisions.
Persona-based marketing goes beyond simple demographic
data
Persona-based marketing describes who a prospect or
customer is, by also answering questions about their behavior such as: what keeps this
person awake at night? How does he spend his time? How does she like to be sold to?
This concept can help you, as a business-to-business
marketer by creating a vivid, tangible picture of your best prospects or customers, and
then sculpting a marketing message that’s pertinent to their concerns, and move them
to inquire and buy.
Let’s get back to the example of Bill and Helen. Say
you’re a systems integrator who is targeting mid-sized companies like Bill’s.
Using what you know about Bill as a representative of the typical business owner, you can
make some tactical marketing decisions.
Because Bill is pressed for time, he probably won’t
attend an all-day seminar, or an evening dinner meeting—he’s got family
responsibilities after work. But he would be interested in a 45-minute, executive-level
Web seminar he could attend from his desk. He might also say yes to an executive breakfast
briefing with his peers from other local mid-sized firms.
This fictional CEO can even help guide decisions about
minute matters such as brochure or Web site design. Because you know that Bill is over 40
and wears glasses, you’ll make sure that the font is big enough for him to read
easily. And because you know he’s time-pressed, you’ll break down key messages
into bullet points he can scan quickly.
Helen, your customer’s sales director surrogate,
meanwhile, will respond to an offer that speaks to her needs. She might raise her hand to
a half-day seminar on “convincing your CEO and CFO to invest in CRM.” She might
also request a white paper on “How to get salespeople to use your new CRM
system.” Because she’s younger and has upscale tastes, she’d probably
attend a lunch seminar at the hot new bistro in town. She’s also more likely to
notice an ad or seminar invitation or other promotional materials that are designed in a
modern and colorful manner.
Granted, Bill and Helen are composite characters, not real
people. But referring to them as you formulate and execute your messages can make your
marketing more effective. And it can prevent your promotions from becoming too generic to
be noticed. Performed correctly, your persona-based decisions will stop being about
“I think” and start being about “what would our customer or prospect
think?”
How do you get started?
1. Convene a group of employees who interact with your
customers and prospects. Bring in lunch and a white board and ask them to help you build a
persona for each of your target customers.
2. Start by describing the customer’s role in their
company: CEO, CIO, CFO, COO, sales manager, purchasing agent, user, and any other
important influencers.
3. Next describe the kind of company they work for. What
industry is it in? How big is it? How up-to-date is it? Does it have a lot of competition?
4. Then describe the person and their behavior: Give each
persona a name, a title, an age, and describe how he or she looks. How does he dress? What
kind of car does she drive? What does he do in his free time? What kind of educational
background does she have?
5. Flesh out as many attributes as you need to give a full,
rounded picture of who this person is. Then, turn to your persona’s problems and
goals.
6. Think about what does this person’s daily calendar
look like? What are his or her most pressing concerns? What product or service attributes
would be most helpful in solving this person’s problems? Is he or she looking to roll
up 20 databases into one, getting ready for an IPO, dealing with a new competitor who has
just entered the market?
7. Then, when formulating your marketing messages, think
about what path this prospect or customer might pursue to solve this problem. Will he or
she turn to white papers or articles in trade publications or Web sites? Would this
customer or prospect seek input from a speaker at a networking group of their peers? Let
the personas steer the route, which you can pave with information that can help your
prospect and customers move forward in their consideration and buying process.
If you’ve never used person-based marketing before,
give it a try. It can be a powerful way to focus your business-to-business marketing
messages and offers, driving more leads and sales. |
