The Science of Building Actionable Buyer Personas
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On Thursday, November 5th, the experts and LeadGenius and Scripted discussed how to develop data driven buyer personas for better lead generation and content marketing. Throughout the 60 minute webinar, VP of Sales at LeadGenius, Ryan Williams, Co-Founder of Scripted, Ryan Buckley, and Director of Marketing at Scripted, Eric MacColl talked about: Using data from your CRM to build in-depth buyer personas Refining, iterating, and testing your ideal customer profiles Creating effective content for each buyer stage How get started with content creation Lessons learned from LeadGenius customers
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The Science of Building Actionable Buyer Personas
- 1. The Science of Building Actionable Buyer Personas LeadGenius.com @LeadGenius Scripted.com @GetScripted
- 2. SPEAKERS Ryan BuckleyRyan WilliamsEric MacColl Co-Founder & Head of Sales VP of SalesDirector of Marketing
- 3. 3 Ryan Williams, VP of Sales LeadGenius
- 5. Ideal Customer Profile: Core parts of an ideal customer: • Business industry • Business size • Business location • Business users/customers/clients ICP example: "I sell advertising services to eCommerce companies that have between 1-20M in sales, are located in the US, and value social networking enough to have a director of social marketing/advertising.” 5
- 7. Lessons from LeadGenius: 7 Our sales consultants help establish ICPs for over 100 companies per month. Here’s what we find: • Too broad or too specific • Only chasing one title • Taking the same action for every role in the company
- 8. Persona vs. ICP: 8 ◦ Ideal customer profiles help you define your business objectives. Often your sales objectives can help anchor projections: (e.g: if you know Directors of Finance test HR software for 2 months, then you can expect a check 90 days after you close the trial) ◦ Buyer persona take your ICP work to the next level.
- 9. Example Persona 9 Director of Finance at a startup with 100 people or $10M raised: • Analytical: degree in business or accounting • Experienced: 7 years+ in business or accounting • Forward-thinking: wants to be ready for when the business scales. • Skeptical: will listen to your pitch, but wonder about ROI and if the tech is “real"
- 10. Importance of Personas 1 ◦ Harder to focus your team ◦ Marketers need personas to “get in the head” of their DM ◦ Sales people need to train so they are offering the right value ◦ Product designers need to build for this user, understand their “triggers"
- 12. Using data from your CRM ◦ Most sales leaders will tell you how great a CRM is… but actually your CRM probably has a ton of distracting data. ◦ At LeadGenius, our CRM has a ton of data that we track, but at the simplest level are job titles. Using data from your CRM to build in-depth buyer personas: Marketing 34% Sales 33% CEO 33% LEADGENIUS CUSTOMER BREAKDOWN
- 13. Using Data from your CRM (continued) High level might not be that interesting yet… • But, here’s how to focus on tracking to build a persona: ◦ Rather than look for the title of the main decision maker, look for the titles associated with accounts above the average contract value (ACV). ◦ Look for the accounts that are closing slower than most or have a higher sales cycle than typical. ◦ Ask your salespeople to get started.
- 14. Lasting Effects… ◦ There are other good bi-products too: ▪ Personas can be a guide post to see if your market has changed. ▪ Personas can help you determine client alignment too. The greatest benefit of building out Buyer Personas is sales and marketing alignment.
- 15. 1 Ryan Buckley Co-Founder & Head of Sales Eric MacColl Director of Marketing Scripted
- 16. Buyer Personas Content • Fuels inbound marketing programs • Guides your messaging • Focuses your marketing efforts • Helps close deals
- 17. Understand Your Buyer Personas Before Creating Content
- 18. Understand Your Buyer Personas Before Creating Content Don’t create content here
- 19. Understand Your Buyer Personas Before Creating Content Nurture Create content here.
- 20. “I have my buyer persona, but I need content!”
- 21. But there is so much content to create. One sheets Sales decks Case studies Blog posts eBooks White Papers Social Media posts Articles Webinars Demos Newsletters Emails Infographics
- 22. So much.
- 23. So where to start?
- 24. “Get content for each of your buyer stages before you focus on creating content that is vertical or title specific.” LATE STAGEMID STAGEEARLY STAGE
- 25. Late Stage Content: - Create company specific content to help buyers evaluate your solution - Pricing comparison - Demos - Case studies - Reviews Mid Stage Content: - Focus around buyers who are looking for your solution - Buying guides - Definitive guides - Analyst reports - White Papers Early Stage Content: - Build brand awareness, become a thought leader in the industry - Blog posts - eBooks - Lists - Infographics - Webinars
- 26. LATE STAGEMID STAGEEARLY STAGE How to create content to boost your marketing. How the smartest marketers are outsourcing content creation. How Scripted’s content increased 42Floors’ traffic by 148% “content marketing” “outsource content” “Scripted’s content”
- 27. LATE STAGE MID STAGE EARLY STAGE Persona 1 Persona 2 Persona 3 Persona 4 Persona 1 Persona 2 Persona 3 Persona 4 Persona 1 Persona 2 Persona 3 Persona 4 Your Content Matrix
- 28. LATE STAGE MID STAGE EARLY STAGE Persona 1 Persona 2 Persona 3 Persona 4 Persona 1 & 2 Persona 3 & 4 Persona 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 Your Content Matrix
- 29. Buyer Personas Guide Our Content Title: Account Manager/Executive, Client Manager, Project Manager, Tech Specialist Agency Size: 5 - 100 Scene: Owner of client/project. Needs to deliver content to client as part of larger project. Making his client happy is job #1. May have writing resources available but needs to supplement. Persona: Account Manager Andy Key Problems: 1. I need to provide my client with niche content that I don’t have a writing resource for 2. I’ve struggled with freelancing to find the right level of quality 3. I don’t have time to find and manage writers
- 30. Buyer Personas Guide Our Content LATE STAGEMID STAGEEARLY STAGE
- 31. How Do You Create This Content?
- 32. Writing Content Is More Than Just Writing Planning Writing EditingPublishing Promoting
- 34. Writing Is The Most Commonly Outsourced Function By Marketers
- 35. Ryan’s Sales Team Sales Rep Sales Rep Sales Rep Sales Rep Sales Rep Sales Rep Sales Rep 88% of opportunities from inbound marketing programs Buyer personas drive messaging
- 37. How Does Scripted’s Sales Team Leverage Content?
- 38. How Have Things Changed Since You Started Scripted?
- 39. Summary 1. Understanding buyer personas will guide your content strategy 2. Start with creating the fundamental content for your three stages (early, middle, late) 3. Create late stage content internally, but leverage one of the many content solutions to help you create content more efficiently. 4. Train your sales team to speak to leads drive by content
- 41. The Science of Building Actionable Buyer Personas LeadGenius.com @LeadGenius Scripted.com @GetScripted
Editor's Notes
- I am always surprised at who doesn’t know their target market (dartboard graphic) I work with start ups of all sizes, mostly B2B tech Companies.. first thing I do is try to understand the ideal customer profile. Many companies are just guessing… and that’s ok. You gotta start somewhere.
- I am always surprised at who doesn’t know their target market (dartboard graphic) I work with start ups of all sizes, mostly B2B tech Companies.. first thing I do is try to understand the ideal customer profile. Core parts of an ideal customer are: business industry business size business location business users/customers/clients ICP example: I sell advertising for ecommerce companies that have between 1-20M in sales, are located in the US, and value social networking enough to have a director of social marketing/advertising You know if you have an ICP when you walk away from a “hot" lead that isn’t a good fit.
- Story about friend selling HR software ◦ Start ups don’t often have this sense of empowerment on their ICP, but if you can hone the market you’re going after the focus is worth it.
- • Lessons from LeadGenius customers during the ICP process ◦ As you probably already know, LeadGenius is the best way to get custom prospect data for your sales team ◦ Our sales consultants help establish ICPs for over 100 companies per month.. here’s what we find: ▪ Too broad or too specific (image of the scale) ▪ Only chasing one title (director of finance but not head of accounting) ▪ Taking the same action for every role in the company (ask around for more feedback
- • Persona vs ICP ◦ Ideal customer profile help you define your business objectives, often your sales objectives and can help anchor projections (e.g: if you know directors of finance test hr software for 2 months then you can expect a check 90 days after you close the trial) ◦ Buyer persona is taking your ICP work to the next level ◦ If your ICP says “directors of finance” your Persona might take this down to say something like
- • Example persona for director of finance if your ICP is a start up of 100 people or $10M raised: ◦ Analytical: degree in business or accounting ◦ Experienced: 7 years+ in business or accounting ◦ Forward thinking: wants to be ready for when the business scales. ◦ Skeptical: will listen to your pitch, but wonder about ROI and if the tech is “real"
- • importance of persona ◦ Harder to focus your team ◦ Marketers need personas to “get in the head” of their DM ◦ Sales people need to train so they are offering the right value ◦ Product designers need to build for this user, understand their “triggers
- CEOs need to know this persona so they can determine if they have a role in the above process - Example: Marissa Mayer / Ad sales
- • Using data from your CRM to build in-depth buyer personas ◦ Most sales leaders will tell you how great CRM is… but actually your CRM probably has a ton of distracting data.. ◦ At lead genius, our CRM has a ton of data that we track, but at the simplest level the titles we serve are about 33% CEO, 33% VP/Director of Sales and 33% VP/Director of Marketing [pie chart?]
- • High level might not be that interesting yet… • but. here’s how to focus what you track to build a persona: ◦ rather than look for the title of the main decision maker, look for the titles associated with accounts above the average contract value (acv). ◦ look for the accounts that are closing slower than most.. (higher sales cycle than typical).. ask your sales people if there is a different buyer than usual. ◦ this will get you started on building your personas
- • The lasting effects of having good (or bad) buyer personas (show image of body shop fixing a tire overhead) ◦ Greatest benefit of building out buyer persona’s is sales and marketing alignment. ◦ There are other good bi-products too: ▪ Persona’s can be a guide post to see if your market has changed.. you’ve got to have an initial persona defined in order to see if there are deviations from this. ▪ Persona’s can help you determine client alignment too. If you know your ideal buyer, you can spot deals likely to close and either involve the most ideal customers in a evangelist recruitment effort early and reciprocally spot those clients who might be a problem.
- Speaking of the benefits of marketing and sales alignment, buyer personas have an enormous effect on the content that your produce. Your personas will guide everything from your website copy to your sales collateral. Furthermore, content will help nurture and educate leads throughout the entire sales cycle process.
- A
- And I’m a little overwhelmed with how much content I need to create. There is so much content ranging from the sales collateral I need to create to the blog posts and white papers I need to attract these leads.
- And you’re not the only one thinking this. This is the most popular content created by B2B marketers.