Do Buyer Personas
Really Matter?

Lisa Zwikl
Director of Accounts
SmartAcre, Inc.
Twitter: @getsmartacre
linkedin.com/in/ltorphy
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lzwiklgetsmartacre.com

Reach them with personalized,
relevant and helpful content
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buyer personas are:
Semi-fictional representations of your ideal
customer based on real data and research
around customer demographics, behavior
patterns, motivations, and goals.
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buyer personas are not:
rocket science.

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a tool like HubSpot helps!

Do personas matter?

Reason 1:
Leads nurtured with targeted content
produce an increase in sales
opportunities of more than 20%.
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Source: DemandGen

Reason 2:
56% of U.S. email users unsubscribe from a
business or nonprofit email subscription
because of content that is no longer relevant.
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Source: ChadwickMartinBailer

If you do not know
your audience, your
content and
marketing strategy
will fail.
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buyer personas should influence:
• Content strategy
• Marketing tactics
• Key messaging
• Campaigns
• Event promotion
• Content promotion & outreach
• Personalization
• List segmentation
• Form fields
• Reporting & analysis

How do I develop
buyer personas?

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steps to create a buyer persona
1. Identify questions to ask to develop your persona, tailored to your
organization and industry.
2. Determine how you’ll research your personas (interviews, surveys,
data).
3. Compile research and answers to your questions through keyword
searches, comments on related content, LinkedIn, social media, etc.
4. Build a complete persona to use across content and campaigns,
focusing on benefits and motives. Simply put: WHY.

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persona profile checklist
Persona Detail Questions to Ask
Role
What is your job role? Your title?
What is a typical day like?
What skills are required? What knowledge and tools do you use?
Who do you report to? Who reports to you?
Company / Organization
What industry or industries does your company work/is your role in?
What is the size of your company/organization?
Goals
What are you responsible for?
What does it mean to be successful in your role?
Challenges
What are your biggest challenges?
What does my product help you solve?
What are the common objections to our product / service?
Where do they go for info
How do you learn about new information for your job?
What publications or blogs do you read?
What associations and social networks do you below to?
Story
How do you prefer to act with vendors?
What key moments matter? (I want to know, buy, do, go)

buyer personas are:
A continual process. More data = stronger
persona development.
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mistakes to avoid
• Making stuff up
• Focusing on trivial details
• Focusing only on demographics
• Developing too many
• Interviewing the wrong people
• Setting it and forgetting it
• Not using personas to influence your marketing strategy

Now what?

use personas to:
Generate awareness, build trust, create
relationships.
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Use. Improve. Test. Measure.

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getsmartacre.com
use
PERSONA
Problem, Common
Misconceptions,
Challenges, Goals
AWARENESS CONSIDERATION DECISION
Have realized and
expressed symptoms of a
potential problem or
opportunity (Researching
Phase) – Educate them
around the problems and
symptoms they have
Dig deeper into the
problem or symptoms – Is
there any additional info
that you can provide on
this topic/solution,
without talking about your
business yet?
Have clearly defined and
given a name to their
problem or opportunity -
Increase their engagement
with you and awareness of
how you fit into
the solution
Have defined their solution
strategy, method or
approach - Help them with
their buying decision
CEO at a company with
less than 50 employees,
tech industry
Improve performance of
the management team
Executive Reference to
Improving Management
Performance: Understand,
Motivate and Deliver
Self-assessment of the
management team to
identify areas for
improvement
Case study of a similar
company with less than 50
employees, highlighting the
improved performance
Request a Consultation OR
Demo (of the analytics &
performance app
platform)
Build out and track KPIs -
Is already familiar with
using CRM and
spreadsheets to track
performance (not reliable,
definite gaps in picture)
Key KPIs Every CEO
Should be Tracking (and
what you might be
missing!)
From Spreadsheets to
Analytics Platforms, How
to Get the KPIs You Need
for a Successful Team
Case study of a similar
company with less than 50
employees, highlighting the
KPI changes
and how they were tracked
using app
Request a Consultation OR
Demo (of the analytics &
performance app
platform)

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improve

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test
Test titles or messaging before launching
a major campaign to determine what
resonates best with target personas.
Results:
• Generated 72 conversions pre-launch
• 9 new leads pre-launch
• “Reserve your copy” email had a 24.21%
open rate and 32 downloads
• Case study: tiny.cc/ebook-LVHUG

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measure
All of those things I said personas can
influence? You can measure that!
How:
• Use persona views to see number of
contacts, leads, MQLs, customers
• Use top performing content reports to
determine what offers really convert
• Check google analytics for referral
sources and engagement metrics

Customers = People.
Content should be useful.
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Blogs
How-to videos
Social content
Case studies
Content offers
Live demo
Free trial

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simple, but…
Always ask yourself these three easy questions:
1. WHO is this for?
2. WHAT is in it for them (does it answer a question, solve a problem,
meet a goal, address a challenge, encourage action)?
3. WHY does it matter?

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resources
HubSpot
• Persona development worksheet: tiny.cc/persona-LVHUG
• Introduction to buyer personas: tiny.cc/persona-video-LVHUG
Other
• Google docs (easy way to create and update personas during
meetings)
• HubSpot scorecard: tiny.cc/HUG-scorecard

THANK YOU! | lzwikl@getsmartacre.com
lehighvalley.hubspotusergroups.com
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