The "persona" is one of the most important exercises you need to create a relevant integrated marketing campaign. Many campaigns fail because the marketer doesn't know enough about what their audience cares about or how they make business decisions. The persona is a tool that helps marketers emphasize with their buyers. Personas create a connection between the marketer and the buyer like no other marketing tool can. This presentation give an overview of how to create, critique, and apply a persona to your own business. The material is covered in detail in my book, The Marketing High Ground. And check out my new online course: Create High Impact B2B Personas in 4 Easy Steps. The course is offered at Udemy.com. Whoever understands the customer best, wins! How well do you know your target market? Can you paint a clear picture of their interests, desires, as well as the problems they are trying to solve? How about their buying process? Using job titles alone is not enough to focus your go-to-market strategy. Marketers must be able to empathize with their target audiences. Building a PERSONA is one of the most helpful steps you can take because without a 360 degree perspective, your lead generation programs are destined to failure. Your messaging will seem random and you won't capture the attention of your target audience. Great marketing starts with a clean and focused understanding of your prospects and what makes them tick. The PERSONA exercise is the fastest way to capture this information and align your sales and marketing teams. This presentation is from the mini-guidebook, The Marketing High Ground series: How to build a Persona. The mini-guidebook offers much more information on the technique, templates, and examples.

1. Crafting the Persona
Because whoever understands the customer best,
wins!
Mike Gospe
KickStart Alliance
May 28, 2012 www.kickstartall.com

2. Question: who are we targeting?
Common answer: Everyone!
“We can’t say no to anyone”
Everyone “Our product can address any market”
“But there are so many ways our product can be used”
“The sales team needs us to be everywhere”
Unfortunately, selling to everyone is like selling to no one
because:
• The messaging will be watered down to the most generic level
• Multiple messages will compete with each other
• Confusion will result internally and externally
• You won’t know where to prioritize your marketing investments
http://marketinghighground.wordpress.com 2011 © KickStart Alliance

3. The right question
 Where should we prioritize our proactive
marketing investment?
Don’t try to be all things to all people
You will only confuse the market
You’ll happily accept money from anyone who wants to buy your product. But where
should you proactively invest your limited marketing resources? Answer: It depends.
• Which market segments are easiest to win?
• What segments are you most at risk of losing to competitors?
• Which segments represent the future for your company?
http://marketinghighground.wordpress.com 2011 © KickStart Alliance

4. Many marketing programs fail because . . .
 Marketers don’t fully understand the persona they are
selling to
 Marketers fail to empathize with the target audience
 Marketers struggle to establish relevance between the
prospect and their products
A clear and focused persona is required BEFORE . . .
• a positioning statement can be created
• effective messaging can be drafted
(To do otherwise will just waste your time and money because
your marketing programs won’t work and you won’t know why.)
http://marketinghighground.wordpress.com 2011 © KickStart Alliance

5. Traditional Market Segmentation
is not enough
1. Market segments don’t buy products. People do.
2. Who is in the bull’s eye? Marketers fail when they treat everyone
the same.
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6. We need to empathize with someone
who lives in this space
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7. Simple Bull’s Eye example
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8. The Persona
A persona is a personalized extension
of the bull’s eye.
The
Sweet
Spot
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9. What is a Persona?
 A Persona is a detailed fictional representation of
an example user that represents the needs,
desires, skills, and environment of one or more
classes of real users.
 While a Persona isn’t a real person, he or she
must feel like a real person.
http://marketinghighground.wordpress.com 2011 © KickStart Alliance

10. http://marketinghighground.wordpress.com 2011 © KickStart Alliance

11. This is a persona
created for FlyRight
NOTE: see the Positioning Statement & Message Box that resulted from this Persona
http://marketinghighground.wordpress.com 2011 © KickStart Alliance

12. Empathizing with a persona produces insights
A few executive types
The Skeptical The Corporate
The Globetrotter
Futurist Radical
These executives share responsibility but have different values and interests!
http://marketinghighground.wordpress.com 2011 © KickStart Alliance

13. Why Personas are powerful
By looking at the product from the Persona’s point of
view, communications become more straightforward
because:
• Superfluous information and over-specifications can be eliminated
• Features are prioritized according to the persona’s values
• Product messaging can directed to the buyer persona
Empathy with the Persona helps development teams:
• Understand requirements with less detail
• Make good, reasonable implementation decisions
• Raise valid concerns and opportunities
• Stay focused on the real requirements
http://marketinghighground.wordpress.com 2011 © KickStart Alliance

14. For more information . . .
For more details on how to work cross-functionally to
build a persona using these techniques and templates,
please refer to:
Personas:
a guidebook on how to build a persona
* Techniques * Templates *Examples
(http://astore.amazon.com/kickalli-20/detail/1468054252)
See other titles on positioning
statements, messaging, and the role of
the campaign manager at
http://astore.amazon.com/kickalli-20
http://marketinghighground.wordpress.com 2011 © KickStart Alliance

15. Table of Contents
 The Marketing High Ground
 A Short-cut to Traditional Segmentation
 Illustrating the Persona
 Tips for Leading the Bull’s Eye Exercise
 Tips for Leading the Persona Exercise
http://marketinghighground.wordpress.com 2011 © KickStart Alliance

16. Thank you!
Mike Gospe
KickStart Alliance
mikeg@kickstartall.com
Positioning www.kickstartall.com
Lead Generation
Sales Readiness
Join me on LinkedIn: mikegospe
Follow me on Twitter: mikegospe
http://marketinghighground.wordpress.com 2011 © KickStart Alliance