Create Context For ContentWith B2B Buyer Personas

A presentation by Billy MitchellPresident, Senior Creative Director

@billymitchell1

We make ideas work.

THE MOSTSUCCESSFULENTERPRISES

A GLOBAL IBM STUDY OF 17,000 CMOS:

FOCUS ONRELATIONSHIPS,

NOT JUSTTRANSACTIONS.

BIGGESTCMO

HEADACHE:

A GLOBAL IBM STUDY OF 17,000 CMOS:

THE DATA EXPLOSION

“WE’REDROWNINGIN DATA”.

OVER THE NEXT 5 YEARS

EXPECT INCREASING COMPLEXITYIN THEIR MARKETING

79%OFCMOs

BUT ONLY

FEEL PREPAREDFOR IT.

48%OFCMOs

THE MOSTEFFECTIVE CMOs

FOCUS ONGETTING TO KNOW

INDIVIDUALS,NOT JUST MARKETS.

THE MOSTEFFECTIVE CMOs

USE CUSTOMERANALYTICS TO TURN DATA

INTO INSIGHTSON WHICH THEIR

ORGANIZATIONS CAN ACT.

A persona isa composite sketchof a type of customeryou serve.

Who uses contentmarketing as part

of your overallmarketing efforts?

How many usebuyer personas toshape your contentmarketing strategy?

How many of you included:Discussions with

Sales to develop yourbuyer personas?

How many of you included:Conversations with your

customers to develop yourbuyer personas?

How many of you included:Data from your CRM

database to develop yourbuyer personas?

Since developing yourbuyer personas, how often

do you update them?

ACCORDING TO THE CMO COUNCIL

56%OFCOMPANIES

BELIEVE THEY ARECUSTOMER-CENTRIC

ACCORDING TO THE CMO COUNCIL

12%OFTHEIRONLY

CUSTOMERS AGREE

Your company,and mine could looksomething like thisto our prospects:

YOU’RE NOBODY TO ME

I may have heard of your company,but I have no opinion or affinity.

SOMEWHAT ACQUAINTED

I may have had exposure to yourcontent or brand in some way.

I’M FAMILIAR WITH YOU

I know who you are, but I'm not yetsure you're relevant to my needs.

I KNOW YOU

I've discovered you may have insightsI find valuable so I'm paying more attention

I RESPECT YOU

I'm following your blog or havesubscribed to your newsletter because I see

consistently valuable ideas.

I LISTEN TO YOU

I'm now on the lookout for your contentand have shared your stuff with my network.

I LEARN FROM YOU

I'm in conversations with your salespeopleto see if you can really help me.

I’M A CUSTOMER

I've decided you bring enough value to thetable that I'll invest in having you help me solve

my problems. I think I can rely upon you.

I’M AN ADVOCATE

You've proved your value and I'm so enthusiastic,I think others should have you help them —

and I'm proactively sharing my praise.

In B2B, it’s oftenmore than one person

doing the buying.

Three categories to focuson with personas are:

objectivesorientation

(and then) obstacles

1

2

3

The person who makesthe final decision may notbe a persona candidate.If they are only holding the purse strings,then you may be wasting your time.

Some say B2B is notdifferent than B2C becauseit’s all P2P.

But it is very different.

B2C buying decisionsare driven by lifestyle.

B2B buying decisionsare driven by livelihood.People’s jobs are at stake.

B2B personas recognize that theprospect’s professional standingand priorities will hold additional

sway over what catches theirattention when it comes time to

solve a business issue.

B2B persona information will vary but can include:

STATUS QUO

B2B persona information will vary but can include:

STATUS QUOSTRATEGIC BUSINESS & CAREER GOALS

B2B persona information will vary but can include:

STATUS QUOSTRATEGIC BUSINESS & CAREER GOALS

PREFERENCES & AVERSIONS

B2B persona information will vary but can include:

STATUS QUOSTRATEGIC BUSINESS & CAREER GOALS

PREFERENCES & AVERSIONSINFLUENCERS

B2B persona information will vary but can include:

STATUS QUOSTRATEGIC BUSINESS & CAREER GOALS

PREFERENCES & AVERSIONS

COMPETITIVECONSIDERATIONS

INFLUENCERS

B2B persona information will vary but can include:

STATUS QUOSTRATEGIC BUSINESS & CAREER GOALS

PREFERENCES & AVERSIONS

COMPETITIVECONSIDERATIONS

INFLUENCERS INFORMATION,SOURCES & SEARCHES

B2B persona information will vary but can include:

My agency, MLT Creative created a tool for making personas that

we collaborated on with our mentor on the subject, Ardath Albee.

Ardath is the author of eMarketing Strategies for the Complex Sale.

She consults with enterprise level clients on

persona development and with her permission

I’ll share an example from her book:

The best way to wrapyour mind around a B2Bpersona is to take a lookat one.

Let’s take a look at thefictional persona of Gloria.

Manager of ProductDevelopment at WhizBang 3X

Gloria Miller

Can you see how you’d be able to help Gloria if you

knew all about her situation and offered a delivery

system that would match her goals?

Before you think, “yeah, but I’ll never get close to

knowing Gloria’s situation,” consider the following

possibilities for how you might know enough to get

a good handle on this information.

The type of informationneeded to build personasis available, the challengeis connecting the dots.

It’s important toremember that personasevolve and change alongwith their environments.

You should not createa persona and then neverrevisit it for tuningand tweaking.

You must be diligent aboutmonitoring related changesand advances and updatingyour company’s personasas warranted.

We all know our companies, our products,

our solutions. We are given these corporate message

briefs or brand positioning documents or whatever

they are, and what we need to do is take a look at

those and say, “OK, from this persona’s perspective,

how the heck is this relevant, where is the relevance

and how can we help transition that into more of

a relevant story and make it apply to something that

engages with the persona?

B2B buyers don’t wantto be sold with massmarketing, they wantto be informed.

They want yourhelp not your hype.

www.UpCloseandPersona.comThank You.

We make ideas work.