Why You Need to Create Your Customer Personas NOW
A foundational element of successful B2B marketing that isn’t new but has been gaining more attention lately is the concept of Customer Persona(s). With the move to digital-first marketing over the past year, competition for your prospects’ attention has grown exponentially. If you aren’t 100% sure who you want to target, what their pain points are, how your solution can help them, and where to find them – your message will get lost in the shuffle.
Has anyone ever walked you through exactly what goes into a Customer Persona – or Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) – and how to build one? Do you know how to use it once it’s built? You’re not alone. In this article, we will answer the most common questions we receive:
- What is a Customer Persona – or ICP?
- Why is it so important?
- How do I create one?
- How do I make it actionable?
What is a Customer Persona and why is it SO important?
A Customer Persona (ICP) is a snapshot of your ideal customer. While it is not created based on an actual person, the information that goes into it is based on the customers you already have – or would like to target. It includes all the information you would gather when building a relationship with a sales prospect.
Customer Personas are extremely important because they allow your Sales and Marketing teams to align on who they are targeting, why and how. Based on this persona, they can tailor their messaging, ad campaigns, sales emails and content to address your ideal customers’ specific needs and concerns. You can – and should – have multiple ICPs according to how you segment your customer base. For example, you may have three different solutions for three different industries – and each industry should have its own ICP.
A Customer Persona that few people talk about – or even know exists – is a Negative Persona. Similar to negative keywords in a Google AdWords campaign, you create a Negative Persona in order to exclude a particular type of customer from your target list. Two of the most common types of negative personas are: a) customers who are too early stage or advanced, and b) customers who are too expensive (negative ROI) to acquire.
How do I create a Customer Persona?
Creating a Customer Persona is not difficult if you have a good template (and you are in luck, because we provide two examples of our WIZ Advisors template below!). The basis of your Customer Personas should come from market research and/or a deep dive into your current customer base.
Below is a list of the data points that are typically included.
- Demographics – age range, gender, geography, education level, marital status, household income
- Position and Level of Seniority – their title, where they fall in their company’s hierarchy and their purchasing power
- Identifiers and Day-in-the-life – what does their typical day look like and how would your product or service fit, demeanor, preferences about how they receive content
- Main source for research / education – internet search, professional publications, social media, online communities
- Pain Points and how you can help solve them – do they know they need what you have to offer yet? How do you convince them? Why are they dissatisfied with their current product or service?
- What are their goals – obtaining lower price, faster go-to-market solution, greater competitive advantage
- What common objections might they voice about your product or service? – price, delivery speed, already have something I’m fine with
- Quotes from your current prospects/customers about goals, challenges, etc.
Here are two Customer Personas (ICPs) we created at WIZ Advisors for our target customers.
How do I make a Customer Persona actionable?
You’re likely thinking, “OK, great – I’ve created my Customer Persona – now how do I use it? As we mentioned in the introduction, you are creating these ICPs to align your sales and marketing teams towards gaining your prospects’ now VERY limited attention.
Once you have your ICPs built, you can start creating targeted advertising, content and sales emails that address your ICP’s specific pain points.
Your prospects will say, “wow, these guys really understand me.” They will trust you more right off the bat, because you have taken the time to know who they are and what they really need.
You can also use your Customer Personas in conjunction with your Buyer’s Lifecycle Stages to create highly targeted content at each lifecycle stage – and reach the right customer at the right time.
(If you haven’t seen our Content Across the Buyer’s Lifecycle Infographic, click here to download. It provides great examples of the various types of content that you can use for each lifecycle stage.) By creating a portfolio of content based on your ICPs, you will create a smooth path to purchase and shorten the sales cycle.
And lastly, your ICPs will tell you where your prospects go to learn, get educated and network. You will use those locations to target your advertising or write content for publication in order to reach the audience you want.
We hope this article has provided you with the knowledge and tools to create personas for your own business.
Please reach out to us anytime with questions as you build them. We look forward to hearing from you!
How COVID Has Impacted Marketing in 2020
The World Has Changed
It is 2020 and our entire world has changed. Americans have been living in lockdown, only leaving their homes for groceries, fresh air or exercise – and only then with masks and mandatory social distancing.
Not unexpectedly, the U.S. economy (real GDP) plummeted nearly 33% in the second quarter of 2020, following a 5% decline in the first quarter. Unemployment hit an all-time high of 14.7% in April – recovering to 10.2% by July (but still 3X the average pre-COVID) – and consumer sentiment hit an all-time low. Businesses have been forced to rethink their workforce strategies, business models and cash flow projections to survive.
How COVID Has Impacted Marketing – Permanently
The above chart was taken from Bank America and the U.S. Department of Commerce’s recent data showing that U.S. ecommerce now accounts for over 27% of total retail sales. While this chart depicts retail sales, every industry across the board has been forced to move to a digital sales and marketing model. Every B2B marketer and salesperson is using online meeting applications like Zoom and Microsoft Teams – many for the first time – to meet with prospects and close deals. CRM systems like Hubspot and Salesforce.com are being utilized to their full extent. If organizations do not have them, they are implementing them so deal pipelines can be managed and shared across stakeholders. As most Americans were forced to work from home, businesses that had digital sales and marketing infrastructures in place had a leg up on their competition. With a complete halt on in-person sales meetings and marketing events, the entire B2B buyer’s journey moved to the Internet – QUICKLY!
In the same vein, every marketer was forced to rethink his/her strategies and budgets. Trade shows and conferences that typically make up 25% of total marketing budgets have been cancelled. Dollars are either being cut or repurposed into the highest ROI digital marketing tactics. As the below chart from eMarketer illustrates, B2B marketers put their efforts into content creation, webinars (both hosted and sponsored), paid search ads, email and social.
Why the Webinar Craze?
Even before the COVID pandemic, 75% of B2B marketers and sales leaders believed that webinars were a great way to generate high quality leads (Source: GoToWebinar’s 2017 Book of Stats). But during COVID, webinars took on a life all their own.
Because everyone was at home and online, most people did not have professional equipment at their disposal. So, webinar hosts, guests and participants had to deal with issues, such as: technology and wireless servers going down, dogs barking, kids crying, ambulances driving by, and jackhammering and lawnmowers interrupting the events. But, shockingly, it made the events BETTER. It added a sense of “realness” that had not been there before. It provided businesses a way to build shared connections with their audiences.
What we witnessed was a perfect storm. Businesses could promote their thought leadership and gain valuable leads. Participants could learn. And both sides could form connections. Webinars helped people realize that – whether we are B2B executives, interviewers or one of many listeners in the audience, we are all human beings, facing the same challenges at the same time – and we are all in this together.
B2B companies quickly realized that webinars were a great alternative to in-person events. ON24, saw webinars on its platform jump by 330% year-over-year in March with average participation of 300 and total registrations twice that. Besides the human connection – which is by far the biggest home run because IT BUILDS TRUST- webinars provide three key benefits for B2B companies:
- They allow brands to showcase their knowledge and expertise which drives credibility
- They generate high quality leads who are interested in what you have to offer.
- They provide on-demand content you can promote on your company’s website for ongoing lead generation.
And the results support it. Below is a graph of a WIZ Advisors’ client. We employed a webinar strategy – three webinars with three industry-leading online communities in 45 days. Our goal was to drive high quality leads. We promoted the webinars via email and LinkedIn and increased Google Ad spend during that period (all tactics that the eMarketer chart highlighted!). Not only did the client’s web traffic spike (see below), but we generated a significant pipeline of quality leads – many of whom had been on the fence prior to those events.
Conclusion
How have your marketing budgets, strategies and tactics changed because of COVID? What are the trends that you have seen? We’d love to hear about it. Leave a reply below or reach out to us on LinkedIn or Facebook. We look forward to hearing from you.
WIZ Advisors Adds Hubspot Automation Services in 2020
So much has happened at WIZ Advisors since the start of the year! We’ve been incredibly busy and I couldn’t be more thankful for the growth of the Agency. One of the biggest updates is that WIZ Advisors became a Hubspot Agency Partner in January 2020.
On a separate note, I would be remiss if I didn’t take a minute to address what is occurring on a global scale. Because of the coronavirus, people have died, markets have plummeted, schools have closed, and we have all been forced to make personal and business decisions to prevent contamination. I send my prayers to all of you, that you and your families are safe.
What is The WIZ Method?
Date: June 3, 2019
Topic: What is “The WIZ Method”?
WIZ Advisors just launched its proprietary service to drive brand awareness and high quality leads for B2B clients. It is a proven three step process – and it REALLY works.
Here is a one-minute video about The WIZ Method: “Meet Phil”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKFgxo2nBck
The WIZ Method – A Quick Overview
Why does Step 1 of The WIZ Method involve creating a research-driven, industry white paper? As the slide below illustrates, buyers want to read a white paper when they are researching a B2B purchase.
A white paper can also be spliced in a variety of ways – a blog, an article, a press release, social posts, infographics, emails, etc. – to form a content portfolio (Step 2). The content can then be launched over a series of weeks in a coordinated cross-channel campaign to drive brand awareness and qualified leads (Step 3).
Download “The WIZ Method” Presentation to Learn More
Click below to read our “The WIZ Method” framework, which outlines in detail what the process involves, why it works, and the kind of results you can expect to see when implementing it.
View “The WIZ Method” framework here:
https://wizadvisors.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/The-WIZ-Method-Final-May-2019.pdf
Learn more about WIZ Advisors B2B Content Marketing Services here.
If you have any questions or would like to discuss how The WIZ Method can drive growth for your business, please contact me directly via email or mobile.
Stacey Wisniewski
WIZ Advisors LLC
Chief Marketing Strategist
Email: stacey@wizadvisors.com
Mobile: (615) 934-1817
Why Video Marketing is Essential for B2B Businesses
Did you know that video will represent over 80% of Internet traffic by 2022? Or that video drives a 158% increase in organic traffic to your website? Or that social video generates 1,200% more shares than text and images combined?
Consumers prefer it too. 91% of consumers have watched an “explainer video” (video that explains who a company is or what a product can do for you) in the past year. 64% of Internet users are more likely to buy a product or service after watching a video. And, 68% of prospects prefer to learn about a product or service through video.
So what are you waiting for? Video is not just a “nice to have” anymore, it is a MUST. If you aren’t posting videos or running video ads for your business, you are missing the mark.
Click the link below to download WIZ Advisors’ framework on B2B Video Marketing – what it is, why it’s important, three types of video content (“Triple H Video Strategy”), and how/where to promote them.
As a SPECIAL BONUS, below is a video I published on WIZ Advisors’ YouTube channel about Video Marketing. It is entitled “What I Learned about Video Marketing from my 10-year Old” – it’s a summary of my interview with my 10 year-old about her thoughts on advertising, and I think you’ll love it.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8GJWTYE_IXUA9FDSWfgVWA) about Video Marketing.
As a marketing strategist, I am always looking at the latest research on Millennials and Generation Z. My 10-year old represents the generation that follows, a generation that has grown up with YouTube and Netflix over live TV, cord cutting over landlines, and Uber over taxis (she’s never even been in a taxi!). I always learn something new when I talk to her. I hope you do too.
Subscribe to WIZ’s YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8GJWTYE_IXUA9FDSWfgVWA
Learn more about WIZ Advisors B2B Content Marketing Services here.
Stacey Wisniewski
WIZ Advisors
Chief Marketing Strategist
Email: stacey@wizadvisors.com
Mobile: (615) 934-1817