Track: Brand Management & Integrated Communications Topic: PERSONAS Title: Transforming Marketing Through Buyer Profiles and Personas Speakers: JACQUES PAVLENYI, Portfolio Marketing Director, IBM & RACHEL YOUNG, Research Director, Sirius Decisions The convergence of social and data technologies continues to cause disruption in many industries and professions. Marketing is certainly not immune. Customers have very different expectations now, including strong personalization and customization. If the message and offers aren’t tailored specifically to me, the message is tuned out or ignored. This is increasingly true in B2B as well as B2C marketing. And that’s where personas can help. IBM and Sirius Decisions will discuss practical rationales and methods for applying buyer profiles and personas, and how IBM is transforming not just Marketing, but also Sales, Product Management, and other functions with data-driven, robust buyer profiles. - See more at: http://sdama.org/events/2015-art-of-marketing-conference/#session-details

1. RACHEL YOUNG, SIRIUSDECISIONS
JACQUES PAVLENYI, IBM
Personas and Roles-
Based Marketing

2. Agenda
•SiriusDecisions: Persona-Based
Marketing Strategy and Best Practices
•IBM: From Personas to Data-Driven
Buyer Roles
• 2010-2014: psychographic personas
• Today: data-driven roles and marketing
automation
• Tomorrow Jacques Pavlenyi
@mediamutt
Rachel Young
@rpyoung_

3. STRATEGY AND BEST PRACTICES
Persona-Based Marketing

4. © 2015 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved 4
SiriusDecisions B-to-B Content Study
• On average, 60-70% of b-to-b content goes unused, representing
hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars wasted

5. © 2015 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved 5
Why Personas?
“60% of b-to-b organizations
admit they don’t really
understand or know their
buyers.”
- SiriusDecisions Research

6. © 2015 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved 6
EnhanceMonitorLaunchBuild
V
AlignDesignDiscovery
The SiriusDecisions Product Marketing and Management Model
A Best-in-Class Framework for Innovating and Marketing B-to-B Offerings
MARKETING
PRODUCT
SALES
Brand and Naming Routes to Market Campaign Planning
Reputation/
Advertising
Demand
Measurement
Customer Marketing
Relative
Targeting
Messaging Marketing Plan* Thought Leadership
Win/Loss
Analysis
Retention
Strategies
Buyer Personas/
Requirements
Market
Requirements*
Content
Brief*
Content
Activation
Buying Cycle Solution Handbook*
Sales Content
and Tools
Launch
Plan*
Portfolio Architecture
Pricing Product Roadmap* Sales Support
Lifecycle
Management
Competitive
Analysis
User
Stories/Functional
Spec*
Demos, Trials
Proofs of Concept
Customer Feedback
Enhancement
Prioritization
Business Case*
(concept)
Product Testing
Future
Roadmap*
Field
Requirements
Sales Advisory
Council
Financial Targets Sales
Communications
Sales Adoption Retention Programs
Sales Training Pipeline Analytics
Certification
Incentives
STRATEGY EXECUTION GROWTH
Prototype
Concept Testing
Product
Requirements*
Sales Enablement
Plan*
Deliverables*
Activities
Business Case*
(final)
Market Sizing
Segmentation
Sales Coverage
Strategy
Named
Accounts
Territory Alignment
Satisfaction
Measurement
Version 3.0 Field Feedback
Competitive
Positioning
Channel Partner
Strategy
Offering Dashboard*
Launch Dashboard*
Demand
Creation
User Personas/
Requirements
Demand Type
Release
Readiness
High-Priority
Updates
Upsell
Cross-Sell
References and
Advocacy
Influencer Relations

7. © 2015 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved 7
Client Proof Points
• $1B+ Global
Workforce
Management Software
• 28% higher campaign
response rate
• Higher-quality leads
per sales means
quicker uptake
New Product
Launch
• $1B+ Software
Business Unit
• Shortened sales cycle
by 2-3 months
• Sales teams’
increased
satisfaction with
content
Sales
Content
Change
• European Information
Service Provider
• 100% higher content
downloads from Web
site
• 10-25% increase in
marketing-influenced
revenue
Nurture
Streams

8. © 2015 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved 8
The SiriusDecisions Persona Framework
• Functional Attributes
Job Role
Common
Titles
Position on
Organizational
Chart
Buying
Center
Firmagraphics
Emotive Attributes
Initiatives Challenges Buyer Need Lexicon
Decision Process Attributes
Buyer Role Engagement Level Decision Drivers
Behavioral Attributes
Content Asset Types Interaction Types Watering Holes

9. © 2015 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved 9

10. © 2015 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved 10
Map Knowledge Inflection Points
BUYING PROCESS:
DECISION STAGES
Vendor
Selection
Solution
Education
Engagement
Propose
Qualify
Close
Retain
SALES PROCESS:
WORKFLOW STAGES
Buyer Persona
Knowledge Requirements
Business Value
Solution Fit
Examples
Issue Mapping
Demonstration
Stories
Business Issues
Persona Topics
Customer Needs
Triggers
Competitive Comparison
Testimonials
SME Insights
Value Actualization
Differentiation
References
Onboarding
Community
Value Review
Seller Persona
Grow

11. © 2015 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved 11
Horizontal Campaign Persona-Based
Campaign Theme
Campaign Theme
Buyer Need
A
Buyer Need
B
Buyer Need
C
Value Proposition
Value
Proposition
A
Value
Proposition
B
Value
Proposition
c
Reputation
DemandCreation
SalesEnablement
Reputation
DemandCreation
SalesEnablement
Reputation
DemandCreation
SalesEnablement
Reputation
DemandCreation
SalesEnablement
Assets and
Tactics Created
For Persona A
Assets and
Tactics Create
For Persona B
Assets and
Tactics Created
For Persona C
A B C
A B C
Personas
Personas
Assets and
Tactics
Buyer Need

12. © 2015 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved 12
Eight Ingredients for Best-in-Class Campaigns
Is your segmentation and targeting
done to focus on the most
opportunistic markets?
Segmentation Analysis
Have you isolated the buyer
audience segments to target for the
campaign?
Audience Selection
Do you have a deep understanding
of your buyer personas to create the
campaign theme?
Persona Definition
Do you understand the buying
scenario for the offerings that map
to the campaign?
Buying Decision Process
Are your program families
(reputation, demand creation, sales
enablement) aligned to the buyer
process?
Campaign Architecture
Are the value propositions and
messaging narrative audience-
centric?
Messaging Components
Have you aligned the messaging to
how it will be activated via all the
delivery channels?
Content Mapping
Have you defined how the campaign
will be measured and reported to all
the participants and stakeholders?
Campaign Dashboard

13. FROM PERSONAS TO DATA-DRIVEN BUYER ROLES
IBM

14. 14
Campaign planning needs to meet
new realities
Buyers now want timely
interactions
Buyers now demand unique
personalized experiences
Buyers have taken control of
their buying experience paths
The marketplace reality
Campaigns are not aligned
with Buyers' needs, hurdles.
Campaigns are not in the
right place at the right time.
Traditional market planning
Intuition
Past campaigns as reference
for future ones
A product-centric approach
Results are sub-optimized

15. 15
Prioritize business
opportunities and align
resources to them
Define who to target, and
with which offerings
Create compelling
content to engage
buyers
Engage buyers and
evaluate
performance
Revenue
and
Signings
Objectives
I
Marketing
Business
Plan
II
Buyer
Cohort
III
Buyer
Portfolio
IV
Path to
Proficiency
V
Content &
Engagement
Design and
Execution
VI
Marketing
Diagnostics
Revenue
and Signings
Performance
WHY
Build lasting relationships with integrated,
meaningful buyer experiences
 Transform IBM to be more Buyer centric using concept of the Buyer’s Journey, and establish it as the basis of
data-driven marketing systems and processes
 Understand the Buyer via creation of Data-Driven Buyer Profiles
 Anticipate Buyer actions and build optimal responses via Buyer-Centric Campaign Mapping

16. • 1
6
Use data-driven buyer profiles to create
cohorts and buyer-centered campaigns
Marketing Business Plan
Identify business challenges
and appropriate buyers
Buyer Role Analysis
Understand your
buyer, and place them
in the context of a
specific company
exhibiting observable
behavior
Cohort Analysis
Understand the buyer
journey and their path
to proficiency, align to
cohort, and map offers
and messages
Campaign Design
Align buyer actions
with assets and
activities that target
each stage of the
journey
Execute
Launch or refresh
tactics, test, measure,
refine

17. What?
• A representative of each role we
target that behaves in the same
manner
• Easy-to-use format
How?
• Consistent, research-based,
data-driven
• Developed at Worldwide,
customized by local teams
Why?
• Unify marketing and sales data
• Improve content strategy
• Increase conversion rates
Always start with a Buyer Profile

18. Overview
• Bio
• Key challenges, motivations
• Responsibilities and prioritization
• How they are evaluated
Ecosystem
• Who they work with
• Formal and informal network
Information preferences
• Hurdles
• Formats (articles, whitepapers, demos, tools…)
• Channels (events, social media, peers, website…)
• Learning and networking
Anticipate how they behave and optimize each moment to
progress the journey more effectively and more quickly
It’s about what buyers REALLY do

19. Buyer mindset is determined at each
stage of the journey
Discover
Learn
Try
Adopt
Advocate
Buy
Stage: Moment:

20. IBM Journey Manager
• Online planning and
collaboration capabilities
• Real-time creation, sharing,
and updating of buyer roles
and campaigns
• Fine-tune content
management for each stage
of the buying cycle
A single source of truth

21. Data-driven campaign evolution
• Digital and real-time testing and iteration:
A/B message, offer and tactic testing
Optimization and prioritization
• Too many personas, too many campaigns
Transforming ALL of IBM
• Sales: Sales force automation integration with
persona libraries, enablement via customer
journeys
• Design: Rich user information to inform
iterative design
• Product Management and Development:
User-centric offerings that more closely align
to buyer needs
Evolution, iteration and next steps
• 2
1

22. Practical
Agile
Strategies
Use personas and
buyer roles to:
•Drive empathy and
belief with
authentic,
compelling stories
•Make better
marketing decisions
with data
•Iterate, iterate,
iterate!

23. QUESTIONS?
Thank You