This is the presentation I gave at Expo Expo! Orlando on how to improve marketing and event performance by Building Target Personas

1. Building Targeted Marketing
Performance Programs Through
Target Personas
by Warwick Davies, Principal
TheEventMechanic.com

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3. B2B Marketing
More Challenging than Ever!
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4. Today's Marketing Planning
• Frenetic, not metrics based-other than hitting
your attendance/revenue numbers
• Repetitive of past campaigns
• Using “Dirty data”: the main ingredient
When is the last time you spoke
one-on-one with an attendee?
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6. Session Objectives
• Identify and define a target and prospect
audience
• Understand the wants and needs of these
audiences
• Develop a marketing and product strategy
that effectively communicates to these
audiences
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7. How Well Do You
Know Your Customer?
• Age
• Number of years in position
• Marketing budget
• How far he/she traveled
• Social media usage
• What keeps him/her up at night
• Why he/she attends your event
• Preferred methods of communication
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8. You Must Know Your Audience!
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9. Elements of
Knowing Your Customer
Buying habits / buying power
Marketing channels
What keeps him/her up at night?
Why does he/she attend your event?
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10. Phase One - Profiling Your Existing &
Prospective Targets
• Review current registration data
• Survey
- Current attendees
- Prospects
Phase One will provide you with
an outline of your target buyers
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11. Phase Two - Make hypothetical straw men to
determine who your power buyers might be
Phase Two will provide you with
something with which to
compare your actual results
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12. Phase Three - Qualitative Anecdotal
Research
Conduct interviews to bring
targets to life
• In Person
• On Phone
Phase Three furthers your research
findings as well as deepens the
engagement with your target
customers
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13. Phase Four – Bring Your Target Personas
to Life
• Give each Persona
a name
• Have at least 15 points
of information for each
Phase Four enables you to imagine
each Persona as a customer
instead of a data point!
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14. Phase Five - Crafting Strategy, Tactics and
Metrics
• Make product improvements
• Marketing strategy
• Tactical campaign
• Measurable benchmarks
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15. Phase Six - Rinse and Repeat
Repeat at least
every 6 months
(or show cycle)
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16. Phases One - Six
The end result of this six-step approach better
aligns your event with the wants and needs of
your key target and prospective audience(s)
growing and retaining your attendee
base.
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17. Case Study
Well-known gift & jewelry show organizer wants to:
• Remain relevant to power buyers
• Provide more show value to targeted attendees
• Target power buyers and serve them better
• Stabilize and then grow attendance
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18. Example of Target Personas - Loyal
Power Buyer (purchases > $1,000/show)
• Name: Valerie
• Age: 55/female
• Occupation: Owner of a gift shop
• Number of years in business: 23
• Purchases at the event: $1,250
• Income: $50,633
• Location: Within 180 miles of venue
• Types of goods she wants to see at event: Jewelry/ Apparel/
Handbags
• Amount of time spent at event: 6 hours
• Annual Sales: $500k
• Biggest challenge: The economy/ Getting a variety of quality
merchandise from new and existing vendors at wholesale prices
• Reasons for attending shows of this kind: Purchase new products/
See new products/ Meet new suppliers
• What would get her to buy more: Higher quality selection/ Wholesale pricing/
Storage and ways to carry around purchases
• How to reach: Mailers/Emails
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19. Example Two - Potential Power Buyer
(should be spending > $1,000/show)
• Name: Debra
• Age: 55/female
• Occupation: Owner of a gift shop
• Number of years in business: 23
• Purchases at the event: $700
• Income: $42,477
• Location: Within 148 miles of venue
• Types of goods she wants to see at event: Jewelry/ Home
Décor/ Handbags/ Holiday Items
• Amount of time spent at event: 6 hours
• Annual Sales: $500k
• Biggest challenge: The economy/ Getting a variety of quality
quality merchandise from new and vendors at wholesale prices
merchandise from new and existingexisting vendors at wholesale prices
• Reasons for attending shows of this kind: Purchase new products/
See new products
• What would get her to buy more: Higher quality selection/ Wholesale pricing
• How to reach: Mailers/ Emails
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20. Example Three - Young Buyer
(< 50 years old)
• Name: Pam
• Age: 40/ female
• Occupation: Buyer at a home design/ interior
decorating company
• Number of years in business: 7
• Purchases at the event: $500
• Types of goods she wants to see at event: Jewelry/
Holiday Items/ Handbags
• Income: $41,873
• Location: Within 45 miles of venue
• Amount of time spent at event: 6 hours
• Annual Sales: $50k
• Biggest challenge: The economy/ Keeping customers
• Reasons for attending shows of this kind: Purchase new products/
See new products
• What would get her to buy more: More variety/ More company budget
• How to reach: Emails/ Social media
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21. New Regime & Other
• Better 'Product' targeted at Key Buyers which
solves their problems
• Contact with Key Buyers how and when they want
to be contacted
• Set up a system which does this so your events are
constantly innovating
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22. Review Objectives
• Identify and define a target and prospect
audience
• Understand the wants and needs of these
audiences
• Develop a marketing and product strategy that
effectively communicates to these audiences
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23. Warwick@TheEventMechanic.com www.TheEventMechanic.com
781.354.0119 twitter: eventmechanic
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