This document discusses the importance of understanding customers through the use of customer personas. It provides examples of types of information that should be included in a customer persona, such as demographics, job role, current purchasing habits, needs, influencers, and pain points. It also emphasizes that multiple customer personas may be needed to represent different customer segments. The document stresses that understanding customers is key to a successful marketing strategy and business. It highlights examples from companies like Dell, Spotify and Amazon that demonstrate how understanding customers through personalization and recommendations can drive significant sales increases.

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Getting Personal
Customer Personas
v1.3

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LinkedIN: linkedin.com/in/Kameel
Website: kameelvohra.com
Kameel Vohra
Global Product Marketing Manager Dell
Author of Anika Books

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Let’s talk about you
http://bit.ly/EIAPorto22

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What is a Customer Persona?
Why should I care?
How do I build them?

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Wizard, Warrior or Archer?

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Do you know your customer?

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Everything on the home page is based on
recommendations.
“60% of what users listen to comes from
product recommendations.”
- Nada Salem, Personalized Homepage
Assembly & Ranking, Spotify
Your music.
Your podcasts.
Your Home.

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How important is knowing your customer?
• Attention spans are short
• The only thing that matters is seeing those few things that you
really want
• Audience wins because they get what they want, provider wins
because they get more purchases
Today on Recommendation
• 500 people @ Spotify
• 300 people @ NetFlix

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The company reported a 29% sales increase to $12.83 billion during
its second fiscal quarter, up from $9.9 billion during the same time
last year. A lot of that growth arguably has to do with the way
Amazon has integrated recommendations into nearly every part of
the purchasing process…”
- Amazon’s recommendation secret, JP Mangalindan

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“Personalization at Spotify begins right within the Homepage.
Every impression, scroll, click, and listen across the platform
is utilized to recommend content for you. By gathering
information across every customer interaction, Spotify
can deliver a version of the Homepage customized for
each user - 422M versions to be exact.”
- Nada Salem-Onsoz, Product owner of the ranking and
assembly of the Spotify Homepage

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Are you following Arii on Insta?
“It’s far too simplistic to assume followers
will equate to customers – you need to
know your potential consumers.”
- Leigh-Wood Oakes, Co-Founder, Brand Agency WickerWood
@arii
2.6m Followers!
< 36 T-Shirts sold

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“MAKE SOMETHING PEOPLE WANT.
THAT’S THE FUNDAMENTAL
PROBLEM. IF YOU DIE, IT’S
PROBABLY BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T
MAKE SOMETHING PEOPLE
WANTED.”
Paul Graham, Investor, Co-Founder of Y-Combinator

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Do you know your customer?

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When do you need to “know” someone?
Age
Gender
Marital Status
Children
Education
Job Title
Goals
Aspirations
Interests & Hobbies
Influencers
News & blogs sites they
Device(s)
Screen size / Resolution
Referrers
Payment method(s)
Purchase history
Click paths
Email address
Telephone
Shoe size?

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Robert Rose
Author, Speaker, & Investor
Content Marketing Institute
@Robert_Rose
“Behavioral data… content consumption, click paths,
referring sites, previous purchases, social participation, etc
(in no particular order)”
What’s the single most important piece of data?

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Chris Brogan
Author, Speaker, & Consultant
Owner Media Group
@ChrisBrogan
“a first name. :)”
What’s the single most important piece of data?

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Who
That bottom left blue bubble is not
JUST a cursory glance at WHO your
client is. Consider how you will
quickly identify this set of people,
demographically, by title/function,
etc.
Your client can rarely be solely
defined by one criteria. People are
three dimensional, all these
bubbles put together define who
your client is.
This is my job title, industry
& who I report to
This is my demographic
(age, gender, family
profile, interests)

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What
Understand what your clients
are currently doing. Understand
their current purchasing habits,
will allow you to understand how
to change them.
Nobody likes change. You can’t
beat a competitor you don’t
know or understand.
This is what my current process is
at the moment (e.g. I buy Gillette
razors)

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Where
Answering these questions will
give you clues as to where you
need to be marketing to reach
your client.
This could just as well read: “We
shop online at amazon/lazada” or
“I buy my toiletries at Tesco”
Get data that’s relevant to your
business.
I’m a member of these
societies & clubs, read
these magazines, and my
go-to websites are…

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Why
This is why your customer is going to buy your solution. This is
NOT because of some feature, but instead because of something
that’s going on in their organization or a problem that they
currently have.
This is the solution that I need &
how it’s going to help me
This is why I like speaking to
you instead of all the other
sales people that bug me
It’s very rarely
price, but if it is
be specific.
Not wishy washy.

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How
Understand what they need in order to buy your solution,
then give it to them. Make it easy for them to buy. Build
their case, create justifications, and buy from you.
These are the people &
obstacles I need to work around
to buy your solution
Children (Influencer)
Mother (Authority)
Father (Purchaser)
Netflix
logo

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This is my demographic
(age, gender, family
profile, interests)
This is my job title, industry
& who I report to
This is what my current process is
at the moment
This is the solution that I need &
how it’s going to help me
This is why I like speaking to
you instead of all the other
sales people that bug me
Client Persona
I’m a member of these
societies & clubs, read
these magazines, and my
go-to websites are…
These are the people &
obstacles I need to work around
to buy your solution
Segment Name
Hint: This slide is the template
3-5 of these should do

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How to Create a Client Persona
?
Understand your client
Understand their commonalities
SPEAK to them
You are helping a real person
?
?

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“THE KEY TO ANY SUCCESSFUL
MARKETING STRATEGY, CAMPAIGN OR
TACTIC IS CUSTOMER CENTRICITY. AT
DELL, GIVING OUR CUSTOMERS WHAT
THEY WANT AND NEED IS IN OUR
DNA…”
Alison Dew, Chief Marketing Officer, Dell

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Are you ready to rock?

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Jack
*Clearly this image is copyrighted by someone else and not for commercial use
And
JILL

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ZMOT Stages
(by Google)

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Well #1
Best Water Well

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10.4
sources of info
used by shoppers

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TLDR (a.k.a. Things you should write down)
• No business succeeds without customers
• Know thy customer (really well)
• Think about the customer journey & where you fit into this
• There might be more than one customer or journey

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Thank You
Thanks for listening. I hope you
found this helpful.
Connect with me on:
LinkedIN.com/in/kameel

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Thank
You