Presented by Mandy Pennington at the 2018 tecBRIDGE Entrepreneurship Institute Conference at Lackawanna College on Friday, November 2, 2018.

1. Build Audience
Understanding
through Personas

2. I’m Mandy Pennington
I’m the Director of Internet Marketing at Net
Driven and an adjunct instructor in
Communication Arts at Marywood University.
I also love stories.
Hello!

6. Every business is a story.🕮

7. Stories aren’t just for sharing
around the campfire.
◉ Put your audience in touch with
the human side of your brand
◉ Create emotional connections
◉ Build excitement
◉ Change behavior or attitudes
◉ Compel action

8. “
“When writing a novel a writer
should create living people; people
not characters.”
Ernest Hemingway

9. Stories are about people.
Make your story better by recognizing and using the key players who
make it happen: personas.

10. Characteristics of Personas
◉ Empathetic, fictional narratives of people
◉ Representative of groups that interact with or
react to your business or organization
◉ Shared attitudes, goals, and behaviors in
relation to your product

12. Personas are a shorthand for:
Attributes BehaviorsExpectations

13. Personas should be:
◉ Well-researched
◉ Ingrained in your organizational culture
◉ Valued and included in discussion
◉ Suited to context - you might have different
persona groups for different things!

14. Understanding
Form a specific,
consistent
understanding of
your audiences
How Personas Help:
Empathy
Shows a human face
to help you and your
team empathize with
other people
Efficiency
Create shortcuts to
day-to-day
communication and
problem solving

15. Personas make you a
better communicator.

16. 3x
Persona-driven marketing is 3 times more effective
Source: ITSMA

17. Personas are not:
◉ Excuses to not fix fundamental business
issues
◉ What your company thinks they should be
◉ Generalizations based on a single
observation
◉ A one page handout

18. Because personas are abstract,
they are often misused or
misunderstood.

19. Persona Pitfalls
◉ They get created but never used
◉ They were created in a silo and imposed
◉ They don’t get buy-in from everyone
◉ They’re not communicated well
◉ People don’t understand the value

20. Writing your
characters into
the story.
Here’s how to make personas work for you.

21. 70%
of companies that exceed lead and revenue goals have
documented personas.
Source: Workfront

22. “
“In displaying the psychology of
your characters, minute
particulars are essential. God save
us from vague generalizations!”
Anton Chekhov

24. Source: MELEWI

25. In Vouchercodes' London office, these core personas are displayed in the office lobby to keep
their end customers top of mind and to make their audiences feel more human.

26. Source: Adobe

27. Source:
GetResponse

28. Source: Venngage

29. 90%
of companies using personas have a clearer understanding
of who buyers are.
Source: ITSMA

30. Let’s look at a restaurant.
You have customers who want
what you have: they would like to
eat at your restaurant because they
like the cuisine you prepare, the
ambiance, etc.
You also have customers who
want a specific experience when
they dine with you, such as online
ordering or rewards for coming
back again.

31. Two Different Types of Personas
Broad-Scope
◉ Represents most
◉ More generalized
◉ Very helpful in crafting
advertising and
marketing
Targeted-Scope
◉ Represents specialized
or specific groups
◉ Granular details
◉ Critical for interaction
design and customer
experience

32. How to Make Personas
◉ Start by picking a representative group of customers to
research. (Use surveys, discussions, interviews, Q&A,, etc.)
◉ Be creative to get as many data points as possible (i.e. ask
open-ended questions)
◉ Review responses and put together a first draft of personas
using common words, traits, values, etc.
◉ Refine personas next by conducting 1-on-1 interviews to
make sure the persona matches a real user.

33. The Process Slimmed Down:
Gather
Data
Make a
Person to
Represent
Look for
Shared
Traits

34. Information to Include:
◉ Name
◉ Age
◉ Gender
◉ What they do in
“real life”
◉ Experience
levels
◉ Fears
◉ Quotes that sum
up the persona’s
attitude
◉ Communication
styles
◉ Messaging
preferences
◉ Usage level
◉ Needs
◉ Value
◉ How they use
your product or
service
◉ Direct/indirect
influence on
purchase
◉ Frustrations
◉ Hopes

35. Data Sources & Tools to Use
◉ Google analytics
◉ Field studies
◉ Customer interviews
◉ Recorded phone calls
◉ Satisfaction surveys
◉ Social media
◉ Xtensio
◉ HubSpot

36. How to Make Personas
◉ Building personas takes time and is often a long-term effort
for large brands, as audiences and user bases are
consistently evolving.
◉ Quality is more important than quantity when building
personas. Start with 3-5.
◉ Reinforce your research by using feedback from internal
stakeholders (e.g. customer-facing employees), Google
Analytics, and social media.
◉ Exclusionary personas (i.e. people you DON’T want to
market to) will arise too.

37. Finding & fixing plot
holes.
Personas solve real business problems by giving you clarity around
what people need, want, and expect - and if you’re rising to the
challenge.

38. “
“Plot is no more than footprints
left in the snow after your
characters run by on their way to
incredible destinations.”
Ray Bradbury

39. ◉ Use personas to make
connections in brand
storytelling
◉ Customer perspectives will
always work in your editorial
strategy
◉ Choose themes or objectives
that can be connected to one
or more personas
◉ Tie in campaigns or
marketing efforts naturally
Graphic from Skyword.com

40. ◉ Use personas to create
better customer experiences
by mapping the journey
◉ Look for ways to move your
customers through the
journey using personas as a
guide
◉ Examine existing processes
to look for opportunities to
connect
◉ Practice empathy, empathy,
& more empathy
Graphic from Whereoware

41. Personas drive real results.
A SiriusDecisions & IBM case study presented at AMA San Diego’s Art of
Marketing found that using personas in sales strategy:
◉ Engaged buyers earlier and more effectively
◉ Focused messaging & increases precision of targeting
◉ Gained shared understanding between marketing, sales, &
product
◉ Improved sales productivity
◉ Transformed marketing into subject matter experts on their buyers

44. “
“But, how do you know if an
ending is truly good for the
characters unless you’ve traveled
with them through every page?”
Shannon Hale

45. Any questions ?
You can find me at
◉ @mandyboyle on Twitter
◉ boyle.mandy@gmail.com
Thanks!