Personas Blue Paper

Fictional profiles of your customers to assist in
market segmentation
Walking a mile in someone else’s shoes. Cliché? Yes. Uncomfortable? Yes.
Someone else’s shoes never feel quite right. But let’s get a little uncomfortable
to better understand your customers and why they buy. Walking a mile in your
customers’ shoes can help you uncover what motivates them.
After all, how well do you really know your customers and
your users? If you walked a mile in their shoes, what would
you find? Would you discover that you actually know a lot
about who uses your services or buys from you? Or would
your findings be surprising?
Enter personas. Personas are visual, fictional stories that
describe actual customers. Using customer personas helps build a strong
understanding of who your customers are, what drives them to buy from you and
what problems you can help them solve. Personas can guide you to more targeted
and customer-centric business/marketing approaches and help to:
1. Shift an organization’s perspective to the customer’s.
2. Provide insight into customers’ and users’ decision-making priorities.1
3. Offer greater detail on the different messages audience segments
respond to.2
Never heard of personas? You might be surprised that personas have been right
in front of you for years. Case in point: Jared, the Subway® guy. Sixteen years
ago, Subway learned of Jared’s success losing 245 pounds by swapping fast food
lunches for Subway meals. Jared was an exact match with one of the company’s
target segments: working professionals, short on time that wanted to lose weight
and eat healthy3. Subway struck gold when they turned a real customer, aligned
with a key persona, into the franchise spokesperson. Sales tripled after Jared’s
“oversized pants” became famous, growing from $3.1 billion in 1998, the year
before Jared was introduced, to $11.5 billion in 20114.
Personas are not new, but their popularity is exploding due in part to their
multiple uses. While companies don’t often publish their persona work because of
its highly valuable, strategic and competitive nature, a 2011 survey found that 65
1 Eisenberg, Bryan. “Content Marketing Personas.” Bryan Eisenberg. N.p., 7 Sept. 2012. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.
<http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bryaneisenberg.com%2Fcontent-marketing-personas%2F)>.
2 Ibid.
3 Horovitz, Bruce. “Jared and Subway: Who’s the Biggest Winner?” USA Today. Gannett, 23 Feb. 2013. Web. 25
Oct. 2014. <http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2013/02/23/jared-fogle-subway-diet/1928793/>.
4 Ibid.
© 2014 4imprint, Inc. All rights reserved

percent of usability professionals said they were using personas in user-centered
design work5. Adoption of buyer personas has been much slower, however. A
2014 study found that only 44 percent of business-to-business (B2B) marketers are
currently using personas. That said, persona adoption is forecasted to rise
in the coming years6. In fact, 29 percent of respondents to the 2014 study said
they expect to be using personas in the next 12 months7. Interest in personas
mirrors the rise of customer experience, digital marketing and the ever-increasing
emphasis on content marketing as shown in the Google Trends graph below8
(Figure 1).
Figure 1. Google Trends™ graph illustrates the rise in the number of persona
searches over time.
Personas support market research and work as a piece of an overall marketing
strategy9. Putting a personality behind your data makes it come alive, and aids
in market segmentation applications. By giving life to business data, personas
become useful across the organization. They generate return on investment (ROI)
by acting as a focal point for marketing, sales and operational activities and they
keep your company focused on your primary target audience—your customers.
Personas also:
• Provide assistance in objective planning. Using personas provides critical
audience insights needed to construct targeted marketing messages10.
• Give your team insight into how buying really takes place, which enables
5 Sauro, Jeff. “The Methods UX Professionals Use.” Measuring Usability. N.p., 30 Aug. 2011. Web. 23 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.measuringusability.com/blog/ux-methods.php>.
6 Schwartz, Julie. “Increasing Relevance with Buyer Personas and R2I Marketing.”ITSMA Online Survey (n.d.): n.
pag. ITSMA. Mar. 2014. Web. 23 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.itsma.com/research/pdf_free/ITSMAPersonasandB2I_AbbSum.pdf>.
7 Revella, Adele. “Got Buyer Personas? 44% Say Yes, but 85% Aren’t Using Them Effectively.” Buyer Persona
Institute Blog. Buyer Persona Institute, 6 Aug. 2014. Web. 23 Oct. 2014. <http://www.buyerpersona.
com/2014/08/got-buyer-personas-44-say-yes-but-85-arent-using-them-effectively.html>.
8 “ Google Trends - Web Search Interest - Worldwide, 2004 - Present.” Google Trends. Google, 17 Sept. 2014.
Web. 17 Sept. 2014. <http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=buyer%20personas%2C%20marketing%20
personas%2C%20design%20personas&cmpt=q>.
9 “Market Segmentation Definition | Investopedia.” Investopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketsegmentation.asp>.
10 Yang, Suttida. “Why Understanding Buyer Personas Is Key to Content Marketing Success.” LinkSmart. N.p., 8
May 2014. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.linksmart.com/understanding-buyer-personas-key-content-marketing-success/>.

you to detail buyer needs and deliver tailored messaging throughout the
buying cycle11.
• Create a uniform messaging development platform for your entire team12.
As you walk with us through this Blue Paper®, we will explore how personas can
help you identify and connect with customers in an effort to be more targeted
and personalized in your marketing approach. We’ll reference a fictional persona,
Chelsie, to help illustrate the building and usage of personas while also providing
you with a step-by-step guide to creating and implementing them within your
organization.
Lace up your shoes: Personas explained
Personas help you get into your customers’ shoes to gain more insight on their
perspectives about your company. And like any shoes, those shoes come in
a variety of categories that have similarities: gym shoes, heels, hiking boots
and more. Your customers and potential customers naturally fall into groups
as well, based on commonalities they share, in other words, through market
segmentation. Investopedia™ explains the basic traits used to identify segments.
1. Homogeneity—
customer or users with common needs13.
2. Distinction—common characteristics that make groups unique
from each other14.
3. Reaction—group has a similar response to the overall market15.
Since we are talking shoes, let’s look at a fictional
athletic shoe company, Greater Gear Shoe Co., to
better demonstrate these traits. Greater Gear has
multiple market segments that include basketball
players, runners (sprinters and long distance), gym
rats, baseball players and even yogis. These groups
have their own needs for footwear (homogeneity).
No two groups are the same due to their unique
needs (distinction). Basketball players will have a different response to the
footwear market than yogis, and the sprinters will have a different reaction than
the long distance runners (reaction).
Personas are an extension of market segmentation, and while they have a sole
connection, the two concepts are not the same. Market segmentation is a method
11 Ibid.
12 Ibid.
13 “Market Segmentation Definition | Investopedia.” Investopedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/marketsegmentation.asp>.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid.

for breaking down your large target markets into like-minded groups. Personas
bring those pre-established groups to life by giving each group a potential
representative personality. Market segmentation does not actually tell you what is
driving your customers; but adding personality, behaviors, goals and motivations
to the data can.
Personas are always one of two types: user or buyer. Both forms of personas have
separate, but parallel histories. A buyer persona uses both market research and
real data about existing and potential customers to create detailed descriptions
or profiles of targeted customers16. Angus Jenkinson developed buyer personas
in 1993 with the goal of going beyond typical market segmentation to grasp the
essential characteristics and needs of buyer groups17. His work created the concept
that customer segments can be seen as communities with a group identity.
Customer engagement agency OglivyOne International® adopted this concept
for use with clients as “day-in-the-life archetype descriptions.”18 Jenkinson and
researcher Michael Jacobs teamed up to write a series of papers on persona
development methods for the OgilvyOne online knowledge base19. Jenkinson and
Jacobs’ research was then used in over 40 countries to build customer service and
client loyalty20.
During the same time period Alan Cooper, a software development pioneer, was
developing the user persona concept21. Starting in 1995, Cooper began exploring
how specific users interact with software. Cooper’s goal was to increase the
usability of computer programs and websites22. Where buyer personas focus on
buyer behaviors and motivations, user personas strive
to paint a picture of user goals, tasks and skill level.
Personas soon received some major media attention
in an unlikely way. Enter the 1995 Denver City Council
Elections and 1996 presidential elections. In 1995, City
Council candidate Susan B. Casey introduced the world
to the soccer mom persona when she branded herself
as “A Soccer Mom for City Council.”23 She realized
16 Kusinitz, Sam. “The Definition of a Buyer Persona [in Under 100 Words].”The Definition of a Buyer Persona [in
Under 100 Words]. HubSpot Inbound Hub, 8 Mar. 2014. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.
<http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/buyer-persona-definition-under-100-sr>.
17 “AskDefine | Define Personae.” Define Personae. AskDefine.com, n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2014.
<http://personae.askdefinebeta.com/>.
18 Jenkins, Angus. “Journal of Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice (2009) 11:2, 124-139.” Journal of
Direct, Data and Digital Marketing Practice 11.2 (2009): 124-39. JSTOR. Web. 23 Sept. 2014.
19 “AskDefine | Define Personae.” Define Personae. AskDefine.com, n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2014.
<http://personae.askdefinebeta.com/>.
20 Ibid.
21 Ibid.
22 Cooper, Alan. “The Origin of Personas.” Cooper Journal. N.p., 15 May 2008. Web. 16 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.cooper.com/journal/2008/05/the_origin_of_personas>.
23 Macfarquhar, Neil. “What’s a Soccer Mom Anyway?” The New York Times. The New York Times, 19 Oct. 1996.
Web. 25 Oct. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/20/weekinreview/what-s-a-soccer-mom-anyway.html>.

that this “every neighbor” persona represented a large number of voters in her
district24. After Susan’s win using the soccer mom slogan, the marketing teams
behind Bob Dole and President Clinton’s presidential campaigns realized their
candidates needed to appeal to this group of voters on a national level25. This
group of voters was personified as suburban, middle-class, working mothers—and
even more importantly, they were swing voters.
You could find these moms driving their kids to sports
practices and club meetings; pacing the sidelines at every
game and dedicated to family well-being. But between
work and family commitments, these women were short
on time. This group of voters became so important to
the election’s outcome that Bob Dole even spoke directly
to the soccer moms while concluding his address at the
Republican National Convention. Despite his personal
attempt at connecting, President Clinton was the one to
gain favor among the soccer moms and won the election.
As time passed, more marketers and Web developers jumped on the persona
bandwagon when they saw the benefits of using personas (both buyer and user)
to increase customer-centricity and positive customer experiences, both in on- and
offline activities. Today, both B2B and business to consumer (B2C) companies are
making use of personas in a variety of capacities rooted in customer-centricity and
operational efficiency. Buyer personas can be helpful for marketers because they
help align decisions, messages and programs—and therefore dollars with what
real customers actually want, instead of just what we think they might want26.
In other words, we’re really starting to understand what it’s like to walk in our
customers’ shoes.
Are you ready to hit the trail? Next, we’ll tackle the dos and don’ts for persona
development with this step-by-step guide.
Eight steps to perfect personas
What makes the perfect persona? And what information should your personas
include? How specific should your characters be? And, can they be general
personalities that represent your market segments or do you need to spell out
everything from what kind of toothpaste they use to how they take their eggs?
You probably have a lot of questions about building and implementing personas.
24 Ibid.
25 Revella, Adele. “Power to the Soccer Mom: How Just One Buyer Persona Revealed This Winning
Strategy.” Buyer Persona Institute. N.p., 4 June 2014. Web. 25 Oct. 2014. <http://www.buyerpersona.
com/2014/06/power-to-the-soccer-mom-how-just-one-buyer-persona-revealed-this-winning-strategy.html>.
26 Revella, Adele. “What the Bleep Is a Buyer Persona.” Buyer Persona Institute. N.p., 8 Nov. 2006. Web. 19 Sept.
2014. <http://www.buyerpersona.com/2006/11/whats_a_buyer_p.html>.

Have no fear—
we’ll walk you through each of the following eight steps of
persona-building basics in detail:
1. Getting started
2. Brainstorming
3. Research and interviews
4. Persona identification/prioritization
5. Write personas
6. Discuss and finalize
7. Putting personas to work
8. Persona measurement and refinement
Before we get started, let’s introduce the sample persona for the Greater Gear
Shoe Co. we referenced earlier. Meet Chelsie. As a 25 year-old, physically fit
female who enjoys running and group fitness activities, she is part of Greater
Gear’s target audience. Chelsie will be with us as we work through each step in
the persona-building process. We’ll use Chelsie and her persona characteristics to
help illustrate key points throughout the process.
Step one: Getting started
Your very first step is to look at the current market segmentation your company is
using. If you’re not currently using any, some basic segmentation will be essential
to building accurate personas. Use these segmentation tips to get started.
B2B companies consider segmenting your target audience by:
• What they do (industry sector, public vs. private and size),
• How they operate (how they use your product and
the technology available),
• Buying patterns (size and frequency) and,
• Behavior (loyalty and attitude toward risk)27.
B2C companies can think about grouping their audience by:
• Location,
• Buyer profile (demographic information),
• Lifestyles and
• Buyer behavior28.
Greater Gear Shoe Co. relies heavily on B2C segmentation factors, and you can see
all of these elements reflected in Chelsie’s persona. For example, we know that
Chelsie is an urban-dwelling (location), twenty-something (demographic data)
with a passion for local road races (lifestyle), who is an avid social media user and
27 “Segment Your Customers.” Quebec Info for Entrepreneurs. Board of Trade of Metropolitan Montreal, 2009.
Web. 25 Oct. 2014. <http://www.infoentrepreneurs.org/en/guides/segment-your-customers/>.
28 Ibid.

online shopping enthusiast (buyer behavior).
With market segmentation in place, either basic or extensive, you can now
examine your existing segments. Ask yourself the following questions:
• Are the current segments growing?
• Are the segments areas you can compete on?
• Is the segmented group large enough to have activities and messages
tailored to it?
• Will it be profitable to target this group?
Are you answering yes to these questions? If so, start your persona development
here to ensure you have personas that reflect each of your core segments.
Step two: Brainstorming
Brainstorming is up next. It is time to generate personality characteristics for
each of your data segments. Conduct this brainstorm by inviting both customers
and employees from across the company to help think of traits and personality
adjectives that represent your customers and stakeholders. Then lay them out
in grid format. You’ll want to list the brainstormed traits in a 2X2 grid with
“information-processing style” on the horizontal axis and “decision-making
style” on the vertical axis29. The grid will move horizontally from “emotional”
to “logical” and then vertically from “quick-to-decide” to “deliberate decision-making30.”
You can see what we mean in the customer characteristics grid for
Greater Gear Shoe Co. below (Figure 2).
Figure 2. 2X2 Grid of customer characteristics
29 Eisenberg, Bryan J. “Personas: The Magic behind the Mirror by @TheGrok.”Bryan Eisenberg. N.p., 4 Oct. 2013.
Web. 23 Sept. 2014. <http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/personas-magic-behind-mirror/>.
30 Ibid.

After completing your grid, review where the clusters of traits lie. You can then
group these characteristics by placing colored shapes over the traits that seem
like they could or would be the same persona. The illustration below (Figure 3)
demonstrates this colored bubble method of grouping similar characteristics.
Figure 3. 2X2 Grid of customer characteristics with colored bubbles
demonstrating similar characteristics
We start to see Chelsie’s caring personality loosely reflected in the lower bubble.
She is dedicated and confident in her career. In her work place she sets goals and
works hard to meet them; her sense of commitment carries through to her active
lifestyle. While Chelsie’s personality is evident in this lower bubble, the other
bubbles should connect with Greater Gear’s other audience segments.
After you complete your grid, or “personality adjectives map,” you should have
three to seven colored circles—each of which should surround the traits that could
all belong to one persona. But that’s only the beginning. You’ll need to conduct
additional research to help crystallize and support your personality adjectives
map findings.
Start by utilizing the customer data you have available. Helpful records may
include general customer contact information, demographics, psychographics
and/or transactional data. This information will help either support or disprove
general assumptions you made about your customers during brainstorming.
Are you finding you’re short on customer research and in need of answers to
additional questions about your customers before you start the interview process?
Supplement the data you have with these data sourcing tools. Give Google™
Consumer Surveys (GCS), Quora™ or Feedback Army™ a try31. These tools provide a
range of cost-effective options for accessing customer feedback.
31 Saracino, Adria. “Build a Better Buyer Persona: 5 Creative Data Sourcing Ideas.” Content Marketing Institute.
N.p., 17 Sept. 2013. Web. 24 Sept. 2014.
<http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2013/09/build-better-buyer-persona-data-sourcing-ideas/>.

Before leaving this step, compile all of your data to help identify potential
personalities from the personalities map that match key segments in your
customer data. This information will help inform your interviews and the
following persona development steps.
Step three: Interviews
The research you compiled in step two will help identify potential personalities
that match key segments in your customer data, making the interview stage much
easier. During interview selection, find buyers who match your key segments and
mapped character traits, but also some who don’t, to ensure your personas are
reflective of your buyers.
With Greater Gear Shoe Co. in mind, let’s plan to interview their customers. We’ll
want to keep the following tips in mind:
• We need to interview actual, recent buyers.
• Have the buyers walk through their decision and purchasing process. Did
they buy from Greater Gear online or shop at the physical location? Did they
use the Greater Gear website to research the product before going to the
store to finalize fit and style? Map out their purchasing process.
• Interview a variety of people who purchased different Greater Gear products
to provide the best and most accurate perspective.
• And, make sure to ask why they chose to buy from your company.32
And finally, prep for your interviews by formulating a list of questions for the
customers you are interviewing33. The focus of your interviews will vary based on
your company’s needs and the type of personas you are writing, but here’s a list
of potential interview questions to consider for both buyer and user personas:
Buyer persona information considerations
• Demographic information (Age, address, marital status, number of children).
• Details about their professional career (What job do they have? Where do
they work and how long have they been there? What
are their professional goals?).
• What does their typical day look like? (How far from
home do they work? What media do they consume
throughout the day? What does their workday look
like? What community organizations are they involved
in? What people matter most to them? How do they
prefer to spend their time? What do they do for fun?)
32 Ibid.
33 Eridon, Corey. “9 Questions You Need to Ask When Developing Buyer Personas.” Inbound Marketing.
HubSpot Inbound Hub, 19 Jan. 2012. Web. 25 Sept. 2014. <http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/
bid/30907/9-Questions-You-Need-to-Ask-When-Developing-Buyer-Personas.aspx>.

• What process do your target customers use to explore
and select a product, service or solution?34
• What are the pain points experienced in using your
product or service? (If you have a customer journey
map, pull it out during this step35.)
• What are three to five problems the target customer
may dedicate time, budget or political capital to?36
• Are their tangible or intangible metrics/rewards that
the customer associates with success? Examples may
include “grow revenue by X” or a discount/other promotion37.
• Uncover unseen factors like competing interests, politics (internal
or governmental) or history with your company by asking about
perceived barriers.38.
User persona information considerations:
• Demographic information (Age, address, marital status, number of children).
• Computer and Internet skills.
• Preferred Internet browser.
• Goals for completing processes relevant to your website or design project.
• Perceived barriers to successful use of projects (product or Web design)
similar to yours.
• What are their pain points in using your product, service or website?
• What factors determine the users’ perceived successes when using your
website, product or service design?
Step four: Persona identification/prioritization
You’ll want to sort through the customer research and personality adjectives map
to identify and prioritize potential personas. Try and prioritize between three to
seven personas per business line. Too many personas can be confusing; however,
we also caution you from trying to roll traits into an average user as doing so will
not be effective. Bryan Eisenberg, digital marketing and personas guru, offers up
some helpful advice for determining the number of personas needed: “Ultimately,
the number of personas should reflect the number of primary motivations to
purchase your product/service that exist within your customer base. Sometimes,
personas have identical motivations but dramatically different needs39.”
34 Ibid.
35 “Why Buyer Personas Can Fuel Your Company’s Success - BoldThink.”Indianapolis Inbound Marketing
Branding Website Design. BoldThink, 10 May 2013. Web. 25 Sept. 2014.
<http://boldthinkcreative.com/buyerpersonasfuel/>.
36 Revella, Adele. “How to Avoid 4 Buyer Persona Mistakes.” Content Marketing Institute. N.p., 23 Aug. 2012.
Web. 24 Sept. 2014. <http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2012/08/4-common-persona-mistakes-to-avoid/>.
37 Ibid.
38 Ibid.
39 Eisenberg, Bryan J. “Personas: The Magic behind the Mirror by @TheGrok.”Bryan Eisenberg. N.p., 4 Oct. 2013.
Web. 23 Sept. 2014. <http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/personas-magic-behind-mirror/>.

For example, within Greater Gear Co.’s running shoe product line, there are
mothers looking for shoes for their student athletes, there are recreational
runners like Chelsie, as well as competitive sprinters. All of these buyers are
shopping the same family of products, but they have dramatically different
goals and motivations. These differing goals often alter their paths to purchase;
indicating that each audience could potentially be a unique persona.
Step five: Write personas
With prioritized persona characteristics in hand, let’s get focused and start
writing. Your personas really need to connect with the actual customers you
want to target. You are creating fictional characters that directly mirror your
real-life customers. This step is where all of your marketing data, the personality
adjectives map and customer interviews really become one. You will use all of
this data to develop the fictional representations of persona characters identified
and prioritized in the previous step. The goal? Write personas that detail real
customers’ needs, wants and pain points40. Figure 4 outlines all of the factors that
need to be included in a complete persona41.
Figure 4. Factors for building a complete persona profile
Avoid stepping into the wrong shoes with some dos and don’ts for persona
writing: Dodge the urge to stereotype your personas. In other words, stay away
from the techy-geek, urban hipster, typical teenage girl, etc. When we stereotype
our personas, they become difficult to engage with. Rather, make sure to develop
a dynamic, true-to-life character instead of a flat stereotype. To avoid creating
flat stereotypes, use the “character diamond,” a tool used to give your personas
defining characteristics that anchor their personalities and add dimension42. The
character diamond simply gives depth to your character when you give him or her
40 Schwartz, Nancy E. “Create Personas to Bridge the Gap with Target Audiences.”Getting Attention: Helping
Nonprofits Succeed Through Effective Marketing. Nancy Schwartz & Co., 2014. Web. 02 Oct. 2014.
<http://gettingattention.org/articles/202/audience-research/nonprofit-audience-research-persona.html>.
41 Martin, Stanley. “How to Build an Epic Buyer Persona Profile.” Writtent Blog. N.p., 17 July 2013. Web. 07 Oct.
2014. <http://writtent.com/blog/building-an-epic-buyer-persona-profile-a-totally-comprehensive-guide/>.
42 Eisenberg, Bryan J. “Please Don’t Stereotype Your Personas.” Bryan Jeffrey Eisenberg. N.p., 3 Nov. 2014. Web.
07 Oct. 2014. <http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/please-dont-stereotype-personas/>.

three to five defining traits, or points on the diamond43. These defining character
traits work to give your personas a real personality—the spark that brings
personas to life.
Let’s look at Chelsie’s persona profile. In the graphic below, you can see how the
customer data from steps one through three is used to build Chelsie’s personality.
Segmented customer data was matched with traits from the personality
adjectives map to create a personality that matches one segment of Greater Gear
Shoe’s customers. Demographic customer data was then used to fill in Chelsie’s
most basic information like her location and income. But Chelsie is not just
demographic customer data that embodies the stereotypical young, physically fit,
female; instead she has a story … and that is what makes her a persona. The three
following characteristics make-up Chelsie’s character diamond: As an extrovert
Chelsie enjoys her membership with a local running club, she stays goal-oriented
by participating in local road races and as a tech-savvy event planner, she is
now tracking all of her workouts with a mobile application. From those three
traits and the basic details, we were able to build out Chelsie’s shopping habits,
personal goals, work day and value characteristics.
Does the persona writing process seem daunting? You’re in luck; there are tools
to aid the writing process. We like the following free resources. Up Close &
Persona™ is a persona creation template that helps get you started and streamline
the process. Usability.com also features a similar tool. And Storyboardthat.com™
offers useful tools to help you create storyboards of the persona characters
you create.
Interested in making your personas even more personable? Try drafting a story
for each persona using the factors and traits you just developed. Here’s a simple
43 Ibid.
Chelsie
“A morning jog with my
running club is a great way to
stay fit while socializing.”
Demographic Info
Age: 25
Status: Single
Income: $56,000
Occupation: Non-profit
communication specialist
Education: Bachelor's degree
Geography: Inner city,
rents apartment
Social media usage: Active user,
shares content about interests
and activities, follows health and
fitness gurus
Shopping habits: Conducts impromptu research online with
smartphone, likes discounts, seeks out coupon codes, scans
reviews, shops local, checks nutrition labels and balances price
with quality.
Personal goals: Seeks physical fitness, travel and new
cultural experiences.
Work day: Travels to work using public transportation. During
commute she connects with national news, family members and
industry trends using a smartphone. Enjoys the fast pace of her
work environment, but seeks online tools to help stay
organized. Looks forward to a group workout class or cocktails
with friends to unwind after a busy day.
Values: Career-driven, focused on a healthy lifestyle and
committed to family and friends.

formula for drafting your buyer persona story44. It works in the persona factors
we used to develop the original persona: As a (buyer persona) … I want/need to
(goal) … The information I need (topic) … and is most helpful (preference) … so
that I know/in order to (value)45.
Here’s Chelsie’s persona story as an example. Chelsie might say … I need new
running shoes that provide support for my arches (goal and preference). To
ensure that I can keep running and enjoy an active lifestyle with my friends
(value), I need information about what shoes provide lasting arch support and
cushion for the rest of my foot (topic).
Step six: Discuss and finalize
Persona drafts at the ready, you feel ready to sprint to the end of the trail. But
not so fast … like any marketing process, personas cannot be complete without
team and leadership review, discussion and finalization. Get your key stakeholders
together to review all personas and be prepared to address concerns about
implementing this new tool. You may find that some teammates are concerned
that focusing too much on a particular user will limit the uses of a new product
or tool46. Other teammates may be concerned that adding personas just increases
the amount of paperwork they deal with47. Help your teammates by explaining
personas’ power to unite the team’s vision of the customer by providing a realistic
yet fictional buyer. Assure those teammates worried about new processes and
paperwork that personas are designed to improve efficiencies by helping team
members think through the user/buyers perspective with greater agility48.
After your team, leadership and other stakeholders have
given their stamp of approval, print and distribute. It
might also be helpful to feature the personas in places
your team will see them often. Remember to add
finalized personas to your ongoing content audit.
Step seven: Putting personas to work
Make sure your persona work doesn’t end before it starts. Creating personas
and then shoving them in a file folder essentially ends any organizational impact
personas can make. Avoid that fate with these tips to help make personas work
for you.
44 Zambito, Tony. “Accelerate Content Marketing Effectiveness With The Power of Buyer Persona Stories.” Tony
Zambito. N.p., 28 July 2013. Web. 07 Oct. 2014.
<http://tonyzambito.com/accelerate-content-marketing-effectiveness-power-buyer-persona-stories/>.
45 Ibid.
46 Rind, Bonnie. “The Power of the Persona.” Pragmatic Marketing, n.d. Web. 23 Sept. 2014.
<http://www.pragmaticmarketing.com//resources/the-power-of-the-persona?p=2#sthash.G2lz0kCg.dpuf>.
47 Ibid.
48 ibid.

First, make the most of your personas by fully integrating them into your
processes. If you are using buyer lists, segment those lists by persona to help you
develop more personalized experiences for current and potential buyers49.
Next, it is a good idea to reallocate your ad spend with your personas in mind50.
You now know where your personas spend their time on- and offline. Use this
new knowledge to better target your ad spend.
Personas can also be used to reallocate people resources51. Make sure you are
hanging out where your target audience is located. If they are all on Twitter™,
have someone there to monitor questions. If it’s Google+™ they frequent, you’ll
want someone there to watch the conversation and chime in when it is relevant
for your company to do so. Participate in conversations with your audience
members’ both where they are and in the language they use. In other words … be
relevant … but not creepy.
After integrating personas with your buyer lists and shifting resources based
on personas, audit existing content for persona alignment52. Double-check to
make sure content aligns with the newly created personas. If not, tweak existing
content to be a better fit. Content strategy aligned with personas can have big
pay-offs, but if not aligned, your personas are not going to drive the traffic you
need. We can all learn a thing or two about success with personas from Skytap®,
a provider of self-service cloud automation solutions. They triumphed aligning
their personas with their content strategy to drive sales after launching content
marketing that included a focus on personas in May 2012. By January 2013, they
saw the following results when compared with the previous year: a 55 percent
increase in organic search traffic, a 210 percent increase in North American site
traffic and a 97 percent increase in leads from online marketing53.
So how does Skytap incorporate one of their
three personas into each and every piece of
content? Website case studies and testimonials
all feature one of the personas and their blog
can be sorted by “virtual training,” “development and testing” and “product
development.” Those three categories mirror the roles occupied by personas.
Blog posts and website copy also speak to those same specific roles. Nate Odell,
Skytap’s Marketing Director, shared their constant persona focus with Marketing
49 Ibid.
50 Devaney, Eric. “14 Ways to Get More Use Out of Your Buyer Personas.” Inbound Marketing. HubSpot Inbound
Hub, 22 May 2014. Web. 07 Oct. 2014. <http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/ways-to-use-buyer-personas>.
51 Ibid.
52 Ibid.
53 Sutton, Adam. “Content Marketing: Targeted Persona Strategy Lifts Sales Leads 124%.” Marketing Sherpa.
N.p., 23 Jan. 2013. Web. 25 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article/case-study/targeted-persona-content-marketing-strategy>.

Sherpa. He said: “Instead of just saying ‘Let’s go understand everybody,’ we need
to be very methodical and say, ‘Let’s understand the particular use-cases and the
individuals we typically see and really understand what they are looking for.’”
Take the Skytap approach and if you have content that just doesn’t work with
the new personas and isn’t generating traffic and leads—get rid of it. Ensure
continuous persona focus by integrating personas into every step of the content
development process. And merge your personas with customer lifecycle stages to
help generate new content ideas that match where your customer is in the buying
cycle54. You are now talking to the right customers at the right time.
Another Skytap lesson: Tailor your website to meet persona needs55. No need to
have a generic website when you have personas. Use dynamic content and display
different messages to users based on the persona assigned to them.
And last but not least, remember that personas can be helpful in discovering data
trends. Using personas, Orbitz™ discovered that buyers who fit the Mac® user’s
persona spent 30 percent more per night on hotel rooms56. This data let Orbitz
serve up a more customized user experience. Merging personas and data to
deliver customized customer experiences, that’s a win for you and your customers.
Step eight: Persona measurement and refinement
On the trail we measure distance covered, and if we get off course we take a peek
at the trail map and adjust. The same is true with personas. We measure their
effectiveness and then refine personas over time to always accurately depict the
target segments. What’s the best way to measure persona impact? That depends
on how you are using each persona.
User personas that aid product designers can be
measured with in-person product tests. When
user personas are developed for Web design, their
effectiveness can be measured with user testing and
Google® Analytics funnels.
In Web user testing, an anonymous user is recruited
to complete tasks provided by a moderator. The user
is asked to verbalize their thought process as they complete their tasks, and their
voice and screen are recorded for results analysis. Interested in user testing?
54 Ibid.
55 Ibid.
56 Revella, Adele. “Orbitz Reveals Too Much About Mac Buyer Persona.” Buyer Persona Institute Blog. Buyer
Persona Institute: Marketing Personified, 27 June 2012. Web. 08 Oct. 2014.
<http://www.buyerpersona.com/2012/06/orbitz-reveals-too-much-about-mac-buyer-persona.html>.

Check out our Blue Paper on A/B Testing and take a look at the online resource
UserTesting®.
Google Analytics funnels are artificial goals set up to determine if website users
are able to complete desired tasks. For example, if you developed a user persona
aimed at lead generation, you might set up a funnel to track how many actual
users filled out the contact form after visiting
the same pages your persona would visit.
Buyer personas used in content marketing can
be evaluated based on website traffic, lead
generation and other typical content marketing
analytics. We suggest taking a look at the
content marketing Blue Paper for more on
appropriate analytics.
Cautionary note: If you don’t see results right away by adding personas, don’t
toss them to the wind just yet. Double check to make sure your persona usage is
authentic to the actual persona. Also, remember that the best user persona is not
always the same as the best buyer persona and vice versa. If your personas are not
driving the results you want, double check to make sure you didn’t make
this error.
Personas do evolve over time. Think back to the soccer moms. This persona played
a huge role in the 1996 election and the 2000 election as well. But after the
attacks on September 11, 2001 the persona shifted to “security mom” as women
became more concerned about national security and the overall safety of their
families than ever before57.
And don’t let your personas get outdated. It can be helpful to check-in with a
representative from each persona group every quarter58. Just give them a quick
phone call to find out what they need now59. Ask the same questions from your
original interview and then note any shifts in response. The same concept can
be applied to social media and other “listening posts.” Stay tuned-in to changes
in sentiment about your organization60. Use these updates to help keep your
personas updated and relevant.
57 Macfarquhar, Neil. “What’s a Soccer Mom Anyway?” The New York Times. The New York Times, 19 Oct. 1996.
Web. 25 Oct. 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/1996/10/20/weekinreview/what-s-a-soccer-mom-anyway.html>.
58 Ritchie, Anna. “3 Tips for Keeping Your Buyer Personas Fresh and Alive.” Content Marketing Institute. N.p., 18
Apr. 2013. Web. 08 Oct. 2014.
<http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2013/04/tips-keeping-buyer-personas-fresh/>.
59 Ibid.
60 Ibid.

Trail’s end
You’ve navigated the trail, and you learned a few things along the path. You are
now equipped to begin your own persona-building process. Let’s recap key trail
takeaways. First we laced up our shoes and explored some persona basics. Then
we moved down the trail and through the entire persona building process. When
creating your own personas, remember to use customer data, the personality
adjectives map and character diamond to create personas that really feel like your
actual customers. Make sure to continuously use completed personas to connect
with your audience. Don’t forget to measure your efforts, refine your personas
and keep hiking to greater marketing success.
4imprint serves more than 100,000 businesses with innovative promotional items throughout the United States,
Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland. Its product offerings include giveaways, business gifts, personalized gifts,
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