Most buyer personas aren’t very good
The team at Audiense is in the business of helping their customers understand their audience, so they know how impactful well-developed buyer personas can be. The problem? Most buyer personas aren’t very good.
According to Carlos, many businesses target their marketing efforts to an Ideal Customer Profile, rather than an actual one. This prevents businesses from connecting with the people they need to reach: those who can get value from their products and services today.
“In today’s world, people create buyer personas, but then don’t use them,” said Carlos. “That’s because they don’t find they’re getting enough value from them– they’re not actionable enough.”
A comprehensive process and a true partnership
Best Buyer Persona offers a comprehensive process for creating buyer personas. This includes a four-pronged approach to gathering data. There is also a focus on creating personas based on jobs-to-be-done, rather than biased-centric personas based on gender, age, and race.
When Audiense partnered with Best Buyer Persona, the team immediately saw the power of the approach. Best Buyer Persona’s process went far beyond standard market research, as the team spoke with 20+ Audiense customers to get a true sense of who they are, what they want, and what value they get from Audiense. They also ran a 12 question survey, receiving 51 responses from Audiense customers.
“The team at Best Buyer Persona spoke with 21 of our customers,” said Carlos. “This was incredibly useful: it helped us better understand our customers, develop personas, and understand what other personas might be out there.”
Not only that, but Best Buyer Persona was easy to work with. They came into the partnership with a standardized process but a flexible mindset. The team at Audiense felt that Best Buyer Persona could not only create buyer personas, but could also develop strategies based on their findings.
“The relationship went above and beyond what I had initially expected, which is why we’re continuing to work with Best Buyer Persona,” said Carlos. “Best Buyer Persona is excelling: they’re a true partner who is flexible, adaptable, and committed to the growth of Audiense.”
Results
A set of buyer personas in use across the business
Thanks to the partnership with Best Buyer Persona, Audiense now has well-developed buyer personas, based on the jobs-to-be-done framework, that can be used in their marketing and sales efforts.
“Thanks to the work of Best Buyer Persona, we can develop a content marketing plan, attach a sales enablement plan, and attach a value plan for how to get value out of this audience.” –Carlos Serra, COO & Corporate Development Director, Audiense
Insight into who customers really are
One of Carlos’s biggest gripes is that most companies market only to an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), rather than who the customers actually are. ICPs have their place, but targeting this persona alone neglects the rest of the market. Oftentimes, it leaves out a whole slew of people who would get value from your products.
By partnering with Best Buyer Persona, the team at Audiense was able to understand who their customers really are. Best Buyer Persona’s research uncovered motivation and buying triggers, pain points, as well as responsibilities, relationships, and their customer’s tech stack.
Buyer personas that can be used across the business
Carlos and his team are incredibly excited to use their new buyer personas across the business. Once the personas were created, numerous teams wanted to see the results so they could tailor their roadmap accordingly. Sales, marketing, product, and engineering teams all gained value from a better understanding of Audiense’s personas.
“Best Buyer Persona’s in-depth interviews with our customers helped us identify the current customer profile,” said Carlos.
“More importantly, having that buyer persona then translated into a methodology that we can apply across the business.“Now we can develop a content marketing plan, attach a sales enablement plan, and attach a value plan for how to get value out of this audience,” said Carlos.
Ability to better target marketing efforts
With buyer personas in hand, Audiense can better target their sales and marketing efforts. Carlos and Best Buyer Persona are now working together on a number of campaigns tailored to these personas.
The discovery of new opportunities
Best Buyer Persona’s process did much more than create buyer personas. It also led to new discoveries and opportunities. “The work that Best Buyer Persona did resulted in a lot of collateral damage: those customer conversations led us to identify six potential customer case studies,” said Carlos.
Having buyer personas also helped Audiense build better engagement with stakeholders and board advisors because they had something concrete to point to in terms of customer development and marketing efforts.