Knowing everything you can about your customers is extremely important for both a successful Inbound Marketing strategy and also sales process. One of the most successful methods for developing customised marketing and sales materials is developing buying personas based on your target client base. What is a Persona in Inbound Marketing? A buyer persona is a fictional representation of your ideal customers in order to give you an easy way to categorize new potential customers in order to tailor marketing and sales materials to that particular personas needs, wants and personalities. The persona is developed by bucketing analytical data, demographics, common characteristics and educated speculation. How to create an Inbound Marketing Persona? The best way to create buyer personas is to get everyone on the team involved in the creation process. Everyone will have some unique perspectives and insights that will help develop the perfect persona especially the sales and account representatives who work with clients and leads every day. Schedule a full day dedicated to brainstorming, data analysing and development of personas and make it a fun and engaging experience for everyone. The general categories that each buyer persona profile should include: •General Information like “name”, job title, etc. •Background information to help frame persona •Demographics of this persona •Common identifier characteristics •Goals of the persona •Challenges this persona •How we help solve these challenges •Quotes that this persona would commonly say •Common objections •The marketing message we want to send this persona •The elevator pitch used for this persona based on points of pain and solutions

1. 4 Psychographic Personas

2. Psychographics vs. Demographics
Psychographics more important than demographics.
Psychographics tells how individuals perceive the world.
Psychographics – Attributes relating to personality, values, attitudes, interests or lifestyles.
Demographics are only loosely correlated to behavior – often unhelpful in predicting marketing response.
Demographics – Attributes related to age and gender.

3. The Four Personalities
B: Methodical
Controls Emotions/Logical
•Wants more detailed information.
•Describe in detail how the product will help them
get things right.
•Show them how the product will advance their
goals.
•Compete with other poker players.
Asks
Tells
•Briefly describe the thrill/experience the product
provides.
C: Spontaneous
A: Competitive
•Show them how the product will positively affect
others.
•Humanistics love testimonials.
•They want to know more about the company
and who’s behind it.
Displays Emotions
D: Humanistic

4. A: Competitive - Chris
Attitude: Business like, power oriented.
Time: Disciplined, strategically paced.
Question: What can your solution do for me?
Approach: Provide options, probabilities and challanges.
Clearly define what are the benefits of your products.
He will need to know particularly why he should
choose you over his other options. He is looking to
keep a competitive edge and use products that will
make him feel and look better than others.

5. B: Methodical - Miriam
Attitude: Business like, detail oriented.
Time: Disciplined, methodically paced.
Question: How can your solution solve my problem?
Approach: Provide hard evidence and superior service.
She wants to know more about the product and
to feel that you have detailed information that will
educate her; otherwise, if you cannot provide this
for her, she interprets this as you not being a
credible source. She wants proof.

6. C: Spontaneous - Sally
Attitude: Personal, activity oriented.
Time: Undisciplined, fast paced.
Question: Why is your website best for the problem?
Approach: Quickly address values and provide assurances, credible opinions rather than options.
Offer immediate gratification where appropriate.
The web site should speak to her and begin to build
rapport, raise confidence and propel her towards
immediate gratification. She doesn’t just want a good deal,
she wants a good experience as well. Let her know what
the experience will feel like and appeal to her emotionally.

7. D: Humanistic - Henry
Attitude: Personal, relationship oriented.
Time: Undisciplined, slow paced.
Question: Who has used your solution to solve my problem? Who are you and why do you care
about me?
Approach: Offer testimonials and incentives.
He needs more information about who the founder is
and who the people in the organization are. He
wants to see pictures of the people working here. He
wants to see testimonials of what other customers’
experiences have been with the products.

8. Personality Eye Tracking Studies
Reference: http://www.grokdotcom.com/2007/09/05/eyetracking-heatmaps-gaze-plots-oh-my/

9. Writing For Different Personalities
Write for the fast paced personalities (competitive, spontaneous) early on the page. Put their call to
action early. Then write for the methodical &humanistic personalities.
• Bullet points that begin with verbs is effective.
• Tell vs. Show – Show that you understand don’t just tell.
• Use verbs & mental images.
• Talk more about what your products can do for the visitor than about the products
benefits or the company. ~60% more customer focus than we-focus.

10. THANK YOU
Pieter.Verasdonck@Croud.com.au
W
Inbound Marketing Director - Pieter S Verasdonck
@PSVerasdonck
Digital Marketing Agency - Croud.com.au