giso buyer persona development
DESCRIPTION
Detailed examples and analysis of how tour operators can build their own buyer personas to help boost sales, help determine marketing priorities, guide product development and more.TRANSCRIPT
Helping you build a million dollar tour or activity business
a publication of GISO (888) 866-5860
What is a Persona?
Helping you build a million dollar tour or activity business
a publication of GISO 3
Personas are semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on qualitative data (one-on-one, open ended conversations) and market research about your existing customers.
It helps you narrow who your customers are, what they value, and how best to serve their needs.
It’s recommended that you make 3 to 5 personas to cover the majority of customers you intend to represent while still maintaining the value of specificity to accurately represent your customers. The more detailed your list, the better it is to help
determine which customers you want to attract for your tour operating business.
A well developed persona includes: • gender • income • demographics • goals • challenges • age range • values • budget
Keep in mind it is not a list of tasks and duties.
Why Do You Need to Develop a Persona?
Buyer personas provide tremendous structure and insight for your company.
Building personas for your core customers can help improve the way you solve problems, and attract the most relevant visitors. This will help drive targeted customers to your business.
Once your persona is created, much of your marketing will focus on those personas, turning visitors into lookers, and lookers into bookers.
Helps you figure out:
• How, where and when to reach them
• How to attract and retain their interest
• How to help them achieve their goals while
interacting with your company
• How to help them purchase your experience
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How To Develop a Persona?
We’ve created a template to guide you through the persona development process.
Also included are a couple of examples. This process is hard and we commonly hear the following concerns:
• My customers are so diverse, there is no way to capture
their essence in 3-5 people!
• How would I know what my customers interests and
influencers and values are?
Yes, its hard, but also incredibly rewarding. If you need further help with filling out the worksheets, please contact us any time to address any questions you have. We’re here to guide you every step of the way.
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Modern Mommy Michelle
Content Example Persona
Persona Name Modern Mommy Michelle
DemographicsMichelle is a 40 year old woman from Pittsburgh, WA. She is mother of 3. 2 girls aged 8,5 and 1 boy age 4. She lives with her husband who works in a
technology company.
ProfessionWorks as a marketing manager in a consumer products goods (CPG) company. Has had a good career growth but now wants to take it easy while raising her
kids.
Interests Spending time with her kids, networking with moms, pedicures with her girlfriends, gardening, watching Modern Family
Focus In her current life phase, Michelle is focused on her kids and her house. Her parents have been taking up her time as well.
Information SourcesFriends, other neighborhood moms, NPR, kids schools, industry blogs,
Facebook.
Challenges
Being at peace with herself and letting go. She want’s her life back but doesn’t know how. . She tries to make herself and her marriage a priority but that seems to always take a
backseat. Her biggest challenges are managing her time, budget and expectations from her family. She’s so overwhelmed and needs time off.
Hangouts Being underappreciated for all that they do. Nobody gets them except their besties.
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Modern Mommy Michelle
What is Michelle’s Idea of…
Content Example Persona
Traveling
Visiting places where she can unwind and have a good time. Somewhere that her kids would get a great experience, and won’t need to be
watched every minute of the vacation and will hopefully not fall sick.
Discovering/Exploring Nature and culture
Connecting Talking to her old friends more frequently than she does now.
RechargingStaying at a nice hotel. Going for a walk on the beach/ hike/ sail.
Snorkeling. Something peaceful.
Getting Outside of Comfort Zone
Doesn’t want to
Crossing items of a to-do/life list
She has a long list of things she wants to do with her kids: Exposure and experience that she wants to her children to have, and ideally while on a
family vacation.
Experiencing Nature and culture. Educational stuff that she can share with her kids.
Budget for Things to Do She aspires to do mid-market experiences.
Helping you build a million dollar tour or activity business
a publication of GISO
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GISO’s Customer Persona
Modern Mommy Michelle
Demographic Information Age: 40
Gender: Female
Home Town: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Relationship Status: Married
Family: 2 girls (ages 8 and 5), 1 boy (age 4) Annual Income: $75,000
Information Sources: Michelle gets a lot of her information from other moms she is friends with. She also listens to NPR, reads e-mail newsletters from her kids’ schools, reads clothing and marketing blogs. When she’s surfing the web, she uses Facebook, Pinterest, and Quora and also does a lot of shopping on Zulily. Pain Points: Michelle often feels under-appreciated for everything that she does and feels that the only people that truly understand her are her close girlfriends. She also has a hard time letting go and being at peace with herself. She wants to make her relationship with her husband a priority but often times it takes a backseat to the other priorities in her life. She’s generally overwhelmed and needs time off from all of her responsibilities. Values and Goals: Michelle’s values are her family (kids, husband, parents), and her relationships with them over anything else. Her personal goals are to make more time for herself, re-connect with old friends, and being less stressed out. When it comes to tours and activities: Michelle wants to visit places where she can unwind and have a good time with zero stress. When she’s with her kids this means there needs to be something fun and engaging for them to do so she doesn’t have to constantly keep her eye on them. If her parents can take her kids for a weekend (which is rare) she would love to get away with her husband and stay in a nice hotel. She’s also open to soft adventures like hiking, glamping, and maybe even some tropical snorkeling when she’s with her girlfriends.
Personal Profile: Michelle is 40-years-old, a mother of 3, and lives with their family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. When Michelle is not working she enjoys spending time with her kids, networking with other moms, getting pedicures with her girlfriends, gardening, and watching Modern Family. Michelle’s priorities are her kids, home life, and also spending time with her parents. She loves having time to herself but that’s pretty rare these days and she is generally stressed out.
Professional Profile: Michelle is the marketing manager at a clothing company in Pittsburgh where she has worked for the last 10 years. She’s satisfied with her career and enjoys her work, but it’s not her main focus at this point in her life and the truth is she just doesn’t have the time to focus on it like she used to.
Helping you build a million dollar tour or activity business
a publication of GISO
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Content Example Persona
Persona Name Millennial Matt
Demographics 31, Male, USA, recently married, no kids, 1 Puppy, $50,000 per year
Profession Retail Sales
Interests Golf, skiing, dining out, watching football
Focus Himself and his relationship with his new family
Information Sources Friends, Facebook, Instagram, Yelp, TripAdvisor, Sosh
Challenges Limited budget, limited time off of work, finding “cool” stuff to do
HangoutsFacebook, Instagram, Twitter, business blogs like
4-Hour Work Week
Millennial Matt
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Millennial Matt
What is Matt’s Idea of…
Content Example Persona
Traveling Visiting remote places. Having an adventure.
EscapingCheap weekend getaway
Unwinding Getting away from their smartphone
Discovering/Exploring Pop culture, street art, music, adventure sports
Connecting Social media, meeting locals of the same age, going to a bar
RechargingStaying at a nice hotel. Doing something healthy like working out and
hiking
Getting Outside of Comfort Zone
Learning a new skill in front of other people
Crossing items of a to-do/life list
Visit iconic places, learning new skills, having unique experiences
Experiencing Extreme sports and nature, pop culture, local food
Helping you build a million dollar tour or activity business
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GISO’s Customer Persona
Millennial Matt
Demographic Information Age: 30
Gender: Male
Home Town: San Francisco, California
Relationship Status: Recently Married
Family: No children, one puppy
Annual Income: $50,000 Information Sources: Matt gets almost all of this information online. He uses Facebook and Instagram every day, and he also reads business and lifestyle blogs like The 4 Hour Workweek and Hypebeast. Matt also uses the Flipboard app on his iPhone to read articles when he’s commuting to and from work.
Pain Points: Matt works a lot so he doesn’t have much time to get away. He also has a hard time finding fun and exciting things to do with his wife. Matt finds that his favorite activities like skiing and golf are expensive and hard to build into his budget on a regular basis. He also feels pressure to move up in his career to keep up with his friends. Values and Goals: Matt values success in his career and his relationship with his wife. His goals are to save up so he can put a down payment on a house of his own. He also wants to travel more and see as much of the world as he can before it’s time to settle down with a family of his own.
When it comes to tours and activities: Matt loves active outdoor adventures but he doesn’t want to feel like a tourist. When he’s traveling he often spends his time dining out at restaurants, hitting happy hours at local bars, or shopping with his wife because they just don’t know what else to do. He can’t afford to spend an arm and a leg on tours and activities but if he didn’t spend all that money on shopping and bars he would be able to afford some pretty cool stuff.
Personal Profile: Matt is a recently married 30-year-old male who lives in San Francisco with his wife and their new golden retriever puppy in a rented one bedroom apartment. When Matt is not working, he enjoys spending time with his wife and their friends. He enjoys active outdoor activities like skiing and golf, and he also enjoys eating out at his favorite local restaurants and going to concerts on the weekends. Matt is also a big fan of his local NFL team and he loves reading business books on his iPad. Professional Profile: Matt is the store manager at a local sporting goods store where he has been working for the last 3 years. Matt is very focused on his career and has aspirations to become the regional sales manager for his company. Matt and his wife also run a side business helping small business owners with their social media accounts.
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Your Persona #1
Content Explanation Example Persona
Persona Name A fictional name for your persona
DemographicsAge, Gender, Relationship
Status, Family, Home
Country, Annual Income
Profession Doctor, Banker, Chef,
Student, etc
InterestsWhat does your persona like
to do?
FocusWhat’s their focus in current
life phase?
Values What’s important to them?
Inspiration Where do they get it from?
Information Sources
Where do they get it from?
Challenges Key problems/ pain point?
HangoutsWhere does your persona
spend their time?
Helping you build a million dollar tour or activity business
a publication of GISO
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Your Persona #1
What is your target persona’s idea of…
Content Example Persona
Traveling
Escaping
Unwinding
Discovering/Exploring
Connecting
Recharging
Getting Outside of Comfort Zone
Crossing items of a to-do/life list
Experiencing
Budget for Things to Do
Anything Else?
Helping you build a million dollar tour or activity business
a publication of GISO
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THANKS FOR READING!Want more information on how to develop your persona
to attract your most relevant customers? Email us at [email protected] or call (206) 388-3654.
We’re here to guide you every step of the way.