ibm & sirius decisions: transforming marketing through buyer profiles and personas

RACHEL YOUNG, SIRIUSDECISIONS

JACQUES PAVLENYI, IBM

Personas and Roles-Based Marketing

Agenda

• SiriusDecisions: Persona-Based Marketing Strategy and Best Practices

• IBM: From Personas to Data-Driven Buyer Roles

• 2010-2014: psychographic personas

• Today: data-driven roles and marketing automation

• Tomorrow Jacques Pavlenyi@mediamutt

Rachel Young@rpyoung_

STRATEGY AND BEST PRACTICES

Persona-Based Marketing

© 2015 SiriusDecisions. All Rights Reserved 4

SiriusDecisions B-to-B Content Study

• On average, 60-70% of b-to-b content goes unused, representing

hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars wasted


Why Personas?

“60% of b-to-b organizations

admit they don’t really

understand or know their

buyers.”

- SiriusDecisions Research


EnhanceMonitorLaunchBuild

V

AlignDesignDiscovery

The SiriusDecisions Product Marketing and Management Model A Best-in-Class Framework for Innovating and Marketing B-to-B Offerings

MARKETING

PRODUCT

SALES

Brand and Naming Routes to Market Campaign PlanningReputation/

Advertising

Demand

MeasurementCustomer Marketing

Relative

TargetingMessaging Marketing Plan* Thought Leadership

Win/Loss

Analysis

Retention

Strategies

Buyer Personas/

Requirements

Market

Requirements*

Content

Brief*

Content

Activation

Buying Cycle Solution Handbook*Sales Content

and Tools

Launch

Plan*

Portfolio Architecture

Pricing Product Roadmap* Sales SupportLifecycle

Management

Competitive

Analysis

User

Stories/Functional

Spec*

Demos, Trials

Proofs of Concept

Customer Feedback

Enhancement

Prioritization

Business Case*

(concept)

Product Testing

Future

Roadmap*

Field

Requirements

Sales Advisory

CouncilFinancial Targets

Sales

CommunicationsSales Adoption Retention Programs

Sales Training Pipeline Analytics

Certification

Incentives

STRATEGY EXECUTION GROWTH

Prototype

Concept Testing

Product

Requirements*

Sales Enablement

Plan*

Deliverables*

Activities

Business Case*

(final)

Market Sizing

Segmentation

Sales Coverage

Strategy

Named

Accounts

Territory Alignment

Satisfaction

Measurement

Version 3.0 Field Feedback

Competitive

Positioning

Channel Partner

Strategy

Offering Dashboard*

Launch Dashboard*

Demand

Creation

User Personas/

Requirements

Demand Type

Release

Readiness High-Priority

Updates

Upsell

Cross-SellReferences and

Advocacy

Influencer Relations


Client Proof Points

• $1B+ Global Workforce Management Software

• 28% higher campaign response rate

• Higher-quality leadsper sales means quicker uptake

New Product Launch

• $1B+ Software Business Unit

• Shortened sales cycle by 2-3 months

• Sales teams’ increased satisfaction with content

Sales Content Change

• European Information Service Provider

• 100% higher content downloads from Web site

• 10-25% increase in marketing-influenced revenue

Nurture Streams


The SiriusDecisions Persona Framework

• \ Functional Attributes

Job RoleCommon

Titles

Position on

Organizational

Chart

Buying

CenterFirmagraphics

Emotive Attributes

Initiatives Challenges Buyer Need Lexicon

Decision Process Attributes

Buyer Role Engagement Level Decision Drivers

Behavioral Attributes

Content Asset Types Interaction Types Watering Holes


Map Knowledge Inflection Points

BUYING PROCESS:

DECISION STAGES

Vendor

Selection

Solution

Education

Engagement

Propose

Qualify

Close

Retain

SALES PROCESS:

WORKFLOW STAGES

Buyer Persona

Knowledge Requirements

Business Value

Solution Fit

Examples

Issue Mapping

Demonstration

Stories

Business Issues

Persona TopicsCustomer Needs

Triggers

Competitive Comparison

Testimonials

SME Insights

Value Actualization

Differentiation

References

Onboarding

CommunityValue Review

Seller Persona

Grow


Horizontal Campaign Persona-Based

Campaign Theme

Campaign Theme

Buyer Need

A

Buyer Need

B

Buyer Need

C

Value Proposition

Value

Proposition

A

Value

Proposition

B

Value

Proposition

c

Re

pu

tatio

n

Dem

an

d C

rea

tio

n

Sa

les E

na

ble

me

nt

Rep

uta

tio

n

Dem

an

d C

rea

tio

n

Sa

les E

na

ble

me

nt

Rep

uta

tio

n

Dem

an

d C

rea

tio

n

Sa

les E

na

ble

me

nt

Re

pu

tatio

n

Dem

an

d C

rea

tio

n

Sa

les E

na

ble

me

nt

Assets and

Tactics Created

For Persona A

Assets and

Tactics Create

For Persona B

Assets and

Tactics Created

For Persona C

A B C

A B C

Pe

rso

na

s

Pe

rso

na

s

Assets and

Tactics

Buyer Need


Eight Ingredients for Best-in-Class Campaigns

Is your segmentation and targeting done to focus on the most

opportunistic markets?

Segmentation Analysis

Have you isolated the buyer audience segments to target for the

campaign?

Audience Selection

Do you have a deep understanding of your buyer personas to create the

campaign theme?

Persona Definition

Do you understand the buying scenario for the offerings that map

to the campaign?

Buying Decision Process

Are your program families (reputation, demand creation, sales

enablement) aligned to the buyer process?

Campaign Architecture

Are the value propositions and messaging narrative audience-

centric?

Messaging Components

Have you aligned the messaging to how it will be activated via all the

delivery channels?

Content Mapping

Have you defined how the campaign will be measured and reported to all the participants and stakeholders?

Campaign Dashboard

FROM PERSONAS TO DATA-DRIVEN BUYER ROLES

IBM

14

Campaign planning needs to meet new realities

Buyers now want timely interactions

Buyers now demand unique personalized experiences

Buyers have taken control of their buying experience paths

The marketplace reality

Campaigns are not aligned with Buyers' needs, hurdles.

Campaigns are not in the right place at the right time.

Traditional market planning

Intuition

Past campaigns as reference for future ones

A product-centric approach

Results are sub-optimized

15

Prioritize business opportunities and align resources to them

Define who to target, and with which offerings

Create compelling content to engage buyers

Engage buyers and evaluate performance

Revenue

and

Signings

Objectives

I

Marketing

Business

Plan

II

Buyer

Cohort

III

Buyer

Portfolio

IV

Path to

Proficiency

V

Content &

Engagement

Design and

Execution

VI

Marketing

Diagnostics

Revenue

and Signings

Performance

WHY

Build lasting relationships with integrated, meaningful buyer experiences

Transform IBM to be more Buyer centric using concept of the Buyer’s Journey, and establish it as the basis of

data-driven marketing systems and processes

Understand the Buyer via creation of Data-Driven Buyer Profiles

Anticipate Buyer actions and build optimal responses via Buyer-Centric Campaign Mapping

• 16

Use data-driven buyer profiles to create cohorts and buyer-centered campaigns

Marketing Business Plan Identify business challenges

and appropriate buyers

Buyer Role AnalysisUnderstand your

buyer, and place them in the context of a specific company

exhibiting observable behavior

Cohort Analysis Understand the buyer journey and their path to proficiency, align to cohort, and map offers

and messages

Campaign DesignAlign buyer actions

with assets and activities that target

each stage of the journey

ExecuteLaunch or refresh

tactics, test, measure, refine

What?

• A representative of each role we

target that behaves in the same

manner

• Easy-to-use format

How?

• Consistent, research-based,

data-driven

• Developed at Worldwide,

customized by local teams

Why?

• Unify marketing and sales data

• Improve content strategy

• Increase conversion rates

Always start with a Buyer Profile

Overview

• Bio

• Key challenges, motivations

• Responsibilities and prioritization

• How they are evaluated

Ecosystem

• Who they work with

• Formal and informal network

Information preferences

• Hurdles

• Formats (articles, whitepapers, demos, tools…)

• Channels (events, social media, peers, website…)

• Learning and networking

Anticipate how they behave and optimize each moment to progress the journey more effectively and more quickly

It’s about what buyers REALLY do

Buyer mindset is determined at each stage of the journey

Discover

Learn

Try

Adopt

Advocate

Buy

Stage: Moment:

IBM Journey Manager

• Online planning and

collaboration capabilities

• Real-time creation, sharing,

and updating of buyer roles

and campaigns

• Fine-tune content

management for each stage of the buying cycle

A single source of truth

Data-driven campaign evolution• Digital and real-time testing and iteration:

A/B message, offer and tactic testing

Optimization and prioritization• Too many personas, too many campaigns

Transforming ALL of IBM• Sales: Sales force automation integration with

persona libraries, enablement via customer journeys

• Design: Rich user information to inform iterative design

• Product Management and Development: User-centric offerings that more closely align to buyer needs

Evolution, iteration and next steps

• 21

PracticalAgileStrategies

Use personas and buyer roles to:

•Drive empathy and belief withauthentic, compelling stories

•Make better marketing decisions with data

• Iterate, iterate, iterate!

QUESTIONS?

Thank You