There’s a great cartoon by Tom Fishburne that cuts right to the quick. A marketer is detailing “Al,” a targeted buyer persona: “39-year-old Scorpio, drives an Acura, watches “Game of Thrones,” has a Jack Russell terrier, favorite Beatle is George.”
When he’s asked, “How will this help us sell ERP software?” he replies, “Sales is your job. I’m in Marketing.”’
Up until now, that’s been the core issue for buyer personas. By necessity, they’re drawn up at the macro level, since marketing traditionally operates at scale. They haven’t incorporated the personalization and 1:1 insights that are key to the sales process.
Personas work, of course. They’ll drive results like one marketer’s 900 percent increase in length of visits, 171 percent uptick in marketing-generated revenue and other lifts.
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