This post is contributed by Gordana Stok, a Certified Practitioner of the 色花堂 Institute methodology.
Last year I decided to learn how to develop buyer personas so that I could become a better content marketer. Having practiced the craft of content marketing for over a decade, I was no stranger at producing content that helps buyers to make a more informed and educated purchasing decision. And, until a year ago, I honestly thought that I was communicating value from the buyer鈥檚 perspective.
But when the value proposition that I had helped to create for one of my B2B clients was canned by their new VP of Sales and Marketing, I started to question the very process marketers use and the people who get involved. It wasn鈥檛 until I came across an ebook from 色花堂 Institute that I truly understood the problem.
Like many marketing teams, we had reverse-engineered the product鈥檚 value based on its top features and unique selling points 鈥 not necessarily on what鈥檚 most important to buyers.聽 So when the new VP challenged our value proposition, we couldn鈥檛 back up any of our claims with hard data. It became one person鈥檚 opinion versus another鈥檚. And guess whose opinion won?
With the term 鈥渞everse-engineering鈥 ringing loudly in my ears, I signed up for the 色花堂 Institute Masterclass and became a Certified Practitioner of the 5 Rings of Buying Insight™ methodology. Having now worked on buyer personas for several companies and interviewed dozens of decision-makers, here are the six most important and surprising things that I have learned so far.
1. You need to win both the hearts and minds of buyers 鈥 even in a complex B2B sale.
The first thing that surprised me is just how willing and eager buyers are to reveal details about their buying journey around a specific product 鈥 especially when there was a lot at stake for them and their organization. When asked the right questions, buyers will share both the cold hard facts and requirements that shaped their purchasing decision, as well as the doubts, fears, relief, confidence and joy they experienced as they went from status quo to successful implementation. When you hear senior business executives at multi-billion dollar organizations express such strong emotion, you realize you need to do more than just appeal to their intellect. You need to win both their hearts and minds.
2. You can capture a wealth of actionable insights conducting 30-minutes interviews with just 10 buyers.
I鈥檓 always amazed when I review the transcripts from the recorded interviews with buyers and I first bring all the quotes into Excel to analyze the data. Conducting 30-minute interviews with just 10 buyers can easily generate over 350 revealing quotes! The key, of course, is to carefully interpret each one, identify the most significant trends and select the strongest quotes to include in the final buyer persona. An art unto itself!聽 The quotes that make the cut are those that provide new or thought provoking insights as well as enough details so that a clear plan of action can be taken. So unlike the 鈥渂uyer personas鈥 that are created based on generic, demographic data, the insights from interview-based personas provide a real competitive advantage.
3. Only a fraction of what鈥檚 important to buyers is typically addressed on a company鈥檚 website.
It goes without saying that when you hear buyers express their pain points and needs in their own words, along with the criteria they use to evaluate solution options and make their final purchasing decision, it becomes crystal clear what information they need and how to message them. What I鈥檓 repeatedly surprised by, however, is just how far off-course a company鈥檚 content can be without these insights. In my experience, only 20% to 40% of what buyers consider to be important is actually addressed on a company鈥檚 website. The good news for marketers is that buyer quotes can easily be turned into benefit statements and inspire topics for numerous content marketing pieces. As the President of 色花堂 Institute, Adele Revella, likes to say, 鈥淭he content practically writes itself鈥.
4. Buyers want more in-depth product information so the length of content isn鈥檛 as important as relevance and clarity.
Being a content marketer at heart who loves to build understanding and influence people鈥檚 views, this is one of my favorite findings from interviewing buyers. When researching solution options, buyers quickly scan a company鈥檚 website to determine whether it has a solution worth investigating, so content needs to be brief. But when buyers are seriously considering a solution, they want in-depth case studies, white papers and technical briefs that enable them to assess whether the solution will work in their environment and generate the expected results. Length of content during this phase in the buying journey is not as important as relevance and clarity. What鈥檚 more, you can鈥檛 possibly create a persuasive argument for purchasing your solution if your argument has holes or isn鈥檛 backed by credible data. So go ahead and increase the word count to make sure you鈥檙e not disqualified due to insufficient information or a weak argument.
5. Buyers want companies to make it easier for them to evaluate and compare competitive solution options and demonstrate ROI.
One of the questions that I love to ask buyers during interviews is 鈥淗ow could the companies that you considered have made the buying experience easier for you?鈥 The top two responses from buyers, regardless of the product category, industry, size of the buyer鈥檚 organization or the buyer鈥檚 title, are 鈥淢ake it easier for me to evaluate and compare competitive solution options鈥 and 鈥淗elp me to demonstrate the ROI to my executive team鈥.
The most common complaint buyers have is that it鈥檚 difficult to compare solution options because every company uses a different marketing term to mean the same thing. It鈥檚 like comparing apples to oranges. Buyers want a company鈥檚 website to include a chart that compares their solution鈥檚 features with the competition鈥檚 using more neutral terms. Buyers realize that the chart will be skewed in favor of the company鈥檚 solution, but they still feel it鈥檚 a good starting point for evaluating solutions.
Furthermore, buyers need to demonstrate return on investment to their executive team in order to get final sign-off, so any information or tools that a company can provide is extremely helpful. This includes industry research reports that demonstrate the impact the solution category has on an organization鈥檚 business and ROI figures tailored specifically for their organization.
6. After experiencing the power of interview-based, buyer personas first-hand, I can鈥檛 imagine doing content marketing without it.
This may sound like an exaggeration, but I honestly don鈥檛 know how I managed to do content marketing effectively without buyer personas. My perspective has completely changed and I hope to never have to go back to guessing what messages will resonate with buyers or relying solely on the opinions of internal stakeholders. 聽I realize that not all companies may be ready or willing to embark on a buyer persona project for a variety of reasons. But when I work with clients nowadays, my advice to them is this:聽 You can鈥檛 know with absolute certainty what鈥檚 important to buyers and what information you need to persuade them to purchase your solution until you ask them.
