Video 10 - Online B2B Buyer Personas

George SzantoIBMS Semester 6b Fall 2013

Topics Discussed

• Introduction to online B2B and B2C personas• Using personas to generate a Buyer

Synopsis• Example of using an online tool to generate

an online persona

Learning Objectives• Understand online personas, especially B2B

prospects

• Ability to create an online persona for a typical business customer for a given online service or online product offering, or online value proposition

Persona Definition

• Def: is a representation of the goals and behavior of a set of hypothesized users and/or buyers of a product

• Archtype – thus not a real person; not a customer profile.

• Describes observed behavior patterns

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Start With B2C Personas – “easy”

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For each persona define preferences for:

Platforms (web, email, mobile)

Platform usage (hours) Content consumption: General site types & category-specific Social media - content creation & participation Search behaviour Trusted brands

www.dulux.co.uk

Typical B2B Personal Factors• Ambition - high,

medium, low• Personality – humorous;

aggressive, moody• Experience - new to job;

veteran; technophile• Attitudes - toward own

company and you: like, dislike; indifferent

• Self-image – confident; at ease; insecure; need to impress

• Risk Tolerance - high, medium, low

• Decision-making style - consistent; conservative; slow; quick

• Cognitive style - quick thinker; slow; interactive

• Job Responsibility - high, medium, low decision making responsibility

Now Let’s Practice Creating a B2B Persona

• Here is useful online tool for exploring and creating a typical buyer persona from the company:

MLT Creative in Georgia USA

MLT Persona Tool • For this “demonstration”, I assumed that I worked

for Atlas Copco selling air compressors for the food production industries.

Personas in a Typical Sale/Marketing Funnel

• The buying team (personas)

• Grader / Operator• Field Engineer• Maintenance Mechanic• Field Operations Manager• Excavator Fleet Manager• Construction/Civil Engineer• Purchasing Manager• Financial Director

We will look at this construction team in more detail in video lecture # 14 of this series

Create Buyer Synopsis

• Step 1: Determine what that persona needs to know to buy

• Step 2: Define what content (online media) different personas need for each step in the buying cycle

• Step 3: Select a Problem-to-solution scenario for specific personas

• Step 4: Assign what prospective personas need to know during various buying steps.

Thank You

• After this video, please take the online quiz to see if you master the concept of a B2B persona

• Next, please use the MLT Persona tool to generate a persona for your assigned case