Buyer Personas Don't Work - Learning from a $1M Mistake?

In marketing, buyer personas have long been hailed as the holy grail of understanding your audience. However, upon reading stories like the one from Matt Lerner, a seasoned marketer who once spent $1 million on a marketing segmentation project to craft personas for PayPal, you might disagree.

The created buyer personas didn't deliver the promised results. Despite the lengthy research and hefty investments in their creation, they failed to resonate with real-life consumers or drive meaningful engagement.

He quotes: “Personas, even well-researched ones, are worthless for marketing.”

He further wrote:

“Try this thought experiment...

Imagine you own a beachside restaurant and you're trying to get more customers. Which one of these facts is more useful to you?

1) Tammy is a 39 y/o divorced mother of 2, from Atlanta, she works in compliance, earns $58K/yr, throws right, votes left.

2) Tammy is on the sweltering hot beach with two kids, they're getting hungry, and one of them has to pee.

Option 2 wins, it tells us that ice-cold air con and a no-fuss kids menu will draw Tammy in, where #1 leaves us guessing.”

As a following, he gives the following statement:

“As a marketer, I need to understand 5 things:

1) What do prospects stress about? So I can play up that pain in ads & headlines.

2) Where do they look for solutions? So I can turn up there (e.g. good search terms, complementary services that can send referrals).

3) Which alternatives did they try and how did those come up short? So I can position against them.

4) How do they describe success? So I can write a great landing page!

5) What are they nervous about? So I can call out and address each objection on my landing page and in my nurture emails.”

At this point, your advanced marketing brain should lighten up and say: Wait a minute! - Isn't the purpose of personas to provide the answers to precisely these questions?

So, you might start wondering - what did his personas look like? Well, we don't know but clearly know how they didn't look, right?

And this was the reason why the personas didn't work!

To be fair, we don't know when that project ran, but with the developments in AI over the past few years, things have changed significantly. Research costs have decreased considerably, and so has the output of personas.

Here's a big surprise: personas work, especially when executed correctly. 300% Conversion Uplift doesn't sound so bad.

With one of our agency partners, Randolf Hildebrand from Attention Media, we created a Case Study that should shed a different light on person creation.

You can find a free download here.

In this context, we want to dig deeper into what makes a persona project successful. In the end, there are two critical phases, creation and execution, both of which are equally important. If you create perfect personas but the execution team doesn't know how to use them or turn them into action, they are worthless. The same way around - if the personas suck, no matter how good your execution team is, the results will be terrible.

For both phases, we will now highlight where things can go wrong.

Persona Creation Phase

Lack of Sufficient Data

One of the primary challenges in creating buyer personas is data availability and quality. Without robust data on your target audience, developing personas that accurately represent their demographics, preferences, and behaviors is challenging. Incomplete or outdated data can lead to personas that are based on assumptions rather than empirical evidence, resulting in ineffective marketing strategies.

Biases in Data Collection

Even when data is available, biases can creep into the collection process, skewing the resulting personas. For example, if your data primarily comes from a single source or demographic group, it may not accurately represent the full spectrum of your target audience. Similarly, unconscious biases held by those involved in collecting and analyzing the data can influence the development of personas, leading to stereotypes or misrepresentations.

Sample Size Bias

Small sample sizes can lead to skewed or inaccurate personas, mainly if the data does not represent the broader target audience. Concluding a limited pool of respondents may overlook essential variations within the target market, leading to personas that fail to capture the full diversity of consumer preferences and behaviors.

Confirmation Bias

Confirmation bias occurs when marketers selectively interpret data or information to confirm their preexisting beliefs or assumptions about their target audience. This can lead to personas reinforcing stereotypes or overlooking important nuances in consumer behavior. To mitigate confirmation bias, it's essential to approach the data collection and analysis process with an open mind, seeking out evidence that challenges existing assumptions rather than justifying them.

Overreliance on Assumptions

Marketers may rely too heavily on assumptions or gut feelings without comprehensive data when creating buyer personas. While intuition can be valuable, it should be supplemented with empirical evidence whenever possible to ensure accuracy. Without data-driven insights, personas may be based on outdated stereotypes or misconceptions about the target audience, resulting in misguided marketing efforts.

Lack of Flexibility

Buyer personas are not static entities; they should evolve to reflect changes in consumer behavior, market trends, and other external factors. However, some organizations fall into the trap of creating overly rigid or narrowly defined personas, failing to account for the dynamic nature of their target audience. This lack of flexibility can lead to personas that quickly become outdated and irrelevant, undermining the effectiveness of marketing strategies.

Inadequate Segmentation

Effective persona development requires segmenting the target audience into distinct groups based on shared characteristics, needs, and preferences. However, failing to segment the audience properly can result in too broad or generic personas to be actionable. By drilling down into specific demographic, psychographic, and behavioral attributes, marketers can create more targeted and relevant personas for their audience segments.

Overgeneralization

While personas are intended to represent archetypal customers, they should not be overly generalized to neglect individual differences within the target audience. Failing to account for diversity within personas can result in messaging and marketing strategies that overlook the unique needs and preferences of specific consumer segments, leading to missed opportunities for engagement.

Lack of Cross-Functional Collaboration

Creating accurate buyer personas requires input from various organizational departments, including marketing, sales, product development, and customer service. However, siloed organizational structures or a lack of collaboration between departments can hinder the persona development process. Without input from key organizational stakeholders, personas may fail to capture critical insights and perspectives, limiting their effectiveness in guiding integrated marketing strategies.

Incomplete Understanding of Customer Journey

Effective personas should capture demographic and psychographic attributes and reflect the entire customer journey, from awareness to purchase and beyond. However, focusing solely on pre-purchase behaviors or neglecting post-purchase experiences can result in personas failing to address consumer needs and interactions with the brand. A comprehensive understanding of the customer journey is essential for developing personas that inform holistic marketing strategies and drive long-term customer engagement and loyalty.

Persona Execution Phase: Organisational Level

Now, let us look at the second phase - execution. Let us assume for this scenario that the personas are 100% data-driven and accurate and contain the answer you need as a marketer
To effectively translate personas into actionable insights, organizations must overcome various challenges related to execution. From alignment across departments to implementation in real-world scenarios, here are the key challenges, problems, and biases that can arise when turning personas into action.

Alignment Across Departments

One of the primary challenges in operationalizing personas is ensuring alignment across different departments within the organization, including marketing, sales, and product development. Each department may have its own goals, priorities, and metrics for success, making it difficult to coordinate efforts around a unified understanding of the target audience. Without alignment, personas may remain siloed within individual departments, limiting their impact on integrated marketing strategies and hindering collaboration.

Misinterpretation of Personas

Even with well-defined personas in hand, there is a risk of misinterpretation or misapplication when translating them into action. Sales teams may interpret personas differently than marketing teams, leading to inconsistencies in messaging and customer interactions. Similarly, product development teams may prioritize features or enhancements that are not aligned with the needs and preferences of the target audience as represented by the personas. Clear communication and ongoing training are essential to ensure all stakeholders understand and effectively utilize personas in their respective roles.

Resistance to Change

Implementing personas effectively often requires organizational change, including shifts in mindset, processes, and workflows. However, resistance to change from frontline employees or senior leadership can impede progress and undermine the adoption of persona-driven strategies. Overcoming resistance to change requires strong leadership, effective communication, and a commitment to ongoing education and training to ensure that all stakeholders are equipped to embrace personas as a foundational element of the organization's approach to customer-centricity.

Inconsistent Execution

Even with the best intentions, maintaining consistency in executing persona-driven strategies can be challenging, particularly in large or geographically dispersed organizations. Variations in messaging, customer interactions, and product offerings across different regions or business units can dilute the impact of personas and undermine the organization's ability to deliver a cohesive and compelling brand experience. Establishing clear guidelines, processes, and performance metrics is essential to consistently executing persona-driven strategies across the organization.

Persona Execution Phase: Paid Advertising, Content, and Ad Creation

While personas offer valuable insights into the target audience's preferences, behaviors, and pain points, translating these insights into effective marketing tactics requires overcoming various obstacles. Here are the key challenges, problems, and biases.

Adapting Messaging and Tone

One of the primary challenges in using personas for advertising and content creation is adapting messaging and tone to resonate with different audience segments. Each persona may respond differently to messaging styles, language choices, and brand voice, requiring marketers to tailor their content accordingly. However, balancing personalization and consistency across multiple personas can be challenging, especially in large-scale advertising campaigns or content marketing initiatives.

Aligning Content with Customer Journey

Effective advertising and content creation require aligning messaging and content formats with the customer journey, from awareness to conversion and retention. However, personas may represent different customer journey stages or exhibit varying brand awareness and engagement levels. Ensuring content is appropriately targeted to each stage of the customer journey while maintaining coherence across personas requires careful planning and segmentation.

Balancing Personalization with Scale

While personalization is essential for engaging target audiences and driving conversion, achieving scale in advertising and content creation without sacrificing personalization presents a significant challenge. Marketers must balance the need for personalized messaging and content with the scalability of their advertising campaigns and content distribution channels. Leveraging data-driven segmentation, dynamic content delivery, and automation tools can help marketers balance personalization and scale.

Overcoming Channel-Specific Limitations

Different advertising channels and content platforms have unique limitations and requirements that may impact the effectiveness of persona-driven strategies. For example, social media platforms have character limits for ad copy, while display advertising networks may have restrictions on image sizes or file formats. Adapting personas and content to fit these constraints without compromising message clarity or effectiveness requires creative problem-solving and strategic optimization.

Testing and Optimization

Effective persona-driven advertising and content creation require ongoing testing and optimization to refine messaging, creative elements, and targeting strategies. However, conducting meaningful tests and experiments across multiple personas and advertising channels can be resource-intensive and time-consuming. Limited budgets, competing priorities, and organizational constraints may hinder the ability to conduct comprehensive testing and optimization efforts, leading to suboptimal results.

Avoiding Stereotypes and Assumptions

When using personas to inform advertising and content creation, there is a risk of relying on stereotypes or making unfounded assumptions about the target audience. Stereotypical representations of personas based on demographic characteristics or superficial traits can alienate audiences and perpetuate harmful biases. Marketers must approach persona-driven advertising and content creation with sensitivity and cultural awareness, avoiding stereotypes and ensuring that messaging is inclusive and respectful of diverse audience segments.

Measuring Effectiveness and ROI

Measuring the effectiveness and ROI of persona-driven advertising and content creation initiatives can be challenging due to the complexity of tracking customer interactions across multiple touchpoints and channels. Attribution modeling, multi-touch attribution analysis, and advanced analytics techniques are essential for understanding the impact of personas on advertising performance and ROI. However, limitations in data availability, measurement tools, and analytical capabilities may hinder accurate measurement and reporting.

Conclusion

Ultimately, it is not the concept of personas itself that's flawed but rather the way we approach them. Instead of treating them as static archetypes carved in stone, we must embrace a more dynamic and data-driven approach to persona development.

Imagine if Lerner had access to real-time customer insights, predictive analytics, and advanced segmentation techniques. Perhaps then, his $1 million investment wouldn't have gone up in smoke. By leveraging cutting-edge tools and methodologies, marketers can create personas that evolve alongside their audience, adapting to changing trends, behaviors, and market dynamics.

Moreover, it's crucial to remember that personas are not a one-size-fits-all solution. What works for one brand may yield different results for another. Hence, it's essential to tailor your persona-building strategy to suit your unique business objectives, industry landscape, and target audience.

So, the next time you find yourself tempted to resort to conventional wisdom, remember: buyer personas don't work-unless you make them work.