Personas Aren’t Enough: Three Things You Need to Bring Them to Life

By Matt Heinz, Founder and President of Heinz Marketing
Don’t get me wrong, customer personas are a great start.  If you have documentation on who your customers are – their roles, their objectives, their tendencies and needs – that’s a solid foundation.  Unfortunately, many personas just aren’t actionable.
In other words, looking at many one-page personas we see on a regular basis, there isn’t a clear next step.  How do you bring them to life?  How do you convert documented personas into content, into engagement, into commitment from the people behind those personas to work with you?
With your personas as a starting point, you can convert them into actionable insights by thinking about your buyer three different ways:
The buying committee
Perhaps you have a single persona developed that represents the decision maker.  She may make the ultimate decision, but I bet she has a team of people around her that help with that