SBP 032: To Persona or Not to Persona? That is the Question.

Spurred by a class assignment, our hosts Marc and Vassilis engage in a riveting discussion, debating whether personas truly enhance segmentation and enrich a marketer's targeting strategy or if they add layers of unnecessary complexity. Analyzing real-world examples and reflecting on their personal experiences, they delve deep into the merits and pitfalls of using personas in marketing, offering a nuanced perspective on their validity.

Enjoy the episode!

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The Sleeping Barber Podcast:

Follow our updates here: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/company/sleeping-barber/⁠⁠

Get in touch with our hosts:

• Marc Binkley: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbinkley/⁠⁠
• Vassilis Douros: ⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/vassilisdouros/⁠

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Sources

• Why Personas are more important than ever https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2021/12/02/why-buyer-personas-are-more-important-than-ever-for-facebook-advertisers/
• The customer persona is dead! https://business.adobe.com/blog/basics/the-customer-persona-is-dead-long-live-the-customer-profile
• SEM Rush https://www.semrush.com/blog/market-research-guide/ 
• 7 Common Mistakes in Building Marketing Personas https://rockcontent.com/blog/buyer-personas-mistakes/
• Ditching marketing personas for Marketing Science https://www.mi-3.com.au/17-04-2023/how-ex-pg-us-marketer-ditched-cohorts-personas-and-restrictive-segmentation-blended-0 
• Only crap marketers mistake stereotypes for market segments https://www.marketingweek.com/mark-ritson-stereotypes-segmentation/
• Personas are worthless for marketing https://articles.data.blog/2021/06/16/matt-lerner-says-personas-are-worthless-for-marketing/
• B2B category entry points https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/business/en-us/amp/marketing-solutions/images/lms-b2b-institute/pdf/b2bi-cepinb2b-final.pdf

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Timestamps

• 0:49 - Setting up the theme - Do personas still make sense? 
• 6:03 - What is a marketing persona, and how to create one? 
• 8:07 - What is the point or value of a persona? 
• 9:30 - Do you have to use demos, behaviours and gender to create personas? 
• 12:39 - Do you always need a persona for an effective targeting strategy?
• 15:45 - Marketing personas versus buyer needs
• 20:30 - The importance of targeting personas that represent a segment
• 22:14 - The key to making a persona useful
• 23:10 - How the persona can become strategic for a business
• 28:57 - Do you need personas for in every stage of a company’s lifecycle?
• 31:51 - How many personas are too many? 
• 33:00 - Connecting personas to strategic business objectives
• 34:05 - The 5 dangers of personas
• 40:32 - To persona or not to persona?
• 43:47 - Personas in B2B 
• 46:18 - The takeaways on personas

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Where to listen

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• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@sleepingbarberpodcast

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