Jul 11, 20217:26 AM - edited Aug 12, 20219:14 AM
HubSpot Employee
Buyer personas can be created through research, surveys, and interviews — all with a mix of customers, prospects, and those outside your contacts database who might align with your target audience.
But like all data, even information you gather on your audience (your personas) can go out of date. After all, business models change, companies merge or shift direction, and your audience can (and likely will) evolve. In your professional opinion, how often should you audit and even update your buyer personas?
It definitely depends on the industry or the business you are working with. Some companies are constantly evolving, growing, and making changes, while others are complacent where they are, so I think it's important to keep that in mind when deciding how often to update you buyer personas.
It is definitely industry specific. For example, in my industry, which is B2B pharma/biotech, I'd say it requires review every 6 months due to the continued advancement of medicinces and the speed of technological or regulatory change within the industry. This means needs and challenges can quickly change. If your industry experiences rapid change and development then regular review is critical.
Our business has close ties to a considerably older age group, and I believe these customers are rather loyal to our business. Consequently, we cater to them by continuing traditions that they are used to.
Saying this, I believe we've gathered a rather wider audience that we may not be listening to as thoroughly. We need to audit our customer base and update the user personas now to continue delivering the products and services that are most relevant to our customers. Going forward, perhaps a buyer persona audit every 2 years for our company.
Aren't you technically updating buyer personas from campaign to campaign in order to better customize your marketing message? I'm a marketing rookie, but it seems like make a "blanket persona" might do a disservice to each campaign your marketing team is doing.
Oct 24, 20217:30 AM - edited Oct 24, 20217:37 AM
Member
I believe as the audience preferences change daily as well as the goals and objectives of the company, the need to update the buyer persona would depend on the perception of such changes to the team and should be done based on this. Hence for some it may be done monthly if your audience are people who are into fads and loose interest in things easily and for some it may be quarterly or even bi annually.
I'd agree that reviewing personas on a quarterly basis (at a minimum), but the frequency is also dependent on any new insights found in the data collected OR if there has been any change in strategic objectives or goals.
From a non-profit trade association perspective, I'd be curious as to others thoughts here!
We're currently creating new membership-level personas. However, we have several services and products that are sold to generate non-membership dues revenue. Would you find it important/necessary to also create buyer personas by product and service, too?
Membership-Level Personas Service-Level Personas Product-based Personas
