Triggering a contact to become Persona

[MNold21]

I'm working on three email workflows, each targeting a different stage of the sales funnel.

• WORKFLOW 1: This begins when a lead downloads a top-of-funnel (TOFU) asset. These leads are entered into a workflow designed to guide them toward selecting a boat segment. Each email focuses on a specific topic while showcasing the various segments for them to explore.
  **Here's where I'm getting stuck: I was thinking leads would be unenrolled from workflow 1 once they are assigned to a persona, since we've built personas around these segments. However, we don't have a clear strategy yet on how to assign personas. Initially, I thought that visiting a segment page could assign them to a persona, but what happens if they browse multiple segments?
• WORKFLOW 2: Once a persona is assigned, the lead enters a workflow where we nurture their interest in specific models within their chosen segment. The goal here is to get them to download a model brochure, so we know exactly which boat they’re considering.
• WORKFLOW 3: The final workflow encourages those who have downloaded the brochure to schedule a meeting with sales.

I'm starting from the ground up on this, so I'm trying to keep it simple, then continue to evolve and make improvements over time. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @MNold21,

Typically, an engagement with a piece of content is not enough to assign a persona – for the exact reason you're describing. What if someone engages with two different pieces of content?

Persona definitions include a lot more than just which content they engage with: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/properties/create-and-edit-personas

If you want to pursue this route, you would have to define a hierarchy, e.g. if a contact downloads piece of content A and B, we still consider them the persona belonging to A. A B-only download would however mean they're persona B. This would allow you to continue as planned.

However, what customers typically do in this scenario is simply skip the persona step. If someone engages with content A, they get the A-variant of the nurturing. If they then engage with B, you would not have to question persona assignment – you would simply have to decide whether they should be pulled out of nurturing A to receive nurturing B or whether they should continue nurturing B.

(For that purpose, by the way, always make sure that you have two workflows per content piece: one that simply delivers the link to the piece of content, another that delivers the nurturing. By breaking them into two, you can make sure that the delivery one can always trigger, regardless of the contact already being in a nurturing or not.)

Let me know if you have any follow-up questions!

[karstenkoehler · Accepted solution]

Hi @MNold21,

Typically, an engagement with a piece of content is not enough to assign a persona – for the exact reason you're describing. What if someone engages with two different pieces of content?

Persona definitions include a lot more than just which content they engage with: https://knowledge.hubspot.com/properties/create-and-edit-personas

If you want to pursue this route, you would have to define a hierarchy, e.g. if a contact downloads piece of content A and B, we still consider them the persona belonging to A. A B-only download would however mean they're persona B. This would allow you to continue as planned.

However, what customers typically do in this scenario is simply skip the persona step. If someone engages with content A, they get the A-variant of the nurturing. If they then engage with B, you would not have to question persona assignment – you would simply have to decide whether they should be pulled out of nurturing A to receive nurturing B or whether they should continue nurturing B.

(For that purpose, by the way, always make sure that you have two workflows per content piece: one that simply delivers the link to the piece of content, another that delivers the nurturing. By breaking them into two, you can make sure that the delivery one can always trigger, regardless of the contact already being in a nurturing or not.)

Let me know if you have any follow-up questions!

[MNold21 · Accepted solution]

Thank you for your quick response. Much appreciated!!