How to Create an AI Marketing Persona

Summary

In this insightful video, Andy from Orbit Media demonstrates how AI can revolutionize marketing by creating detailed personas for targeted audience research. He illustrates the process by crafting a persona for a healthcare-focused nonprofit's marketing director, using AI to identify goals, pain points, and decision criteria. The video showcases the use of AI in generating marketing content, analyzing web resources, and aligning sales and marketing strategies with audience needs, emphasizing the importance of empathy and continuous persona refinement for effective marketing.

Takeaways

• 🧐 AI can be utilized to create detailed marketing personas to align marketing and sales messages with the needs of the target audience.
• 🔍 The process involves using AI to generate information about a persona's background, goals, pain points, and decision criteria.
• 📝 Iterative questioning with AI can refine the persona and uncover deeper insights, such as specific concerns and language preferences.
• 🗣️ Understanding the language a persona uses to describe their challenges and solutions is crucial for effective marketing communication.
• 🌐 AI can assist in identifying resources and information sources that a persona might use, enhancing the empathy and relevance of marketing efforts.
• 📚 Researching and incorporating industry-specific events, conferences, and online resources can provide additional context for persona development.
• 🎯 Tailoring content to address the specific pain points and interests of a persona can improve the effectiveness of marketing strategies.
• 💡 AI can suggest content ideas or draft materials that align with the persona's needs, serving as a starting point for marketing collateral.
• 📉 Using AI for gap analysis can identify areas where existing marketing content may not fully address the persona's concerns or needs.
• 🤝 The insights gained from AI-generated personas should be verified with real-world stakeholders and customer interviews for validation.
• 🚀 Continuous interaction with the AI persona can provide ongoing insights and adapt marketing strategies in real-time.

Q & A

What is the main purpose of using AI for persona creation in marketing as described in the script?

The main purpose is to align marketing and sales messages with the information needs, top concerns, and buying triggers of the target audience to increase the chances of winning leads and deals.

Who is the target audience in the given example in the script?

The target audience is non-profit organizations, specifically healthcare nonprofits in the Midwest U.S., focusing on fundraising goals, donors, and volunteers.

What is the persona's name created in the script?

The persona's name created in the script is Taylor Rodriguez.

What are some of the goals of the persona Taylor Rodriguez?

Taylor's goals are to create more effective fundraising campaigns through digital marketing and to promote their events.

What is the importance of using the language that the target audience would use according to the script?

Using the target audience's language helps in creating a connection and empathy, ensuring that marketing messages resonate with them and confirming that the marketing content is relevant and understandable.

How does the script suggest using AI to understand the top of the funnel for the persona?

The script suggests using AI tools that can crawl the web, like Bing with chat GPT4 plus web browsing, to find out what resources the persona might use to get information and to be more effective at their job.

What are some of the resources suggested by the script for the persona to improve their marketing effectiveness?

Some resources suggested include attending conferences, networking opportunities, specific events like the Nonprofit Summit for Salesforce, and websites like Donorbox.

What is the significance of understanding the decision-making process for the persona in the script?

Understanding the decision-making process helps in aligning the marketing approach with the persona's needs and influences, ensuring that the marketing content addresses the concerns and criteria important to the persona.

How does the script use AI to create a draft of content for the persona?

The script uses AI to generate a draft web page promoting social media marketing services tailored to the persona's needs, using the language, challenges, and solutions identified earlier.

What is the final recommendation made in the script for using the AI-generated persona?

The final recommendation is to use the AI-generated persona for ongoing insights and to validate the marketing approach with real-world stakeholders and customers.

Outlines

00:00

🚀 Leveraging AI for Marketing Persona Development

Andy from Orbit Media introduces the concept of using AI to create marketing personas and align marketing strategies with audience needs. He demonstrates the process by choosing a social media marketing agency targeting healthcare nonprofits. The example involves generating a persona for a marketing director of a $10 million nonprofit in the Midwest, focusing on improving healthcare access in underserved communities. The persona includes goals, pain points, and decision criteria for selecting a social media marketing company. Andy emphasizes the importance of iteratively refining the persona by asking deeper questions to gain insights into the persona's concerns, language, and preferred resources.

05:01

🔎 Enhancing Persona with Detailed Insights and Resources

Continuing from the previous paragraph, Andy delves deeper into the persona of Taylor Rodriguez, a marketing director. He explores Taylor's concerns such as fundraising targets, budget limitations, community impact, and volunteer recruitment. Andy uses AI to understand the language Taylor might use to describe marketing challenges and solutions, revealing terms like 'resource optimization' and 'strategic partnerships'. He also investigates the types of resources Taylor might consult, such as conferences, networking events, and websites like Donorbox. Andy highlights the importance of aligning marketing content with the persona's language and interests, and suggests using AI to generate content drafts or identify gaps in existing marketing materials.

10:02

📚 Utilizing AI for Content Creation and Gap Analysis

In the final paragraph, Andy discusses the practical application of the AI-generated persona in content creation and marketing strategy. He uses the persona to draft a web page promoting social media marketing services tailored to healthcare-focused nonprofits, emphasizing planned giving campaigns. Andy also demonstrates how to use AI for gap analysis by checking an existing web page against the persona's concerns to identify areas not addressed. He concludes by emphasizing the value of AI in enhancing marketing efforts through empathy and alignment with the audience's needs, and encourages viewers to validate their marketing strategies with real stakeholders and customers.

Keywords

💡AI

AI, or Artificial Intelligence, refers to the simulation of human intelligence in machines that are programmed to think like humans and mimic their actions. In the video's context, AI is utilized to generate marketing personas and to understand audience behavior, which is crucial for creating empathetic marketing strategies. The script mentions using AI to build a persona for a marketing director, showing how AI can assist in audience research and marketing message alignment.

💡Personas

Personas are fictional characters created to represent the ideal users of a product or service. They are used in marketing to understand and empathize with the target audience's needs, goals, and behaviors. The video discusses using AI to generate quick marketing personas, such as 'Taylor Rodriguez,' to tailor marketing messages and strategies to better resonate with the audience.

💡Marketing Director

A Marketing Director is a senior-level executive responsible for overseeing a company's marketing strategy and initiatives. In the script, the persona of 'Taylor Rodriguez,' a marketing director at a nonprofit, is created to illustrate how AI can help understand the specific goals, pain points, and decision-making criteria of a target audience member.

💡Nonprofit

A nonprofit organization is a group that operates without the primary goal of making a profit, often focusing on serving a public or communal benefit. The video script uses the example of a healthcare-focused nonprofit to demonstrate how AI can be applied to understand and cater to the specific needs of such organizations in their marketing efforts.

💡Fundraising

Fundraising is the process of collecting donations or other forms of financial support from individuals, organizations, or other entities. In the video, fundraising goals are identified as a key concern for the marketing director persona, highlighting the importance of effective fundraising campaigns in the nonprofit sector.

💡Digital Marketing

Digital marketing refers to the use of digital channels, such as social media, search engines, and websites, to promote products or services. The script discusses the marketing director's goal of creating more effective fundraising campaigns through digital marketing, emphasizing the role of online platforms in reaching and engaging audiences.

💡Pain Points

Pain points are the challenges or problems that a customer faces, which a product or service aims to solve. The video script identifies pain points such as budget limitations and community impact, which are crucial for understanding the needs of the target audience and crafting relevant marketing messages.

💡Decision Criteria

Decision criteria are the factors or standards that influence the choices made by individuals or organizations. In the script, the decision criteria for selecting a social media marketing company are explored, providing insights into what the marketing director persona considers important when making hiring decisions.

💡Strategic Partnerships

Strategic partnerships are alliances formed between organizations to achieve common goals or to complement each other's capabilities. The script mentions strategic partnerships as a solution to the marketing director's challenges, indicating the value of collaborations in addressing marketing and fundraising issues.

💡Targeted Messaging

Targeted messaging involves crafting and delivering messages that are specifically tailored to the needs, interests, and characteristics of a particular audience segment. The video discusses the importance of using targeted messaging to effectively communicate with the audience and address their concerns, as part of the marketing strategy.

💡Zero Moment of Truth

The Zero Moment of Truth (ZMOT) refers to the instant when a prospect first becomes aware of a need or a problem that a product or service can solve. The script asks what kinds of events trigger the realization that a marketing company is needed, aiming to understand the emotional connection and the starting point of the customer's decision-making process.

💡Sales and Marketing Alignment

Sales and marketing alignment refers to the coordination and integration of sales and marketing efforts to ensure a consistent and effective approach to reaching customers. The video script explores how understanding the decision-making process and the team involved can help align sales and marketing strategies to better meet the audience's needs.

Highlights

AI can be used to generate marketing personas and align marketing and sales messages with the target audience's needs.

Example given involves a social media marketing agency targeting non-profit healthcare organizations.

AI-generated persona named Taylor Rodriguez is created for a marketing director of a non-profit.

Goals of the persona include creating effective fundraising campaigns and promoting events.

Pain points identified include fundraising targets, budget limitations, community impact, and volunteer recruitment.

Decision criteria for selecting a social media marketing company are outlined.

Further persona development involves understanding what keeps the persona up at night, such as fundraising targets and budget limitations.

Language used by the persona to describe marketing challenges and solutions is explored.

Strategic partnerships, targeted messaging, and storytelling are identified as solutions.

Bing is used to find resources that the persona might use for information.

Conferences, networking opportunities, and courses are suggested as resources.

Salesforce Nonprofit Summit and donor box website are highlighted as potential resources.

Podcasts relevant to fundraising are recommended as part of the persona's information gathering.

Sales and marketing alignment is discussed, focusing on decision-making processes and team dynamics.

Marketing functions likely to be outsourced are identified, such as those requiring specialized skills.

Influencers in the decision-making process are identified, including the marketing manager and finance director.

Triggers for seeking marketing services are explored, such as being overwhelmed or having a major event approaching.

Information needed by the persona before contacting a marketing agency is discussed.

AI is used to draft content for a web page promoting social media marketing services.

AI can be used to perform gap analysis on existing web pages to identify unaddressed concerns.

The importance of verifying AI-generated insights with real stakeholders and customers is emphasized.

Transcripts

hi this is Andy from orbit media I want

to show you an interesting use case for

AI and marketing and it's all about

personas and audience research marketing

is a giant test of empathy and by

aligning your marketing and sales

messages with the information needs and

the top concerns and the buying triggers

of your target audience that's going to

increase your chance of winning the lead

and winning the deal

so here's how to use AI to generate

quick marketing personas and use those

for better results

okay I'm going to choose an example

let's say we're a social media marketing

business we're an agency create a farm

and we are targeting non-profits

specifically Healthcare nonprofits those

kind of on a mission those who are

interested in like uh you know

fundraising goals and donors and

volunteers so here's where we'll begin

I'm just going to go to chat GPT

and I'm going to type in a simple prompt

sounds like this build a persona for a

marketing director of a 10 million

nonprofit in the midwest U.S with a

mission to provide better access to

healthcare resources in underserved

communities the goals of this person is

to create more effective fundraising

campaigns through digital marketing also

to promote their events include specific

details about goals pain points and

decision criteria for selecting a social

media marketing company

okay here's what we got Taylor Rodriguez

background

interesting useful looks pretty accurate

goals

yep that aligns quite well pain points

nothing is surprising here these are uh

pretty straightforward and the decision

criteria for selecting a social media

marketing company obviously Chad GPT

ingested a whole bunch of the internet

and uh has is using kind of general

information across lots of sources to

come up with something that is quite

General but also

um interesting and could be useful for

us in confirming at least that we have

kind of hit all these notes in our

marketing and our other messages

okay now let's go deeper with this I'm

going to add to this Persona because you

should never expect a single prompt to

the AI to give you amazing results uh

it's a we're training this like a human

intelligence you can't uh expect like

one simple uh command or request to give

you an amazing result so we're going to

continue to work on it I'm going to go a

little deeper here's what it looks like

let's start with just a general question

what keeps you up at night Taylor as the

marketing director I have several

concerns fundraising targets of course

budget limitations make sense Community

impact volunteer recruitment the

efficacy of our marketing constant

change sustainability Ah that's helpful

it's we're flushing this out I can now

add that to the Persona let's go a

little bit deeper

language very useful what words does

Taylor use to describe his marketing

challenges and solutions

this actually kind of surprised me with

the background in public health he's

going to use a lot of terminology that I

might not have expected resource

optimization audience engagement digital

footprint donor conversion how does he

those are these issues right how does he

describe the the solutions that handle

those issues strategic Partnerships

targeted messaging storytelling impact

metrics these are not necessarily the

words that I would have used if I were

just targeting this person without

having done this research so here you

see the value of the personas this was

all very fast across virtually nothing

this is potentially insightful because I

can go back now and confirm that I'm

using the language that my audience

would use right confirming of course

with my real world experience and

offline conversations with people like

my synthetic Persona here Taylor

okay now to understand maybe the top of

the funnel what this person reads I'm

going to use a different tool one that

can crawl the web at the time of this

recording chatbt doesn't really crawl

the web so now let's jump over to Bing

which actually has chat gpt4 plus web

browsing let's see let's ask it some

questions about sources that Taylor

might use to get uh to get his

information to do a better job

here we are in bing of course this is a

different chat so it doesn't know all

the stuff that we just talked about so I

have to kind of start from scratch a

little bit and tell it more about who

this person is here's my prompt if you

were a marketing director for a

non-profit organization in the midwest

with a mission to bring Health Care

Services to underserved communities what

resources would you go to to get

information to help you be more

effective at your job you can see why I

need a an AI here that can crawl the web

because it's going to come back with

things that are current and things that

are online and uh you know new resources

not just the historic pre-september 2021

data that chat GPT uses okay here we go

as a marketing director of a nonprofit

in the midwest on a mission to bring

Healthcare there's several resources it

suggests conferences interesting

networking opportunities specific events

the nonprofit Summit for Salesforce uh

some uh courses stuff I hadn't thought

of a website called donor box never

heard of it so now let's go deeper I'm

going to ask the subsequent question

which sessions from the sales report

Salesforce nonprofit Summit would be

especially relevant to our marketing

director

it actually has some really interesting

ideas here including one that's about

planned giving how to win it planned

giving

that actually wasn't on my radar until

just now so I can imagine how I may need

to address that that sounds like it's a

an important issue it was kind of

curated by an event coordinator at one

time

uh so let's continue to do a tiny bit of

research and we can add this to our

Persona hey which articles on that other

website donor box are relevant to

planned giving aha it's giving me some

top articles on a top resource this is

empathy this helps me know what Taylor

might be exposed to these are resources

that are very relevant to a person in

that role in that kind of organization

let's keep going what are the highest

rated podcasts to talk about fundraising

boom boom boom boom a giant list of of

podcasts these are things that I might

look at see what topics they've

addressed see which of those episodes

have the most engagement now I'm getting

insights into maybe the uh you know

content research and topics and content

strategies so that I can better Target

this person earlier in the decision

process they'll become relevant and

visible to Taylor uh prior to him even

looking for a social media marketing

company

but more important than that I'm going

to do sales and marketing and sales

alignment Now by going back to chat GPT

and asking some questions about how

Taylor decides to spend money how Taylor

decides to hire a company I'm going to

use my Persona to kind of role play a

little bit like to get insights about uh

Who's involved in the decision making

process and what's the team like

here we are back in chat GPT by the way

I'm going to save this I'm going to keep

this I'm going to come back to this and

I'm going to keep uh talking to this

Persona anytime I want when I have any

questions about uh generating content or

uh you know trying to better understand

this audience right so uh I'm trying to

align my services with their needs let's

ask this question which marketing

functions I'm selling marketing services

are you most likely to Outsource

very interesting it says that it's uh

this person is likely to Outsource those

things that require specialized skill

maybe they're time intensive or they're

not needed on a continuous basis

quite accurate I could imagine how these

things would be uh the types of things

in a conference room at that company

where they'd say

let's get some outside help now when I

asked it who's involved in the decision

making process I got some pretty general

answers so I wanted to narrow it down

this prompt was more useful to me who

are the two people

on this team that have the strongest

influence over the decision-making

process the answers were the marketing

manager maybe one of this person's

direct reports and the finance director

wow did my content really get into

budget to get into impact get into the

metrics and how they align with

financial goals such as you know donor

engagement and fundraising and planned

giving if not I think I really need to

kind of make sure that all of my

collateral web pages you know ebooks and

guides and all that stuff addresses that

that bottom line concern but what are

the triggers why does Taylor even look

for this stuff this is a great question

to ask and a really important part of

any Persona is to know what the what the

Moment of Truth was the zero Moment of

Truth remember there's a true story in

the life of every Prospect looking for

every service what did where did that

story begin when we know the origin of

that story we have a better chance to

kind of write the ending so let's ask

this what kinds of things happened that

make Taylor realize that he needed

telephone marketing company

getting now to the benefit almost the

emotional connection like this is what

the real the feeling would be if we were

to solve the problem the team is

overwhelmed

they're outgunned they've got limited

experience there's maybe lack of results

that could be frustrating right limited

reach there's something big coming up

right this is like urgency there's a

major event coming up so this all aligns

with the kind I can imagine creating

content that triggers the emotions that

align with that that that zero Moment of

Truth when Taylor first realized he

needed help very useful

and I can just keep going listen to this

prompt how much information and what

information about a possible marketing

agency would Taylor need before

contacting that agency about a pencil

project in other words how much what's

the size and weight of the total amount

of marketing content do I need to create

for this addressable Market to get them

to you know feel confident and and to

get alignment and to get them over that

psychological hump where they're willing

to take an action and fill out the

contact form the answer General but

still useful expertise non-profit

experience and specific industry

experience the previous work social

proof we've got case studies and

testimonials right results the the

values and culture not to be missed

right we should maybe make sure to to

kind of hit on that note throughout our

messaging everywhere from the pitch and

proposal to the first piece of

collateral

next I'm going to do something that I Do

by hand I enjoy doing by hand I I think

it's part of the art of marketing but we

can still use a to give as a head start

I'm going to use it to create some

content or at least create a draft of

content or to trigger some ideas you

could use this to create a web page or

email campaigns or social posts I'm not

advocating the use of AI to kind of

replace this in our jobs I'm using this

to kind of like give me to make me more

efficient if this can save me 15 of my

time I call that a win I'd likely you're

going to see big gaps in what I'm about

to create here but it all starts with a

simple prompt and it's a very powerful

form of empathy built on everything

we've done already I'm in the same chat

so the AI knows what we've talked about

so far ready using the words that Taylor

would use to describe his challenges and

solutions write a web page promoting our

services social media marketing services

for his organization a

healthcare-focused non-profit working on

that specific need planned giving

campaigns and finally highlight the

specific information that Taylor needs

to know about an agency before hiring

one

see I've got the audience I've got the

the trigger I've got the language I've

got the the the need and the offer

combined you know these things put

together and I want it all to be crafted

in a way that aligns with his decision

making criteria for how to decide who to

hire and here's the page

it's okay it's a start it lacks

formatting it lacks evidence it lacks

imagery uh it lacks keyword Focus uh it

it lacks the the voice and tone of our

brand but it's a structure and it's a

it's a start on copy that uh I have some

confidence based on some data and

research that aligns well with my

audience another idea instead of writing

a new page you can give the AI an

existing page and ask if there's

anything that you missed so I just

looked around and found a web page about

social media marketing for non-profits

went back to the AI and asked the

question which of this person's top

concerns are not addressed on this web

page to do some turbo Gap analysis copy

and paste it in the text and then down

below I'm getting the response while

that web page addresses a number of the

concerns related to nonprofit marketing

here are some that were not explicitly

addressed not surprising because that

page wasn't really meant for this person

anyway but this makes the point the

industry Focus the planned giving the

specific service relevant experience the

values wasn't mentioned on that page the

use of data to make decisions wasn't

mentioned on that page anything about

those the the specific pain points the

pricing so you can start to see how I

can use this Persona to kind of battle

test a piece of Copy in this case

conversion copywriting on its commercial

intent uh sales page to see if it aligns

with the actual needs of this audience

that was fun but

then but probably we should still go

verify we should still talk to our

actual stakeholders and interview

customers and validate that we're on the

right track but still wow very

accessible I could go talk to that

Persona day or night it's inexhaustible

I don't have to worry about crafting the

perfect question or setting up a time to

talk I can just chat with anytime so

there's obviously some utility in using

an AI driven marketing Persona we hope

this was helpful keep an eye on this

space for more videos and and articles

uh on relevant topics and if you know

anybody who's interested in this or get

value or struggling to get a basic level

of empathy over their audience feel free

to pass this along thanks for watching

again Andy from orbit media see you next

time