Your team may have your business’ ideal customer profile defined, but does it have an understanding of its buyer personas? A Marketing Leader, Persona Creator, Podcast Host, and the Fractional CMO of KenKay Marketing, Vicki O’Neill, encourages marketers to put in the work and define their buyer personas, to prioritize efforts and deliver relevant marketing to their ideal buyer.   Takeaways: Buyer personas go beyond the surface level demographics. Personas make up the obstacles, stresses, and emotions of why the buyer would begin to search for your product or service in the first place. If you do not have any buyer personas defined, start with one. Start by looking at the data you have on existing customers and pick out the best ones. Then have conversations with them, so you can understand their persona and then create marketing that speaks to prospects that are similar to your best customers. Our focus needs to be on the customer and their journey. Look at your customer journey and note how your best customers navigate from one call to action to the next. What are the different touch points they interact with? “[Buyers] want to see their peers, other customers, talking about the experience that people are having with a particular company or brand.” - Vicki O’Neill We have to be in the business of creating great customer experiences because at the end of the day the customers are the best marketers for the business. Career Advice from Vicki O’Neill - Network beyond your existing walls and do not be afraid to try new things. Be more open to approaching people that you do not know.   Links: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vickioneill/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/vickioneill Vickioneill.com: https://www.vickioneill.com/ Connect the Dots Podcast: https://www.vickioneill.com/podcast The Power of 3X Podcast: https://www.vickioneill.com/the-power-of-3x-podcast Marketing Rebellion by Mark Schaefer: https://www.amazon.com/Marketing-Rebellion-Most-Human-Company/dp/0578419866   Busted Myths: Businesses do not need to define their buyer personas. - They DO need to. This helps the company to understand their target audience and what motivates them to take certain actions before they make their purchase. It guides marketing to deliver particular messaging and releases them from the spray and pray mentality.   Ways to Tune In: iTunes - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hard-corps-marketing-show/id1338838763 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1vVLpNI1LssMTiL6Kdsamn Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-hard-corps-marketing-show Google Play - https://play.google.com/music/m/Im7mytmu2wa2mekhoeixlja5hpe?t=The_Hard_Corps_Marketing_Show YouTube - Full video - https://youtu.be/eHgt--dthSM