B2B event personas:

The right people, with the right messaging, on the right channel to maximise marketing ROI.

Imagine this: Day 1 of your B2B event is here but instead of a hum of excitement, your visitors are bored and ready to walk out the door. Not only that, but your exhibitors are grumbling that they haven’t made a single proper connection. For any B2B event marketer, this is a scene straight out of a strangely relevant horror movie. But unlike horror movies this nightmare can easily be avoided.

How? By understanding your audience and using relevant, targeted marketing to reach the right people. In other words, use B2B event personas to make sure that this nightmare scenario never happens to you. The personas you create should guide your marketing campaigns by appealing to the interests of your potential visitors. For example, if your B2B event has various halls dedicated to particular interests, don’t you think that your campaign should too? I’m constantly surprised at how few event marketers use personas in their marketing.

Before I get into the nitty-gritty of persona marketing for your B2B event, let me clarify what I mean by personas. A persona, in terms of B2B event marketing, is the representation or archetype of your ideal visitor. This representation is done through the creation of a fictional character based on the goals, needs and behavioural patterns observed from real and potential visitors.

I know what you’re thinking: ‘Why should I care about personas? I already know my visitors inside out’. And you’re right, you do know your visitors better than anyone else, but how do you convey this knowledge to your team, partners and suppliers? How do you ensure that all of your marketing efforts are reaching these visitors?

Learning the ins and outs of your visitors

Your visitors are the most important part of your event – without them there simply is no event, there’s just a bunch of salespeople standing around twiddling their thumbs. Understanding and clearly defining your visitors will ensure that your content is relevant and that it engages with them on a more relatable level. B2B event personas help to humanise the abstract data that’s collected during the marketing research process.

What makes a great B2B event persona?

Hopefully I’ve managed to convince you to start creating personas (or at least I’ve managed to pique your interest). You understand the benefits (again, hopefully) and you understand their importance, but what goes into creating a persona? Answering these 5 questions is a good place to start:

• Who are they? Here you have to think about your visitors’ age, gender, income and so on. This will help you create a better understanding of who you want to be attending your B2B event.

• How do they make decisions? This is the process by which the visitor identifies their needs; collects the required information; looks and evaluates alternative means to fulfill their basic needs; and eventually makes the decision of registering or not registering for your event.

• Why do they want to attend your B2B event? By understanding why visitors would actually want to attend your event, you will have a clear selling point for your event.

• What type of information are they looking for? By understanding what the visitor is looking for, you can supply all the information they will need to make a decision. This will create a relationship of trust between you and the visitor.

• What is the best way to communicate with your visitor? How would the visitor like to be contacted, where would it be best to advertise new exhibitors, facilities or workshops, and what is the best way to get visitors to your B2B event.

Creating B2B event personas is a skill that takes practice, so don’t freak out if you hit a wall. The solution to all your persona needs lies with We Market Events. We specialise in creating the perfect persona for your perfect B2B event – and do it quite well, if I do say so myself. So contact us if you’re ready to use B2B event personas for your next event.

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