Overview
This guide shows you how to create detailed Buyer Personas in Sona that identify your ideal contacts within target accounts. You will learn to define specific job titles, keywords, seniority levels, and geographic targeting to find the right decision-makers and influencers. With this guide, you will be able to confidently target the specific individuals most likely to engage with your offering and drive purchasing decisions.
When to use Personas
When you need to identify specific buyer roles within target accounts.
When you want to personalize outreach and messaging for different contact types.
When setting up contact-level targeting and segmentation.
When you need to estimate your addressable audience size for specific roles.
Prerequisites:
Admin or manager access to your account.
An understanding of your typical buyer roles and decision-making process.
Knowledge of the job titles, seniority levels, and locations of your best customers.
Step 1: access the Persona tab
From the Scoring page, click the Persona tab.
You will see the heading "Build your Persona" with an info icon (ⓘ).
Click the info icon for guidance on defining contact-level attributes.
Step 2: define job titles
Under Job Titles, add specific positions you typically sell to.
Example titles: digital marketing director, digital marketing manager, director of digital marketing.
Add multiple titles to create a comprehensive profile. You can add as many job titles as needed to identify your target buyer.
Step 3: add relevant keywords
Under Keywords, enter terms that align with your offering.
These should resonate with your target market's needs and challenges.
Step 4: specify seniority levels
Under Seniorities, select the decision-maker levels you target.
Add multiple seniority levels that match your targeted buyers.
Press Enter or Tab to commit each entry.
Step 5: set geographic targeting
Under Person Locations, add cities, states, or countries where your buyers reside. This helps target contacts in specific geographic markets.
Step 6: define organization locations
Under Organization Locations, add locations where target companies are based. This may differ from individual contact locations.
Step 7: generate audience size estimate
Click Generate Estimates to see the potential audience size. This gives you an idea of how many contacts might match your criteria.
Step 8: save your persona configuration
Click the Save button at the bottom of the page. Your persona settings are now ready to help identify ideal contacts.
Key concepts and best practices
Understanding Personas Versus ICP:
Personas Focus on Individuals: target specific roles, seniority levels, and personal characteristics.
Separate from ICP Scoring: persona matches do not automatically affect ICP Fit Scores unless you add the same attributes to both systems.
Complementary Targeting: use personas to find the right people within your ICP-qualified accounts.
Effective persona development:
Be Comprehensive with Job Titles: include variations and synonyms for the same role, for example "VP Marketing", "Vice President of Marketing", and "Marketing VP".
Consider the Buying Committee: include both decision-makers and key influencers who impact purchasing decisions.
Balance Specificity: keep criteria narrow enough to be relevant, but broad enough to capture your addressable market.
FAQs
What is a Persona in Sona?
What is a Persona in Sona?
A Persona defines the specific individuals you want to reach within your target accounts, built from job titles, keywords, seniority levels, and person and organization locations. It lets you personalize outreach and messaging for different contact types instead of targeting an account as a whole.
How is a Persona different from ICP scoring?
How is a Persona different from ICP scoring?
ICP scoring measures how well an account, the company, fits your Ideal Customer Profile. A Persona identifies which individuals within that account are your ideal contacts. The two are separate: matching a Persona does not automatically affect an account's ICP Fit Score unless you configure the same attributes in both places.
What does Generate Estimates show me?
What does Generate Estimates show me?
Generate Estimates shows the potential audience size that matches the job titles, keywords, seniorities, and locations you have configured for a Persona. Use it to gauge whether your criteria are too narrow or too broad before saving the configuration.