While the evolution of humans (“Man”) took approximately 6 million years, the evolution of Customer Personas has happened much faster - over the past decade. The availability of data has made this possible, and continues to evolve as organizations (both internal and external) make sense of their big data in an effort to make it more understandable and actionable. This process of change shows the demographic, psychographics and behavioral traits of people (consumers) and provides greater insights today than ever before… assuming one has the capabilities to unlock them.

How the evolution of data compares to the evolution of Man.

Using a data-science approach to better understanding customers, the evolution began:

1. Clusters: identifying patterns in the data
2. Archetypes: a statement around a pattern of behavior
3. Segments:
4. Personas: by connecting existing first party data, and combining it with the right, new second and third party data, a much deeper understanding of customers was “born”

At AccessFuel, we call them Audience Personas - comprised of both (customer personas and prospective customer personas (every organization is sitting on conversion opportunities, that if understood better, is a very low cost way of acquiring, well converting, new customers).

Once the customers (the Personas) are deeply understood (demographics, psychographics, interests, etc) actionable insights can be derived and applied to various forms of “intelligence”, including behavioral, experiential.

The Result:

The value of creating Personas includes:

1. A deep understanding of the customer WHO 
2. Organizational alignment by department, goals, objectives and KPI’s
3. The ability to Audience “shape”
4. Marketing growth
5. Sales growth
   

To learn more, and begin creating your Persona-driven intelligence, get in touch.

Data management has exploded in the last decade as start-ups, enterprises and everything in between push forward to centralize, prioritize and optimize their data. Beyond the businesses themselves, it’s data from customers, cookies and clients. 

However Facebook, Apple and Google‘s new data privacy changes have sent shockwaves throughout e-commerce, technology and many other industries. If this is news to you, please keep reading! If not, well you're still in the right place because AccessFuel has a next generation solution that may inform and educate.

Apple Changes + Effects

IOS14’s biggest impact was the implementation of Apple Tracking Transparency and IDFA changes, an opt-in feature that limits tracking across websites and applications.

First party data has taken a hit. The user data valve has been turned off, and has changed for the foreseeable future. Advertisers, companies, and agencies, and companies, like Facebook, need to look ahead to the new future of first party data. These changes will be staying and evolving, as Apple recently released specs on iOs15, and the news that it includes a similar privacy focused feature for email tracking.

“The latest reports on IOS14 and IDFA show a opt-out rate of close to 90%...”‍

                         IOS 14 Opt-in Rate - Weekly Updates Since Launch. By Estelle Laziuk, Flurry Analyst.

This has left brand marketers and their agencies in a real predicament. How can they serve more effective campaigns, with personalized advertising and re-touches if they don't know who their audience is?

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Facebook Changes + Effects

Aggregated Event Measurement which includes 48 Hour Delay on Reports, 24 hour only data snapshot. 

Facebook and Instagram advertisers are seeing minimal data and are unable to track any data with the IOS14 Privacy changes unless a user ops in to tracking.

Agencies and advertisers are expecting massive changes to their data strategies and Facebook and other social media advertisers come to terms with Apple's IDFA and IOS14 privacy changes. The most important question to consider is “Are you ready? Do you have a solution in place if a majority of your first party data quality significantly drops in quality?” This is a pivotal moment for advertising and consumer data privacy, and a plan is critical. 

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Google’s Changes

Will start gradually blocking trackers (cookies) on its Chrome browser starting in 2023. 

Why it matters: This shows that big tech ( and by proxy big data) is taking an interest in user privacy… even if it's a bit delayed. Google is one of the biggest advertising conglomerates in the world, and this may signal the end of cookie tracking for big tech.

We know that’s a lot of information, and especially frightening if you’re in an impacted market or industry. But not all is lost!

AccessFuel has the expertise, technology, and services to help you craft an even BETTER data strategy by optimizing data with, and beyond first party and cookie data.

Let AccessFuel be your expert guide through these changes, and others that are sure to come. Whether US, Global, or Worldwide regulations, we are the data experts here to build your next generation of data strategy. Benefits and expected outcomes include:

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Calculating ROI

A deep understanding of your audiences will align your organization around your audience “who” (both customers and prospective customers) and enable data-driven decision making that has a positive impact on marketing, sales and customer success - at a minimum. 

Experience increased return on ad spend, a decrease in acquisition costs and/or execute campaign testing that is built by/from your  users data FOR the user. 

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Whatever KPI’s you use to measure success and growth, AccessFuels data transformation strategy will exceed those goals. Be a front runner and start a new data flow... one that attributes the WHO to the what, when, where, and why of your data and thus, your business.

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Get in Touch Now to Turn on Your New and Improved Data Pipeline

Your campaign using Audience Intelligence & Personas...

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The single most important aspect of any marketing campaign, is knowing your audience. Because the better you know your audience, the more accurate they are, means the more targeted and personalized you can be, resulting in better performance, ticket sales and ROI.

You need to have a sophisticated understanding of who buys your product, and who’s likely to buy the most of your product.

You need to know the full picture of your entire audience. Who buys what and where are they most receptive to ads?

You need to know how to break down your audience into several different Personas, because each one needs a specific message.

And you can’t just rely on your analytics (and/or data-science) team, because they’re likely not trained for this.

You need a system built on five-years of audience research.

You need real Audience Intelligence and real, verified PERSONAS.

You need AccessFuel.

Let’s now go back to the beginning to see what your campaign will look like with Audience Intelligence from AccessFuel….

Jazz Night is two months away. You’ve got six-figures to spend on ads, only this time you have AF’s Audience Intel on your side.

What’s changed?

Step 1: Identify your audience

This part’s easy.

AccessFuel scans your audience data and, through a 5-Step process, identifies clear data-drive Personas.

No need to A/B test and optimize the audience for months to find the best sellers.

You skip to the front of the pack and lead off marketing campaigns with concrete breakdowns on message and ideal platform.

It’s simple.

Just login to your AccessFuel dashboard and review the resulting Audience Personas from AF’s data breakdown. Your audience has been broken down through the lens of Jazz Night, and creates 12 different data-driven Personas of the clientele you want to target.

What’s even better is because they are based on real people and real data (developed from the ‘bottom-up’), and tagged by Persona so you can personalize campaigns. You will also be able to download CSVs of each persona.

Step 2: Lock and Load

You launch your campaign and immediately see the results you’d hoped basic interest targeting would provide.

After 2 months of basic interest targeting, you might have optimized your audience to the point of AccessFuel’s Personas, but that’s two months away. And how much money is flushed away in the process?

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Now, with AccessFuel, you’re starting your campaign with 12 fully optimized audience personas.

The value of the personas is not something an observant advertiser can simply identify.

So how does AccessFuel create these Personas?

What are they?

And are they really that valuable?

AccessFuel uses a five-step process to create Ideal Customer Personas — the gold standard of audience intelligence.

Step 1. Identify

AccessFuel ingests the audience data from partners like Eventbrite or Mailchimp, along with uploading custom files. The system sorts through all the data to identify all of the attributes. This can be just a few dozen attributes or a few thousands!

Step 2. Unify

With all the attributes for all of the individuals inside the customer database identified, AccessFuel now unifies the data. No matter the source of the information, the data is electronically categorized and filtered.

Step 3. Enrich

It can seem daunting to look at a massive database filled with columns for dozens of attributes.

This is when AccessFuel uses other databases to CHARGE the data. The dozens of attributes become hundreds. And the columns are filled with second-generation data on your customers.

What was once a fuzzy understanding of audience is now a crisp photograph of data points.

Step 4. Segment

Now AccessFuel can look at a large graphical interface of the audience. These enriched attributes illuminate tendencies of particular groups.

Up to 12 different groupings will be identified.

All from your single file.

Not too shabby.

But wait… there’s more (this isn’t a 2am PBS infomercial, there really is this more below!)

Step 5. Create Personas

Ahh, the bread and butter of AccessFuel’s Audience Intelligence.

Those 12 segments aren’t just 12 audience segments.

They’re based on real people. Each segment could identify tens of thousands of individual customers.

And this information is supercharged with ticketing information. This means AccessFuel Personas will show you who spends the most on which ticket packages. And where they are most receptive to ads. And several other common attributes, such as popular musicians and tv programs, recreation activities, diet, and attire.

AccessFuel’s dashboard is easy for even the most number-averse executive out there.

Your new marketing strategy:

You’re launching the Jazz night marketing campaign with AccessFuel Audience Intelligence. You’ve seen the dashboard and understand that the Persona most likely to buy group tickets to Jazz Night are 30-40 M Businessmen, who shop at discount mens stores like Men’s Warehouse and J Crew.

Why group tickets? The AccessFuel dashboard understands them to have your largest ROI. So focusing your main efforts on group sales to this demo will result in highest profits.

You have a custom audience file for your ad team to upload to Facebook. And they use it for LLA.

Now you’ve got the budget. The creative. The campaign. The audience… as in, AccessFuel Audience Intelligence.

So it’s go-time.

For real. And now you can exhale. Within days you see the campaign overperforming.

Don’t be surprised if your boss offers up a bonus. After all, it was your idea to supercharge your audience.

You’ve always preached the importance of knowing your audience.

Now you can. Now you will. Isn’t that better?

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How well do you REALLY know your audience?

Running a campaign without Audience Intelligence and Personas...

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It’s 3:45pm on a Friday and, as Marketing Manager, you’ve just been asked to create a new marketing strategy to promote Jazz Night at Wrigley Field.

What’s your first step?

Identify the audience. Who’s into jazz? Who’d buy a ticket?

Step 1: Scan Your Database

So you scan your records of past customers (using spreadsheets (!)) looking for any trends. Who came to jazz night last year? Did they come to other games or was that the only one? Did they come alone or with others? Who were the others? Maybe you even ask Google for jazz demographics.

‍You know more than anyone the power of audience intelligence; it’s the most vital preparation in any campaign.

That’s why you isolate the target demo before coming up with copy, creative, or even strategy!

Step 2: Filter Customers

At the end of your research, you’ve created an audience segment or archetype. Men over 50. After all, that’s who made up >50% of last year’s crowd. You’re using guesswork and gutcheck, but you’re right, right?

So you’ve got your target segment, where you’ll invest the majority of your efforts for the event.

Step 3: Campaign Development

Now you spend all weekend coming up with creative methods of informing your targeted segment.

You share your plan with Creative, and instruct them to design images and videos that would appeal to that segment. You may also enlist influencers and celebrities who appeal to M50s+ to help promote and drive ticket sales.  It’s pretty much set. Just need to set the budget and hit “Go!”

Step 4: Set Budget

You’re given a six-figure digital ad spend for a two-month lead. At least half of that is going towards your core segment of Men over 50. So you’re really confident in putting your efforts towards them.

The whole marketing team is behind you on this – after all, once you “know” your core audience, the rest of the campaign follows its lead.

Next, you instruct your team to create ad campaigns on all the social channels and online publishers to maximize core audience reach.

And who do you show the ads to? How do you create your Audience(s) on these social platforms?

Naturally, the more accurate they are, means the more targeted and personalized you can be, resulting in better performance, ticket sales and ROI.

Your ad team can use basic interest targeting to cast a wide net of impressions across social media. This means they’ll just use Facebook’s algorithm to show ads to “Males” with an age floor and interests including “Jazz.”

Your team will want a second method of targeting this segment, so they’ll ask for a Custom Audience of past attendees in this segment.

This is data they can manipulate. And it works wonders for optimization.

Step 5: Find Lookalike Audiences

Facebook’s Lookalike Audiences (LLAs) are the gold standard in mining through cold traffic. The system scans the custom audience, reading the data from all users inside the file, and producing a near-perfect profile of the Ideal Audience.

All your team needs to do is upload an existing customer list to your ad managers, using it as the base-audience to generate a LLA.

You get to lean on the Facebook algorithm.

Now you’ve got the budget. The creative. The campaign. The audience. So it’s go-time.

Step 6: Launch

The campaign is launched. Time to gather the evidence, make a report, share the results….

Step 7: A/B Test

The creative team reviews your analytics and offers new copy to try, with an eye on optimizing towards the highest performers. You do this again each week until you’ve honed in on the most profitable message.

Step 8: Measure Results

But returns aren’t what you expected. Sales are suffering. And you’re not sure why.

Q: so what if everything you thought you knew… was wrong?

What if your fundamental understandings are miscalculated? What if 50s+ who like/are A, B, C aren’t actually the best audience for jazz night? What’s that mean for your six-figure/$125,000 ad spend? What’s that mean for future campaigns?

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More...

Learn how to use Personas to market more effectively in the article "https://www.accessfuel.com/atricles/audience-intelligence-driven-campaigns"

You juggle a lot of moving parts to produce your event and to ensure it’s a financial success. You’ve got the content secured (artists, speakers, etc.) and now it’s time to sell tickets to cover costs and make a profit.

So, how to fill the venue — be it a concert stadium, conference or otherwise?

You’re using a few platforms (email, ticketing, crm, etc) to market your event, but how do you get even closer to selling out?

Why is it such a challenge to close the gap between current sales and capacity? Imagine the revenue difference between 80% vs 90% vs 100% of all tickets sold.

What if you knew your audience so well that you could personalize your communication, acquisition and conversion strategies based on exactly who they are?

What if you knew that 62% of your audience travels distances over 50 miles away? And what if there was a strong segment who are nurses making $100,000+ annually, and 35% of them drive Sport Utility vehicles? Would it be easier for you to target them?

AccessFuel uses data intelligence to unlock actionable insights around your audience so that you can better target, optimize your budget and make more money.

You sell more tickets in 3 steps…

Step I: Audience Analysis Discover Exactly Who Your Audience Is

It’s Not Rocket Science. It’s Data-Science.

The missing element required to increase ticket sales is the lack of knowing your audience – or “audience intelligence”. Sure, you probably have some broad information about gender and some content preferences, but does that give you meaningful and insights that enable you to market more effectively?

AccessFuel answers these questions and many more. Acting as your data-science partner, we start by combining your siloed audience data, analyzing it and applying data-science to look for patterns in your data including; who are your customers? how many segments do you have in your data? what do they look like and where, how and when do they buy tickets? who are your most (and least) profitable ticket purchasers?

“ These insights are essential to close your ticket gap and to fully monetize your data. ”

Step II: Audience Intelligence Surface the “WHO”

Who’s In The Room? And Who Isn’t… But Should Be.

Now that AccessFuel has analyzed your audience data, we surface segments and then visualize them:

The real fun begins. It’s time to deep dive into your results and really analyze who has been buying tickets to your events. This is the point in the process where you are really going to take a hard look at your user acquisition efforts. Chances are you have been casting a wide net in your marketing and advertising efforts and searching using a shot-gun approach. Now that you have laser-focused on who your audience is, you will be able to better target them at a lower CPA and your ROAS is going to increase drastically as you optimize your marketing efforts and budgets and focus on the clicks and impressions that are going to convert.

What’s the value of increasing your conversion rates by as little as 2%. For some of our customers that translates into tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars!

Having all of this audience data about your customers and prospects (both ticket buyers and prospective buyers) is a central piece in closing the ticket sales gap. However, it’s also an excellent opportunity to understand who is not in the room, but could be. Are you missing a subset of your core demographic? Is there a gap in data that needs to be filled – e.g.: age groups amongst genders? By analyzing against over 50 key data signifiers, AccessFuel fills the gaps and surface insights.

Step III: Take Action With Your Insights

Deeply Target Your Audience and Personalize Communications.

Having all of this audience data about your customers and prospects (both ticket buyers and prospective buyers) is a central piece in closing the ticket sales gap. However, it’s also an excellent opportunity to understand who is not in the room, but could be. Are you missing a subset of your core demographic? Is there a gap in data that needs to be filled – e.g.: age groups amongst genders? By analyzing against over 50 key data signifiers, AccessFuel fills the gaps and surface insights.

Audience Intelligence = Personalized Communication = Increased Conversion and Acquisition = More Ticket Sales

Let’s say you’ve analyzed your audience data and you notice that there’s a large gap in the numbers around your Generation Z audience. You know that you have a strong following with this segment, but for some reason ticket sales are not matching the interest that you see.

This audience tends to gravitate more towards faster moving marketing channels such as Snapchat (as opposed to Facebook). Also, unlike Millenials, Generation Z customers are more concerned with cost because they came into adulthood during the recession. They are more likely to look for a discount or a promotional code. If the majority of your marketing is done on Facebook, you might consider allocating some of your budget for Snapchat ads to reach this group of individuals. You should also craft messaging specifically geared to this group that highlights the value-add of attending your event.

Analyze. Unlock. Segment. Market. Increase Conversion. Repeat

The most valuable aspect of the data that AccessFuel unlocks for you, is the ability to use audience segmentation to better target your current audience, identify who you should be targeting for new user acquisition, and craft relevant messaging to each subset.

Figure out how much money you’re leaving on the table. Here’s an example:

Whether your event is in 1 month or 11 months, contact us to close your ticket sale gap.