Developing buyer personas to inform web functionality and digital marketing strategy

Hymans Robertson are a 100 year old financial institution who work alongside employers, trustees and other financial institutions to provide independent advice and services on pensions and investments. Hymans Robertson approached Union Insight to develop a new suite of buyer personas and to conduct a useability audit to support their digital marketing efforts and online customer experience. 

Our approach to this challenge was to gather insight from their client base, primarily through a quantitative study. This was further augmented with desk research and qualitative studies. 

Their existing personas were intended for use by stakeholders to target their communications strategies. However, they were not being used widely within the business. These personas were generally designed around single products such as a type of pension offering. There was an underlying assumption that their customers held single products and were only likely to hold that same product in the future. 

Our research identified that many of their clients had multiple product interests and very often were multiple products holders with Hymans Robertson. This helped them to change the way they thought about their customers. Customers could now be understood as belonging to the whole business rather than only one area of the business. 

The survey was emailed to a wide selection of customers across their diverse customer base, with follow up communications designed to generate an acceptable response rate. 

Our senior analyst conducted a cluster analysis of the survey data to create a statistically robust set of segments. These segments needed to accurately reflect the different audience groups and, critically, how they were using the digital tools. A number of models were created, the best two were chosen as they best met the original objectives: one was focused on the individual person and the other was focussed more on their behaviours and requirements. 

We presented this challenge back to our client to get their unique perspective, as the subject matter expert. Our Insight team worked closely with their stakeholders in a very collaborative manner to determine the best solution. 

Once the final model was chosen, we developed personas for the different segments identified. These personas provided the client with a new perspective on who their different customers are. 

One key understanding from this research was that their customers viewed the various products and services provided by Hymans Robertson as part of the same family. In contrast, the employees of Hymans Robertson, working within different product areas, were less aware of the extent of their customers’ more general interests and responsibilities. This valuable insight helped the business understand how to better service their whole customer base and provide value to them, across their diverse needs.