Selling to Humans: A Persona Story of Marketing Simplicity for Small Business Owners and Entrepreneurs

2019 I’m thirty-two years old and working as the Marketing Director for GreenPlanet Wholesale. I’m biting the end of my pen, staring at my laptop, perplexed and frustrated. Sales and critical KPIs are decreasing quarter by quarter; what I’m doing wrong?

Like most days, Marketing is a reactive career. Based on experience and industry trends, I give my opinion, then report on it to see if it has worked. However, I’m now sitting in front of the company’s stakeholders and reviewing the trends I’m seeing- No one is happy. Difficult questions are being asked, “What are you planning to do to help us out of this slump?”

Who would have thought selling plant nutrients to the Cannabis Industry would be this hard?

I left the meeting a little lost; I’m at my level of expertise in resolving this issue. I sat at my desk and did what any sane marketer would do. I Googled. After extensive research into marketing techniques and ways to help drive our marketing efforts to propel us back on track, I’m more lost than when I began- Nothing seems to be working.

Then I stumbled on. A book by Daniel H.Pink, to Sell is Human. And it was here where I’ve been going astray all this time. In my fear of decreasing KPIs, and allowing the troubles of other departments to affect my judgment, I forget my primary objective, which is to sell to humans.

I sell to humans first, whether to business or business to consumer. From this, I returned to the drawing board and started to market to humans.

Our previous campaign, “GP Proud” missed its initial mark. We had print adverts in the top cannabis and gardening magazines across Canada and the US. Six months into the campaign, it felt like I was flushing our marketing spending down the toilet.

Bringing it back to the customer, I took the existing campaign of “GP Proud”  and reenvisioned it as “There Grows the Neighborhood” and decided to relaunch it, but this time I would focus on the customer pain points and look at why they buy from us- instead of self-promoting our brand.

I identified the different users who buy our plant nutrients: Hobbyist gardeners within the suburbs, medical cannabis growers, growing out of a grow tent, and grandparents growing their own food.

From there, I was able to see a common trend that united all these individuals- not only were our products producing great yields, but people were also boasting about it all over socials. This would become the overarching story of this campaign: being the best within your neighborhood and being the one to have bragging rights of being the greatest of them all!

Who wouldn’t want to become the talk of the town about being the green-thumbed pro?

After that, I started working on custom campaigns for every user. I gave special attention to the language, graphics, and message to address their gardening concerns and make them feel proud of their flourishing gardens while others looked on with envy. GreenPlanet Nutrients makes it simple to become a gardening expert!

A once taboo subject of growing big yields in Cannabis is now a place of pride, and no longer did they have to hide it. Nor There goes the neighborhood when individuals produced these big yields, only “There Grows the Neighborhood.”  A GreenPlanet Campaign to encourage people to boast, share their journey, and inspire other cultivators, whether Cannabis or hobbyist gardeners.

My team handpicked which campaign materials would be used within each magazine, ensuring that the magazine demographic matched the marketing efforts—maximizing awareness and interaction with our consumers. As well as cross-promotion of all our social channels encouraging our users to tag friends, stores, and neighbors.

Our marketing techniques felt like we were carefully aiming at our audience with sniper precision, hitting the bullseye each time. Every single touchpoint in our campaign seemed tailor-made for each individual, taking into account their interests, struggles, and aspirations to truly engage them. And guess what? The results are already showing – sales are up in just a few months!

Not only that, but people are tagging us proudly in their posts- the “There Grows the Neighborhood” hashtag.

When we made our customers the stars next door, we automatically became the key to their success. Therefore their triumphs became our triumphs, and word spread across the gardening community.

As we move ahead, I want to ensure that our sales efforts are grounded in an emotional connection with people. That means actively listening to their needs, recognizing how our products could truly improve their lives, and always remembering that we are selling to fellow human beings. Let’s focus on making genuine connections and putting people first!