Schiphol upgrades their marketing with buyer personas

According to Berend-Jan Rietveld, former Strategic Marketing & Communications Manager at Schiphol, creating buyer personas was key to transforming their marketing strategy. Marketing was previously implemented in a traditional way. Think on- and offline advertising, brochures, and fairs. However, with the sharp increase in channels and information, and the growing ’empowerment’ of customers, commercial messages are losing effectiveness. Berend-Jan explained, “Until recently, we focused on segments, not individual decision-makers and their roles. As a result, we lacked sufficient customer knowledge and insight into the ROI of marketing activities. Too many people received irrelevant information.” To adapt to the changing environment, the team needed to embrace a new approach.

The solution – creating buyer personas for Schiphol

Berend-Jan: “I thought it was important to show that the business environment is changing within B2B. Online activities offer new opportunities to gain more and deeper customer knowledge.” To start, he introduced the Schiphol team to content marketing principles based on buyer personas. This was done through knowledge sessions.

Once the team understood the concept, they laid the foundation for a modern B2B marketing strategy. Schiphol partnered with SPOTONVISION to gain insights into the buyer, through buyer persona research. They then implemented a content marketing strategy aligned with the buying process of these personas.

Berend-Jan shared, “I wanted to move away from traditional push marketing. Instead, we aimed to add value by being relevant and engaging with decision-makers.” 

Together with SPOTONVISION, Schiphol developed three buyer personas: the logistics service provider, the logistics specialist at the side of a shipper, and an international version of that logistics specialist.  

“For our first round of interviews, we conducted qualitative research in the Netherlands,” Rietveld explained. “We quickly realized this wasn’t enough. To refine the personas, we needed more data on an international level. We gathered additional material in India, a key market for pharmaceutical cargo. This is an increasingly important cargo flow for Schiphol.”

The result – Valuable insights and content creation based on buyer insights

Berend-Jan emphasized the value of these insights. “We now better understand which themes and content support decision-makers during their process. This knowledge shapes our new marketing activities.”

CContent mapping revealed which types of content were relevant at specific phases of the buying journey. Schiphol now uses this content map to share the right information with its target audience.

The strategic foundation is complete. Relevant decision roles have been identified, and the content map and calendar are in place. Content creation is ongoing. Berend-Jan: “We are ready to make our marketing activities measurable in order to further optimise them based on more customer data. To achieve that, we are looking at a marketing automation solution together with SPOTONVISION.” 

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