If you’re running B2B marketing or sales, your buyer personas are probably outdated. That means your sales team is working with stale info, and your campaigns aren’t hitting the right people. The fix? Automate your persona updates in Akoonu. This guide is for anyone who’s tired of manual updates, guesswork, and fluffy advice. If you want real, step-by-step help—and a few honest warnings—keep reading.
Why bother automating persona updates?
Let’s get real: most teams create buyer personas, then promptly forget about them. Six months later, the market’s shifted, your ideal customer’s changed jobs, and your “Persona A” is basically a ghost. Automation keeps your personas from turning into shelfware. Here’s what you get:
- Consistent updates (no more “set and forget”)
- Better targeting (your ads, emails, and sales pitches actually land)
- Fewer errors (no more copying and pasting from ancient spreadsheets)
But—and it’s a big but—automation is only as good as the data feeding it. Junk in, junk out. So before you go wild with tools, make sure your sources are decent.
Step 1: Audit your current personas and data sources
Don’t automate garbage. It’s tempting to skip straight to the tech, but first, check what you’re actually working with.
- Find your current personas. Are they in Akoonu, a PDF, or someone’s Google Drive?
- Review how often they’re updated—be honest.
- List your data sources: CRM (like Salesforce), marketing platforms, customer interviews, product usage data, etc.
- Decide what’s worth automating. Not every persona needs weekly updates. Some audiences don’t change much.
Pro tip: If your personas are mostly guesswork or built from tiny sample sizes, automation won’t save you. Fix the basics first.
Step 2: Map out what you want to automate
Automation can mean a dozen things. Be specific:
- Do you want to update job titles as they change in your CRM?
- Are you trying to refresh pain points and buying triggers based on recent deals?
- Do you want to pull in LinkedIn or firmographic data automatically?
Draw a simple flow. For example:
CRM/marketing data → Akoonu persona fields → Sales enablement materials
Don’t overcomplicate this. Start with one or two high-impact updates (like keeping company size and role info fresh).
Step 3: Connect your data sources to Akoonu
Akoonu is built to play nice with other platforms, but the setup can be fiddly.
If you’re using Salesforce or HubSpot:
- Akoonu connects natively to Salesforce. For HubSpot, you might need Zapier or a similar sync tool.
- Go to Akoonu’s integrations settings (usually under Admin or Settings).
- Authenticate with your CRM credentials.
- Map the fields you want to sync—double-check field types match (text to text, picklist to picklist, etc.).
For other sources (like LinkedIn, surveys, product analytics):
- You’ll likely need an integration tool (Zapier, Make, custom scripts).
- Set up automations to push data into Akoonu persona fields.
- If your data source doesn’t connect directly, export to CSV and use Akoonu’s import feature. Not as slick, but it works.
Watch out for:
- Field mismatches—Akoonu will reject or mangle data if fields don’t match up.
- Permission issues—make sure your integration user has read/write access.
Step 4: Set up automation rules and schedules
Now it’s time to tell Akoonu what to do and when.
- In Akoonu, go to persona management, then automation or workflow settings.
- Set rules for each persona field:
- “Update job title weekly from Salesforce”
- “Pull in new pain points monthly from closed-won notes”
- “Refresh company size quarterly from CRM”
- Choose the update frequency—don’t overdo it. Too-frequent updates can churn your data and annoy your team.
- Set alerts for failed updates or weird data spikes. You don’t want a sync gone wrong to overwrite everything with nonsense.
Honest take:
Automated updates are never perfect. Plan for the occasional hiccup or oddball data entry. Build in time to review what’s changed.
Step 5: Keep your sales and marketing teams in the loop
Automation is useless if nobody knows what’s changing or why. You need buy-in.
- Let your sales and marketing folks know what’s getting updated, how often, and where to find the latest info.
- Update your training materials or playbooks to reflect any big persona changes.
- Set a monthly Slack/email reminder to check for oddities (“Did anyone notice we suddenly sell only to 1-person startups?”).
Tip:
Don’t force everyone to use Akoonu directly. Push key fields to the systems your teams already live in (Salesforce, Notion, etc.).
Step 6: Monitor, review, and tweak your automations
No automation is “set it and forget it.” Check in regularly:
- Review persona fields monthly—are updates accurate? Anything weird?
- Ask your sales team: “Is this still matching who we’re selling to?”
- Clean up stale or bad data before it spreads.
If something’s not working, fix it. Don’t be afraid to pause or roll back an automation that’s causing trouble.
What actually works, what doesn’t, and what to skip
What works:
- Automating simple, factual updates (job titles, company size, location)
- Pulling win/loss notes to refresh pain points—if your reps actually fill them in
- Pushing updated persona info into your CRM or sales enablement tools
What doesn’t:
- Automating “soft” insights (motivation, buying triggers) without human review
- Relying on a single data source for all persona fields
- Setting it and forgetting it—something will always break eventually
What to ignore:
- Overly complex automations that require IT to babysit them
- Hype about “AI-driven persona updates” unless you see real, usable output
- Automating just for the sake of it—if nobody uses a persona, automating it won’t make it valuable
Keep it simple, review often, and iterate
Automating buyer persona updates in Akoonu can save you hours and keep your targeting sharp—but only if you keep things practical. Start small, focus on the updates that actually help your team, and don’t be afraid to say “no” to stuff that adds noise. The best persona is the one your team trusts and actually uses, not the one with the fanciest automation. Check your updates regularly, listen to feedback, and keep improving. That’s how you stay ahead—without drowning in busywork.