Answer:

Before addressing the question, I’ll take a step back to define what persona segmentation is — it’s a method for dividing up a market (including the contacts in a CRM) to create categories of prospects and contacts that share attributes, enabling more focused marketing and selling.

The objective of this method is to provide a foundation for campaign recommendations and align marketing initiatives based on brand affinity and adoption tendencies. If this approach is new to you, know that it’s based on the concept of the Adoption Curve, which outlines the different stages people go through when they start using a new product or technology—such as initial users (innovators), followed by early adopters, the majority, and finally, the late adopters. At Wrench, we categorize prospects and customers based on different Adoption Curve stages.

Now, to answer the question: It’s rare for a contact to be part of two persona segments, but it is possible to have both “Influencer” and “Innovator” tags. An Innovator is a person who exhibits a high fit for a brand or product, PLUS a professional background with inventor/engineering/product management chops. If they are a content creator and have a following, they may also qualify as an influencer. In this case, you’d see both tags, but we recommend prioritizing the Influencer persona.

Why? The Influencer tag overrides the “Innovator” tag because between the two persona tags, you’re more likely to make more mistakes in nurturing and pitching to Innovators. Innovators are often the proverbial "inventor in the garage" type who are more interested in building products than “tooting their own horn” and wielding influence on their audiences (examples: Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Steve Balmer).

Influencers focused on creating consistent content and building their audiences usually know who the Innovators in their industry are. They've either been one themselves earlier in their career or know a lot of people and can distinguish between true Innovators and charlatans. If you find contacts tagged with both personas, you have more room for error with an Influencer versus an Innovator. More on our logic:

• Innovators are less likely to have a communications platform, so their ability to wield influence won’t compare to an Influencer who’s done the hard work to cultivate an audience.

• Innovators are more tolerant when it comes to bugs and mistakes because they know how messy the development and creative process is.

• Innovators are often too busy building something to bother with taking time out to give you feedback. This doesn’t apply to all, so it can be worth cultivating a group of Innovators, but it’s a unique persona group that should not be pitched to traditionally. Some will value giving feedback, and this is a good group to cultivate for input from time to time.

In short, Influencers can be Innovators or even other personas, like Early Adopters. But always prioritize the Influencer over any other persona first.

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