From One-Size-Fits-All to Strategic Personas: Transforming B2B Health Insurance Marketing

Led 106 in-depth interviews to create targeted personas for a national health insurance company, transforming their marketing approach to role-based communication that led to new training material for five departments.

The Challenge

A national health insurance company was using identical messaging for all health plan buyers—HR leaders, CFOs, and CEOs received the same communications regardless of their role or organization size. This one-size-fits-all approach was causing declining acquisition rates and poor buyer relationships. They needed audience segmentation and personas to inform their strategy, but had no existing research foundation.

Method

In-depth interviews with visual stimuli showing 5-phase decision-making journey for consistent data collection

Sample

106 health plan buyers and brokers across systematic sampling by organization size and job role

Timeline

November 2024 – August 2025

(10 months total, 8 weeks fieldwork)

Tools

Qualtrics

Recollective

Excel

Mural

Custom JavaScript

My Role

Teammates

Lead: Managed day-to-day logistics and all client communication
Moderator: Conducted 40 interviews for high visibility segment, with up to 8 client stakeholders observing
Process Innovation: Developed custom JavaScript automation for scheduling and systematic Excel templates for large-scale qualitative analysis
Mentor: Trained analyst on moderation techniques and 4 total teammates on note taking in Excel

Senior Director (conducted broker interviews)
Research Analyst
Rotating Notetakers (4 team members)

What we learned

Specialized benefits roles—not C-suite executives—had the most influence on health plan decisions, completely overturning assumptions about the target audience and decision-making hierarchy

Impact

The client expanded the project scope from 1 planned workshop to more than 5 workshops engaging 41 stakeholders across five departments, elevating the project from a marketing initiative to an executive-level strategic priority.

personas generated across buyer and broker types

Stakeholders engaged across 5 departments

Additional workshops beyond original scope