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 2025 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

Research insights were so thorough and compelling that the client expanded from one planned workshop to five 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