Content marketing is an essential part of any successful businesses’ online marketing strategies. Before creating content, it’s important to create target buyer personas so you can tailor your content appropriately. When establishing buyer personas, consider every aspect of their character to make sure you address every interest and concern that could possibly be raised. Read below to learn how to create fully-formed buyer personas that will help you more accurately target your digital content.
What Are Their Personal Characteristics?
The first thing you should consider is your persona’s demographics such as marital status, income, gender, and age. Where do they live? What sort of educational background do they have? What does a typical day look like for them? Does your persona typically spend more time at work or home? Consider your persona’s interests, daily habits, and personal attributes to get an accurate picture.
What is Their Career Path?
How did your persona end up where they are now? It’s important to consider the path they took to their position to understand them better. Did they take a fairly traditional route or did they switch over from another industry? Did they major in something related to their industry or something completely different from their current role? Understanding a persona’s career path is essential to understanding their position and interests.
What is Their Company Like?
First, you should identify what industry your persona works in. Then consider their company. How large is the company? How many employees does it have? Does their company have global influence or a more targeted scope? Learning more about your persona’s company is vital to properly understanding their role within it.
What is Their Position Within the Company?
How long has your persona had their job? Which department do they represent? Do they manage others or work on their own? What level of seniority does your persona have? When considering B2B companies, seniority is particularly important in considering their expertise. A persona with high seniority will be well versed in the industry and will need less education about certain concepts and terms. Understanding your persona’s role will help you decide the best way to properly address their needs.
What Are Their Challenges and Goals?
Understanding your persona’s biggest challenges will help you explain how your product or service can help them overcome these obstacles. It’s important to consider your persona’s problems in order to offer them proper solutions. Figuring out your persona’s goals can also be helpful. What does it mean to be successful in their industry or profession? How can your product or service help? Explaining how you can help your persona achieve their goals will help properly target your content.
How Do They Discover Information?
Does your persona learn about information online, in person, or through newspapers or magazines? Who do they trust for valuable information: people who are close to them or industry experts? Once you identify their most used channels, consider what specific publications and blogs they read. What websites and social networks do they visit the most? Understanding the process your persona goes through to learn information will help you target your content to ensure that it’s part of their process.
How Do They Interact With Vendors?
How does your persona research products and vendors? What are they looking to get out of their sales process? Are they looking for simplicity and efficiency or a vendor that explains the little details to them? Do they appreciate a more formal interaction or favor a friendly face? A good strategy for answering these questions is to lay out a recent purchase your persona may have made. Analyze every step they took from the research stage, through the purchase, all the way to their evaluation. Understanding your persona’s purchasing process and previous interactions with vendors will help ensure that your selling process matches up.
What Are Their Potential Objections?
It’s important to predict any possible objections and complaints to your services or products that your personas may have before tailoring content for them. What rubs your buyer persona the wrong way? What are some common issues buyers have had with your products/services? What are the most common complaints among your competition's customers? After considering these questions, you can properly address these issues before your customer faces them. Your customer is more likely to purchase your product or service if all of their potential issues are already addressed.
ImageWorks, LLC | CT Content Marketing Strategy
Buyer personas can be used to ensure any content you create is focused around the goals, pain points, and interests of your target audience. A company with inbound marketing expertise can be especially helpful with developing marketing personas because they are usually already familiar with personas relevant to your industry.
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