When it comes to content marketing, your buyer persona determines the type of content you need to produce, making it much easier to hire a writer. As someone who’s been in business for awhile, you’re probably already familiar with business personas — those fully-developed, written representations of your customers. You understand that targeting your content specifically to the type of people who use your service is a savvy way of increasing conversions. But what you may find a little confusing is how to find out exactly who your personas are. Identification is key, and until you’re able to pinpoint who your customer is, you’ll only be guessing at the type of content he or she might find valuable. If you need help recognizing and listening to those little voices who have such a big impact on your brand, read on.
Collect Information
The first step in building your buyer personas is to collect pertinent information on the people who are actually making conversions. Focus only on those who actually buy your product or subscribe to your service, and then build a profile around them:
- Are they male or female?
- How old?
- What do they do for a living?
- What’s their annual salary?
- Hobbies? Interests?
- College educated?
- What factors compel them to make a buying decision?
- What other types of products or services do they buy?
Once you have this most basic of information in hand, you have everything you need to create a fictitious persona around it and to hire a writer to cater to it. How you collect the information is up to you. You can use consumer surveys, tracking programs, virtual assistants, analytics and more.
Make It Detailed
Once you’ve identified the type of person your persona will be modeled after, create a written representation that’s as detailed as you can make it. Add a picture of this fictitious person to help you and others in your company better recognize him or her. Creating a persona is a bit like explaining a magic act — once you have all the information, the picture becomes clear. If you understand that your typical buyer is a 24-year-old college-educated male who works in finance and enjoys extreme sports, muscle cars and staying physically fit — creating content to engage him becomes much easier.
Share It Throughout Your Organization
Once you’ve created a detailed persona of your buyer or buyers, make sure you share it throughout your organization, and especially with your training department and new hires. Everyone needs to understand who they’re targeting if you’re to have a shot at reaching your most valuable consumers.
Identifying who your customers really are, creating detailed personas around them, and then hiring a writer to craft content that targets their interests specifically ensures that you’ll engage the people who matter most to your business.
Anne G enjoys researching, social media, landscaping, gardening and home renovation.
