Aligning Content with a Buyer Persona:

What has your content done for you lately? Marketers are great at crafting messages filled with strong calls to action.  However, if the communication is not resonating or reaching the right audience, campaign success is unlikely.

Content is now an important ingredient in the marketer’s toolbox.  One of the best ways to build a brand and deepen customer relationships is via content marketing: the creation, publication, and distribution of relevant, high-value content, tailored to the needs of targeted groups.

Marketers have been transformed into educators and content must always communicate value.  What value can your organization provide buyers of your products and services?

Creating a buyer persona starts by defining your ideal customer.

Hubspot offers an excellent definition of a buyer persona:

“A buyer persona is a semi-fictional representation of your ideal customer based on market research and real data about your existing customers. When creating your buyer persona(s), consider including customer demographics, behavior patterns, motivations, and goals. The more detailed you are, the better.”

By understanding who your buyer is, we are better able to communicate solutions aligned with buyer needs. Marketers are embracing social media listening tools and Google Analytics for help.  They also recognize the need to humanize bands with story telling and build emotional connections with buyers – even traversing from consumer selling (B2C) to the business to business (B2B) world.

Persona development requires consumer marketers to collect demographic data and conduct behavioral analysis.  Good questions to ask:

• What features of your product are important to the purchaser?
• How price sensitive is the buyer?
• What level of customer service is desired?
• Where do they like to shop?
• Where does the buyer seek information?
• What format and types of information are preferred?

Similar to their B2C counterparts, B2B marketers require insights into buyer demographics and behavior.  Corporate buyers are faced with many daily work challenges and are seeking solutions on how to solve their problems. Marketers should gather information on the following:

• What is the person’s job role and responsibilities?
• Who else does the person interact with in the organization when making a purchasing decision?
• Where does the person seek industry or product information?
• How does your product solve the person’s problems?
• What types of content does the person like to consume?
• What is the preferred way to interact with your company?

Good audience targeting requires communicating how a product will solve customer problems, knowing how and where to reach buyers, and ensuring that your products can be found and purchased easily.

Design a purchasing process with minimal buyer friction.  Make the User Experience (UX) memorable and delight your customers! Trust and sales will soon follow.