James
Creating a content strategy is important for any business. One of the most vital things that arise during the strategic process is figuring out who you are trying to reach out to. You cannot come up with an effective content strategy if you aren’t able to pin point the exact individuals this content needs to appeal to – the buyer persona.
It’s of vital importance that you create a buyer persona before proceeding with your content strategy. You will have to narrow down the exact person you will be trying to connect with; a buyer persona is essentially a sketch of your ideal customer.
Let’s get started.
1. Typical Day of the Consumer
You probably haven’t had the need to ever think about other people’s days before. Things are hectic enough for you as it is to be spending time thinking about the ‘what’, ‘where’, and ‘why’ of others. To create your perfect consumer, you might have to dedicate a bit of your day to day dream of other people’s lives – if only for a moment.
If you want to create the perfect buyer persona, this will be the first thing for you to ponder. This is the most basic of buyer persona creation steps – trying to understand the usual day of your consumer.
When imagining the ideal individual who’s attention you’re trying to attract, what do you think they do on a regular day? None of the other steps we are going to cover later on will work for you without getting this out of the way.
Here are some things you should consider when imagining the typical day of your buyer persona –
- Are they a morning person?
- How do they start their day?
- Do they commute to work with a car, bike, walking, public transportation. Maybe they work from home?
- What are their internet browsing habits?
- Are they single? Married? Divorced?
- What are their hobbies?
- Income level
- Education level
All those variables, and some that I didn’t mention can have an impact on the persons daily routine. It sounds funny trying to imagine a fictitious person who would be the ideal customer for your business, but it’s one of the best ways to create effective marketing strategies.
2. Customers Goals
When creating the ideal buyer persona, you must have a clear understanding of your customers’ goals and aspirations. Focus on their long term and short term goals.
Empathize with your consumer, we all know some goals are not easy to reach, but you are there to help. You are providing valuable knowledge that will get your consumer on the path to making the right decisions.
Your main objective with content creation is to aid the consumer in reaching his or her goals or follow a passion.
3. Job Relationship
Get into the nitty-gritty of the buyer’s relationship with his or her work. Their job, experience, income, all will reflect how you will tailor the content to fit them personally. Even the type of career they are in can give you some useful insight on how to approach the content they would look for.
Of course, their wealth levels can also heavily alter the way you choose content topics and presentation style. For example, if you write about investment strategy, the content you produce for someone making 200k annually will not be the same as with someone who is making 40k a year and works 2 jobs.
4. Obstacles
Everyone faces obstacles in life that come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Many of us would welcome some help in overcoming barriers and obstacles that are thrown in our path. When creating a content strategy for your buyer persona, your objective is to provide advice and solutions to obstacles that the consumer may face.
Your content loses a lot of it’s worth if you have nothing of value to provide to your buyer persona. Be relevant to your audience. Why would someone dedicate their precious time to you when there are countless other options out there for them to choose from to get the necessary information.
5. Channel Preference
You have so many channels to distribute your content on, it can make your head spin trying to narrow down your choices. Of course, picking all the channels available to you would not be a wise choice. Trying to create valuable leads through every channel you have available can be quite detrimental to your content strategy.
Your efforts will be diluted and the constant required changes in your content will be quite a time sink. Not to mention that the consumers you’re trying to reach may not even be present on some of those channels you’re putting effort into.
Narrowing down your channels is essential to create the most effective content strategy for yourself. You ideally want to focus on a few quality channels which bring you quality leads that convert to paying customers.
Brainstorm
Have you thought about which channels you will utilize for your content? Based on your buyer persona, you will adjust your content channels accordingly. There are many social media platforms out there, blogging sites, video hosting services, podcast options, etc. Each one possesses strengths in reaching out to different types of people.
Let’s say your ideal consumer is a 29 year old male university graduate. He majored in marketing and is now working for a software company. He now has undertaken the role of a digital marketer for the company. His work requires him to do considerable amounts of travel.
I simplified the scenario to help illustrate a point. For this individual you might want to consider creating content that can be quickly consumed and digested. He is always on the move so perhaps a summarized inforgraphic shared on Twitter can do the trick. Or even a podcast could be best utilized to get your information across.
Always think about what would the best option and easiest to access for your buyer persona. The variables we discussed in this post can determine why one method works for some and doesn’t work as well for others.
Analytics
After honing in on the channels you want to focus on, you will have to analyze their performance. Tracking tools such as Google Analytics will help you understand which channels bring in the traffic and the ones that don’t. Over time you will have a better understanding on where you should dedicate most of your attention.
You also have access to some social media analytics tools. LinkedIn has analytics tools available to you, and so does Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Youtube. Depending on what you choose to publish your content on, be aware that analytics will help you improve on your long term content strategy.
6. Tone
Tone is incredibly vital to consider when creating content. The right tone can create a more engaging and vibrant atmosphere for your consumer.
We have discussed some of the methods you can use to publish your content on. Be it video, podcast, a simple Facebook update or a blog, you need to set the tone that is best suited to your buyer persona.
7. Keywords
Most of your content will likely be found online. Now you need to figure out how people will come to you. This is where keywords come into play. Since search engines direct a lot of traffic across the web, the keywords you focus on can make or break your exposure.
Google Keyword Planner is a nifty tool for you to search for the most-typed keywords into their search engine. It will give you a nice list of keywords you can incorporate when creating content.
Things May Change
Over time your business goals may change, you may start developing different content. You will have to take a step back and re-evaluate your buyer persona once more. Trends can change too, impacting your content creation.
Don’t be afraid to look back at your buyer persona over time and see what things may need to be altered or amended. Keep trying to understand your ideal consumer and how you will be of use to them.
