Content marketing cannot just be a substitute for direct marketing techniques. For the content marketing strategy to succeed, you should be prepared for the ability to drive several lines of value for the business, which is enabled by the audiences. Hence, the content platforms must have one unique goal: to create an increasing number of high-value prospects.
Eventually, some of these prospects will become leads that will later mature into sales opportunities and finally, buyers.
Some might be labeled as “engaged”, helping you connect with new clients, who may not have been easily reached through social media. On the other hand, others can be “influencers” that help expand our reach to create an efficient paid media effort. Lastly, some can be “trusted” that allow us to push direct revenue from different marketing channels. It makes way for a marketing platform that pays for itself. But the most crucial part of this valuable audience is content (and context). To create a successful platform, you must consider a significant change in how you develop the personas that will subscribe to them.
The Buyer Persona
As a semi-unreal depiction of the ideal customer, the buyer persona is founded on market research and gained insight from the existing or ideal customer base. The perfect customer, which is the best lead you would want to have. A company with a lead generation path that comes from several sources, which includes an economic buyer, a technical buyer, a coach who knows an issue you can fix, and a key decision-maker, has more than one buyer persona. As such, it is essential to make a buyer persona for every role that has the potential to use your services.
The buyer persona works better than just separating the audience by demographic characteristics. Rather than group them into buckets, a buyer persona creates the image of an individual — a person who might happen in real life. It improves the customers and becomes more transparent on the issues they want to solve, including their values. These things should be addressed directly in your content, with the buyer persona as the one person you write to when you organize your marketing content. Getting the attention of that imaginary person will make the material more accessible to create and convert better.
Related: ABM Best Practices: Selecting and Profiling High-Value Accounts [INFOGRAPHIC]
Creating A Buyer Persona
The creation of a buyer persona can be challenging. However, the experience will prove that the differences between not having and having a persona are significant. Starting from a marketing standpoint, having a buyer persona means the team will be able to create engaging content and an improved marketing strategy that generates the right leads for the clients.
The first step is to collect information. Identify the best customers and the target people. Search for the common traits and write down all the answers.
Where To Gather Information
- Personal Data – Sales and Customer Service teams, usually have a load of buyer data. Also, having interest reports and demographics enabled in Google Analytics will allow you to get intelligent audience reports.
Perform surveys or include a survey popup to your website to allow the gathering of customer data and have a better understanding of your target buyers.
- Market Research – invest in market research to know more about your target customers. With the help of a market research company, create some focus groups and send questionnaires to your target audience. Some companies provide market research services that are mainly focused on producing insightful buyer personas. Others, on the other hand, concentrate on market research for specific verticals.
- Social Media – use this to have an in-depth look at the people you are targeting to reach with your services and products.
Related: Social Listening: The Power to Gain Business Insights and Increase Sales
Conclusion: Content marketing strategy (with a strong focus on lead generation) emphasizes the continual growth of the audience as an asset that has many attributes. They are the ones who engage with us, trust us, look forward to hearing from us, and will eventually exchange value with the business in several ways. The journey of every buyer may be an emotional process, but being prepared from your end will provide a lot of information as it is connected to gaining trust.
