Getting Personal – Why Buyer Personas Are Key to Effective Content

1. Getting Personal Why Buyer Personas Are Key to Effective Content

2. The days of one-size-fits-all marketing messages are long gone. In the new digital era, CONTENT IS KING and the ability to deliver the right message at the right time is essential to converting leads into prospects, and prospects into customers. 2

3. The fact is, customers are looking for a more personal relationship with brands. They want to feel acknowledged and understood, rather than just another email address in your list. Personalized engagement is becoming a key differentiator. If I’m considering company A and company B, and I see no discernable difference in product, the tipping point becomes something more intangible: relevance. Which company is speaking my language and specifically addressing my pain points? One gets the click; the other, ignored. Or worse — swiftly deleted. 3

4. With the explosion of affordable marketing automation systems with segmentation capabilities, it’s easier than ever to target your prospects and customers with specific content. But first, you have to know whom to target. That’s where buyer personas become your new secret weapon. Personas move past surface demographic data to really tap into the ‘who, what, when, where, why and how’ behind your customers’ buying decisions. By creating profiles of your customers, you can dive deep into the unique journey they undergo during the purchase cycle — their challenges, pain points and goals — and create informed, high-impact campaigns and content tailored to address each segment’s specific needs. 4

5. How to Get Personal At the most basic level, buyer personas are all about getting personal with your leads and customers and finding innovative ways to connect with them. But even that simple definition can mean different things depending on how you look at it. Here are some ways personas enable you to get personal. You know what they say about assumptions… Times, they are a-changing. Keep up. “Why not” is just as important as “why.” A common fallacy among businesses is to assume that your leads and customers act, think and make decisions the same way you do. However, once you start talking with your customers and learning the specific factors that affect their decision-making, you’d be surprised by what actually motivates buying behavior. Be prepared to have your assumptions shattered, and embrace it — it’ll open up a whole new world of possibilities for you. The needs of your clients today are different than they were ten years ago, five years ago, even just a year ago. So if your content and messaging haven’t changed much over time, it’s time to refresh what you know. While personas can help get you up to date right now, be careful not to let them get stale; as industry trends evolve, so should your personas. Digging into buyer priorities will reveal not just why they buy, but also why they don’t buy. Sometimes, this is the more important question, though often overlooked. Think about it. By asking a customer why they didn’t buy a certain product, or asking your sales team why leads don’t ultimately make a purchase, you can uncover astonishing insight into what holes you may have in your messaging, your funnel, even your actual product or service. Once you can eliminate these barriers to buying, you’ll find a flood of new opportunities knocking at your door. 5

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