As a content marketer I am always thinking of ways I can create content that will be more effective in reaching prospective customers. Clearly defining your persona is a great place to start. But, if all marketers are defining their personas with the same criteria, does that mean your competition is looking at their personas the same way you are? Hmm. If this is the case, you need to start thinking of ways that you can find out more information about your personas so that your content marketing is reaching them in different ways and for different reasons.
There are many ways to define your personas, however, there are a three questions you should really think about if you want to craft a content strategy that will be highly targeted to reach prospective customers for reasons other than the standard persona criteria marketers tend to use.
TIP 1: What is your persona’s most common objection to your product or service?
This is normally not a common persona criteria, however, it should be. Your sales team has to deal with objections all the time, so why not ask them what they are so you can create content to address those situations? Once you know what these are you will be able to create content that helps to overcome those objections, control the situation and lead the prospect closer to conversion.
TIP 2: What reason is your persona inclined to look at your competitors?
If you’re not looking at your competition often, you better start. There are subtle clues to product and service offerings and sometimes glaring new launches and brand alterations that your competition provides and these will be incredibly valuable to you. However, if you don’t know anything about them, you will have no idea how to communicate to your audience to educate them on the true value of your services.
TIP 3: If you were to ask your persona, what would they say they value most about your product or service?
If you knew exactly what your prospective customers liked the most about your products you would be selling more and more all the time. For some reason companies cannot figure this out. My suggestion is… ask them. Use surveys and short questionnaires either online, in-person, via email, social media or any other means that works best for your company. If you continually do this and keep a close eye on your findings as they unfold month after month you will soon have a clearer picture of what your customers value the most. Then you will be able to be more proactive in R&D as well as your sales and marketing efforts.
Related Topics and Articles
- What Are Personas? – eBook link
- Why Are They Important? – eBook link
- Big Data and Marketing Personas – A Perfect Match?
- Establish and Increase Content ROI
- Create a Marketing Blueprint
- Real Tips From A Real Marketer
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Scott MacFarland
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