Using buyer personas to create targeted content

Marketing and PR tips

Using buyer personas to create targeted content

In Tech PR and marketing, when you know who you are writing for, what challenges that individual may face and what solutions they are likely to be looking for, it is much easier to produce content that will resonate and ultimately help them to buy.

Targeted content reflects a deep understanding of who your audience is and at what stage of the buying process they are currently at. Depending on where exactly they are on this journey, consumers may need content that:

• Raises Awareness: Helps your audience understand early on exactly what your company does. They need to be better educated before they will begin to consider specific solutions. Keep in mind that content at this level should act as an introduction to your brand and gently guide them through beginner level concepts and ideas.
• Enables discovery and comparisons: This content should demonstrate that your company is an expert in its chosen field. Do this by creating content that showcases your knowledge, expertise and high-quality products or services. At this second stage, consumers understand that your product or service could meet their needs so help consumers recognise that your business is the best choice for them.
• Encourages a sale: By providing the right information, the consumer should now have everything they need to confidently purchase from you. However, be prepared to offer interactions with your sales team, either via call or in-person, should they require a bit more information or reassurance.Specific content speaking to a specific person, with a specific need, at a specific point in their buyer journey.

Personas should clearly identify a number of demographic and behavioural factors. In doing so, they become one of the most important steps to creating not just targeted content, but also a customer-centric strategy.

To build detailed personas you need to identify your customers’ most obvious and important characteristics through either quantitative or qualitative research methods. Focus on the individual and not just the company they work for. A good start would be by mining any customer databases or CRM systems you currently have and by interviewing your existing customers. During this research think about:

Demographic information:

• the individual’s job title and responsibilities
• the company’s size
• the company’s marketplace position and location
• the company’s potential budget

Behavioural information:

• the individual’s motivating factors
• the individual’s expectations
• the individual’s concerns and pain points
• the individual’s role in the purchasing process
• the individual’s understanding of your products and services
• the individual’s needs to be met to ensure a purchase

Now you should have corresponding personas to every type of prospective buyer that you are wanting to attract. By creating these personas before you write your content, you’ll be able to craft a multitude of content types that are more customised to needs.

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