Why Content Marketing Needs Buyer Persona
For Content Marketing, it is essential to know the audience in order to develop relevant content.
To develop effective Content Marketing, we need to understand the profile of our Buyer Persona. The design of relevant content starts with knowledge of the characteristics, needs, and interests of customers. Let’s discover who the Buyer Persona is and why it is so important to build this profile for our Content Marketing strategies.
What is a Buyer Persona?
When we talk about Buyer Persona, it is often confused with the Ideal Customer. Both profiles are closely related, but they are not exactly the same thing.
While the Ideal Customer abstractly represents the profile of our perfect customer that we aspire to, the Buyer Persona is part ideal-type and part real.
To build the Buyer Persona, we will not rely solely on external sources (e.g., market analysis and research). Instead, we will examine detailed data from our current customers.
This profile includes the demographic characteristics of the ideal type; their customer journey; their profession; their needs, etc. It is precisely because of this level of detail that this ideal-type is defined as a “persona,” as it realistically outlines the profile of your customer.
The Buyer Persona typically includes at least this level of information:
Why is it essential to know the Buyer Persona for Content Marketing?
Why is knowing the Buyer Persona strategically important for Content Marketing? Is it really worth investing time and resources to build such a detailed profile?
The answer is yes, it is definitely worth it.
The reason it holds such strategic value can be explained with a simple example.
Suppose you already know your target: athletes. But you don’t know if they are competing at a professional level or just for fun.
This detailed information allows us to understand, for example, how much they are willing to spend on products, what their purchasing frequency is, and how interested they are in new and innovative products, etc.
Essentially, we will be able to create personalized content that considers the most suitable tone of voice and the highest value marketing levers for that profile.
Knowing the Buyer Persona means understanding how our customer behaves, how they think, and identifying the best way to connect by creating content that exactly meets their expectations and needs.
How to create a Buyer Persona?
Given the quantity and detail of the information required, it is no coincidence that the most effective way to create a Buyer Persona is to conduct surveys and interviews.
Through targeted questions, we can outline the characteristics, habits, behaviors, and needs of the profile.
In practice, it is not easy to create a Buyer Persona with a good level of detail.
After defining the minimum number of interviews we need, we must try to convince customers or prospects to participate in the interview.
The best way is always to use some incentive. Give away a gift card; offer a special discount; conduct surveys on social networks with forms of recognition and thanks (but in this case, we need to have a good number of brand ambassadors).
SUGGESTION:
The collection of sign-ups and interviews will certainly be the most challenging step. Especially if the customer base we have is not very large or is uncooperative. Remember: you can always turn to external agencies! These networks (like Digitaal Metrics) can help you access a wide number of prospects to conduct your interviews!
Let's see how to create the Buyer Persona in 5 steps!
1. Let's define the minimum number of interviews we need.
Starting from the number of our customers, we need to establish the minimum representative sample of interviews we will conduct. The choice will mainly depend on the margin of error we are willing to accept. For example, if we have 100 customers and are willing to accept a margin of error of 10%, then our sample will consist of 50 interviews.
2. Let's define a list of data and information to collect.
Some data to collect through interviews are standard (e.g., demographic data), while others may be specific based on the industry in which we operate, the products/services we offer, etc.
We should therefore define a list of information we intend to collect and prepare the questionnaire of questions to present to the sample.
3. Let's identify an incentive to offer to the interviewees.
As we already mentioned, conducting such detailed interviews is not an easy task.
In fact, it won't be easy to convince customers to dedicate their time to the interviews, nor to persuade them to share all this personal information with us.
Therefore, we will need an incentive, which could be a gift card as a reward; or a discount reserved for their favorite products/services; or even forms of public recognition (e.g., on social media).
4. We carry out the interviews
At this point, we will proceed to contact customers or prospects and conduct the interviews.
It’s important that the incentives are recognized immediately, at the end of the interview.
Utilizing social media channels can be a great strategic choice. For example, by publicly thanking participants in our interviews and awarding the prizes, we can increase the visibility and recognition of the initiative.
This way, even the most “skeptical” individuals might reconsider and decide to participate.
5. Let’s create our Buyer Persona.
Once we have collected the data from the interviews, we can finally create our Buyer Persona.
Or rather, OUR Buyer Personas. Companies typically have a minimum of 2 to a maximum of about 20 Buyer Persona profiles.
Once we have gathered the data, we will immediately notice that within the sample, clusters will actually form—groups that are more homogeneous in characteristics.
To construct our Buyer Personas, we can also use various free tools, such as HubSpot's.
These tools make this task more interactive and fun, allowing us to create avatars of our Buyer Persona that can be shared with other team members and departments.
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