One of the most common questions we get from clients is how can they figure out what people want to read?
When a particular blog post receives fantastic engagement in the forms of views, shares and responses, while another similarly written topic gets poor traction and a few ‘Likes’, what can they do?
Aside from reviewing your materials against other industry-standard content, the answer may in fact be lying behind you.
Targeting and segmentation are things that we marketers do on a daily basis. We’re constantly looking back-and-forth at our content versus the (hopefully) already segmented demographics we have narrowed down. Yet while we think that these targets are deeply personified, this might not be the case.
A real world buyer persona
Take a look at one of the buyer personas we use here at CLCK. This particular persona is called “Agency Annie” and is one of the 4 personas we use when creating and promoting content. By fleshing out as much as you can about a persona, you are able to create much more interesting content because you’re no longer talking to a faceless group, but instead you’re chatting to a real person. This makes your content more personal and engaging. It also allows you to segment your email database into clearly defined groups so you can send them more relevant messages.
The process of creating buyer personas allows us to look into what makes you, YOU. These aspects are representations of individuals rather than entire groups (groups meaning simply regional, socio-economic or even technological segmentation) including standard demographics – age, role, income – but add to this in-depth analysis with goals and challenges the buyer persona might be facing.
These can be as fleeting as a general organisation-wide SMART goal, or as detailed as “Wants to grow with her company while investing time into business-related hobbies for enjoyment and knowledge”. This one sentence gives marketers so much information. We can see that this particular buyer persona is engaged with her career field, she’s invested in her equity within the company, and she seeks to fulfil her mental needs with educational materials to put back in to the business and to use as satisfaction.
Needless to say, these highly targeted buyer personas take time to flesh out. They will cost your business more time (and in turn more money) than simply pushing potentially thousands of targets into a ‘box’ that reads “20-35yo marketing professionals”, but what you’re left with is a personal diary for a customer that is begging for you to talk with them.
Spend that extra time. Get to know your contacts. Create buyer personas with them – rather than your business – in mind. Grow with them, and before you know it, you’ve got a brand ambassador.
“How do I know what people want?”
