Do you get loads of clicks to your content, but fail to get anything from your call-to-action? The problem won't be that your content is bad, it's that you're not resonating with the people who matter - your audience.
You've probably read tons of blogs that talk about how important it is to create a buyer persona, and equally how important it is to produce great content. But how seriously do you take this?
Sure it takes up a lot of time and resource, but the only way you're going to build your brand, connect with your audience, and drive sales, is if you start creating content that directly correlates with with your buyer personas.
And what's a little time and resource when the future of your business depends on it? Follow these steps and start seeing the results that your brand deserves...
Step 1: Create your buyer persona
If you don't already have a buyer persona then stop what you're doing and create one now. No really, do it now. To make life easier, HubSpot actually offer a free template for you to create buyer personas for your business - so you really have no excuse!
Now that's out the way you can breathe a sigh of relief because you're about to create a content strategy that will actually work...
Step 2: Target the sales funnel
Next step is to not only target your buyer persona within your content, but also think about which stage of the sales funnel they are at when you create your content. You'll see lots of versions of the sales and marketing funnel, but typically it covers these three areas below: target at the top; engage in the middle; and convert at the bottom.
As marketers, on average we like to use 6 different types of content including: blogs; infographics; videos; and e-books. But what many don't realise is that some types of content works better, depending on what stage of the funnel your customers are at. Here's how to get it right...
Top of the funnel
At the top of the funnel your prospects are going to be researching solutions for the problems they have. Your content here needs to be relevant to your niche, and have a wider more shareable appeal than it would nearer to the bottom of the funnel. In addition to infographics, blog posts are great for top of the funnel as they help answer the questions that your buyer personas may have.
Middle of the funnel
So here is the point where you have people interested in your company - they're on your site to find out more and they are one step closer to making the sale. This is the time to give them content that teaches them something about how your product or service is better than anyone else's out there. A white paper or e-book can be a great resource to create here as they are both a more in-depth piece of content that can provide value to the prospect.
Bottom of the funnel
Once a lead is here then they are ready to make the sale and are edging around your sign up button. That's not to say your work is done, you can still provide the prospect with valuable content to give them a nudge in the right direction. Think about offering a free piece of content on your sign up form so they feel valued and continue to learn about your brand.
Step 3: Use keywords to create content titles
So now you should be ready to start thinking about the titles of your content. To do this effectively you need to do your keyword research to discover what your buyer personas are searching for. Identify with the questions that they are searching for and then use those questions as your blog post or e-book titles. Not only will this optimize your content correctly for search engines, but it will encourage your buyer personas to check out your content because they are looking for answers!
Check out this article to find more about how to use Google Adwords to research the right content marketing keywords for your buyer persona.
Step 4: When writing content, speak in their language
When it comes to writing the full body of content, you need to be speaking in the same language as your buyer persona. This really depends on your buyer persona research that you did in step 1, but it's important to find out the industry-terms they like to use and the type of content that speaks to them the most. Your buyer persona may prefer informal language, they may prefer you to be direct, or they may like you to keep it strictly professional.
Remember, it's important that your language and tone resonates with the buyer, rather than your preferred writing technique.
Closing thoughts
The takeaway here is really that your content needs to be more targeted to not only your buyer persona, but the sales funnel. Don't just create content because you think it's cool, think about what your audience wants, the stage of the funnel they are at, and the keywords they use so you can start creating content that is really effective.
Do you have any further tips on how to marry buyer personas with great content? Let me know in the comments below!
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