Ever been to a website that seemed tailor-made for you?
You scan the site, immediately find what you’re looking for, and also find some deeper information that clearly explains a point you’ve been wondering about. The site seems to have already answered your “next question” before you even thought to ask it.
It’s not magic, but a sign that the site owner understands and uses buyer personas in their marketing.
What Is a Buyer Persona?
According to Oracle’s white paper “How to Create Personas:
- A persona is simply a description of someone who’s interested in your company, products, and services.
- A persona provides a detailed description of a fictional person who would buy your product or use your service.
- A persona describes their behaviors, job role, responsibilities, priorities, and personality traits.
- It puts human attributes on an abstract marketing description. (Source: Oracle.com)
This last point is key. If we can write our copy and create content marketing that speaks to this imaginary person, our marketing efforts will be seen as more relevant, more helpful and ultimately more effective at making the sale.
How Many Buyer Personas Do I Need?
There is no hard and fast rule. If you haven’t created any, start with three or four. Begin by looking at your current best customers; what do they have in common? What’s unique about each one? This can be a good place to begin to craft your own personas.
For example, in my work, I deal with several different types of people:
- business owners who need help outsourcing their blog writing
- publishers that need a way to manage their editorial work load
- nonprofit leaders searching for some direction for their content marketing strategy and social marketing plan
- website developers who have clients that need website content written
- etc…
My personas are based on real people in these roles, so I can feel like I’m speaking directly to them when I write.
Having solid buyer personas is the first step in any website content or content marketing strategy. Without understand who you are talking to, your content will be scattershot, less relevant.
Get the buyer personas right, and everything will begin to flow from there.