Do Not Start Content Marketing Without a Customer Avatar
I found this quote today; “You can’t be everything to everyone, but you can be something great for someone.” According to the graphic on Pinterest, the quote belongs to entrepreneur Matt Cheuvront. (check out his website Life Without Pants for some great articles)
Why do I find this quote so relevant to content marketing? Well, since a good content marketing strategy begins with spending some time understanding your target market, it makes sense that we don’t just want customers, we want GREAT customers! And in order to get great customers, we need to BE GREAT for someone. So how do we be great for someone?
We begin by understanding what it takes to make us great in their eyes.
By working through the creation of a profile which depicts our ideal customer, we can identify and anticipate their needs in terms of information they will require in order to make a purchase. And it doesn’t end there. By creating a customer avatar, or persona, we also learn:
- How this individual is likely to find our information (do they hang out on Instagram or LinkedIn?)
- Why our information/content is important to them (the WIIFM “what’s in it for me” factor)
- What kind of content will appeal to them (articles, videos, infographics, pictures, etc)
- What messaging will we use to communicate with them (do they want data or testimonials)
There are several companies you can find online who have created templates for you to use in order to create your own personas. The one I like best is provided by HubSpot. How to Create Detailed Buyer Personas for Your Business. I prefer this template because it takes you through the familiar Who, What, Why and How process. It’s easy to edit and worth your time to complete.
If you are going to invest time, energy and money into launching a content marketing program, you really ought to give yourself the best chance at success by spending the time it takes to plan out who your target market is and what makes them tick!
Hope this helps!
Leanne