When it comes to developing a successful content marketing strategy, it is best to never rely on guessing games. You really have to know exactly how and why your prospective buyers make their decisions. In order to do this, you need to create so-called buyer personas; these describe and help illustrate your buyers’ cycle, the reasons they have for every one of their actions, and the questions they ask themselves before buying anything.
But this does not mean making up imaginary people – that only leads to false assumptions and conclusions, leading you astray. No, you need to actually talk to your current clients, ask them the right questions, and form buyer personas based on real facts and data.
What a Correct Buyer Persona Must Include
In order to form a correct, accurate buyer persona, you must make sure to answer all of the following questions (and a few more):
• What is the buyer’s goal? You must understand what drives the buyer, what their purpose is, what goal they wish to achieve. To put it another way, you must find out what the buyer considers a successful purchase, in order to be able to provide them with successful experiences.
• What are the obstacles the buyer faces? Only very rarely do purchases go smoothly from start to sale; in most cases, the buyer faces a number of obstacles, including problems related to budget limitations and poor communication. The more you understand about these problems, the more you can streamline the buyer’s experience.
• Who are the decision makers? In B2B environments, more often than not, there are many people who have a say in whether a purchase is finalized or not. From the engineers who need quality equipment for their projects to the owner who thinks more about ROI, all of them need to be approached according to their goals and needs. Understanding who they are can help immensely.
Once you flesh out real, correct buyer personas, you can then use them to perfect your content marketing strategy and craft an experience tailor-made for your core buyers.
