Use Personas to Guide Your Content and Key Messages

They’re not just customers, they’re people with different personalities, needs and buying triggers, and the content you produce needs to reflect that.

All-too-often we see very generic content being used that is failing to hit the ‘hot buttons’ that encourage potential customers to turn interest into an actual sale.

Now, that doesn’t mean that you should get too granular, but there is often a need for at least a basic segmentation approach to guide marketing and content decisions – existing, new and lapsed would be one approach or specific content targeted at individuals in different industrial sectors.

Let me offer an example. A machine manufacturer has a reputation in the market for manufacturing a premium quality product that demands a premium price. The company’s strategy is to grow with its users, gradually introducing higher specification machines to help it enter new markets with higher value work.

However, pricing concerns for entry-level machines have made some buyers reticent, which has led the company to introduce a new leasing solution. By definition this would necessitate that messaging should be split, with completely different messages for existing and new entry-level customers. These messages would be based on different personas.

As you can see, the messaging is entirely different – one stressing quality and productivity, the other seeking to dispel any concerns over pricing.

The Author: Tom Leatherbarrow is a Director at WPR Agency specialising in B2B PR and marketing. His white paper, “Why Content Marketing Fails” can be requested by emailing info@wpragency.co.uk