Using Persona Research in Your Content Marketing Strategy: 6 Questions to Ask
Persona research helps content marketing efforts cut through the noise and reach the right customers. Before laying the foundation of a content marketing strategy, marketers should ask themselves six questions as part of their persona research:
- What types of content do your customers prefer to see?
- Where do your customers discover new content?
- What types of searches do your customers perform?
- What do your customers dedicate money and time towards?
- How do your customers make their purchasing decisions?
- How can you keep your customers’ interest?
Mark Evertz, senior content strategist and campaign strategist for Left Brain DGA, also talks about the importance of personas for content marketing. He offers 10 steps, broken down into these sections: capture, filter, listen and assess.
Getting a clear understanding of target personas can have dramatic effects on lead generation and sales. One case study found that a provider of cloud automation solutions was able to boost leads from all channels by 124 percent as a result of a content marketing strategy that involved understanding buyers and personas.
Despite the importance placed on personas for content marketing, marketers need to remember the importance of meeting real people, in addition to looking at LinkedIn profiles and supplementing profiles with information gleaned from email Q&As.
