target persona

Did you know there are over 200 million pieces of online content created every minute? 205 million emails, 3.5 million Facebook and Twitter posts, 400 hours of YouTube videos, and 1,200 WordPress blog posts later, the evidence is there. Internet users create a ton of content. Even with so much time and energy spent on writing and sharing content, the more shocking statistic may be the amount that is not shared, clicked, or retweeted. After Moz pulled 757,000 posts for analysis, they found that half had less than 12 Twitter shares and zero external links. That’s a scary low amount of engagement. The audience was not even there, and their disinterest showed. So, how do we avoid making the same mistake? It happens when we stop creating too much ineffective content, and start focusing on engaging our audience based on a target persona. In this guide, I’m going to give you an actual guide to creating a nitty-gritty target persona, four keys to talking to your target persona and reaching them with your content, then go into a guide on how to stop over-creating, and dive deep into reader-persona-tailored creation. Ready? How to Develop a Target Persona: Your Granular Guide to Creating a Target Persona There are so many guides out there that tell you why it’s important to build a marketing persona, without also telling you how to do it. Generalities are all well and good, but they don’t get you very far! So, with that in mind, let’s break down how to build a customized, specific persona that helps you understand who your brand should be talking to. I teach how to build this in-depth persona, and get to know your audience like a friend, in Module 2 in my Content Strategy & Marketing Course. 1. Draw the outline of your perfect customer To build the foundation for your persona, answer these questions right now: Does the person tend to be male or female? How old is he or she? Does this person have a family? A spouse? Where does this person live? What does this person do? What type of company and industry do they work within? For example: Meet Leader Larry. Leader Larry tends to be male, he’s generally between 40-55 years old, he’s married, with two teenage children. He works as a senior manager for a major “Fintech” company. 2. Get granular with your details of the persona You’ve got the outline, now it’s time to dive deeper with your details. Answer specific questions, like the following: What is his biggest pain point? What are the biggest challenges or difficulties this person faces within their job? Is your target persona the one making the decisions or does he need to talk to upper management? For example: Leader Larry’s biggest pain point is developing customized training and educational materials to help bring his staff up to speed on new technologies. While he’s a senior manager, he’s not the ultimate decision maker in his company, and, thanks to corporate red tape, he’s finding it difficult to create training materials and have them approved by upper management in a time-effective manner. 3. Figure out how your persona accesses and consumes content Does your target persona engage on a mobile device or a desktop computer? Does this person consume content during the working hours or after-hours, while he or she is at home? How much content does this person consume? Do they want more? Does your target persona use social networks? If so, which ones? HINT: If you have a person in mind who represents your target audience very closely, head to his or her Twitter feed to see what they’re sharing, reading, and interacting with. This will help you hone your content down the road. Who does this person see as an influencer? What do they care about enough to trigger a purchase? For example: Leader Larry uses a desktop computer to consume content during the working hours. He maintains a profile on LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. He’s an active reader of industry news and updates. He participates in several relevant LinkedIn groups, where he meets influencers and consumes related content. 4. Put it all together Now that you’ve developed an accurate picture of your target persona, it’s time to put it all together. From here, you’ll be able to identify the content types this person is likely to enjoy, the channels you should publish them in, and the pain points you’ll need to solve to earn (and keep) this person as a client. Bear in mind that target personas may change or shift over time, so it’s essential to keep revisiting the information you’ve developed here to ensure it’s still relevant, and update it if need be. 4 Keys of Developing Content that Speaks to Your Target Persona Next, let’s take an overview look at four keys that help you know how to create, and who to create your content for. How to Create for Your Target Persona Key #1: Readers Are Like Celebrities, Give Them the Red Carpet Treatment The Golden Globes recently took place in LA, and if you know anything about Hollywood awards shows, you know that the events are a big deal. From who wore what (and who wore it best) to the viral speeches, there is almost always a surprise or two that no one saw coming. This year, the Globes averaged 20 million viewers; while that huge number could have been credited to the host or the Trump jabs (or both), it was an 8% increase in viewers over 2016. There are some key points we can take away for our content marketing efforts and target persona development that come straight out of a Hollywood awards show. Ready to dive in? Let’s go! How to Create Content for Your Target Persona Key #2: Your Audience Wants Something Rich In a fast-paced, technology-driven world, your audience doesn’t have time to sit and read long paragraphs of boring content before finally getting to the point. (Neil Patel) Rich … Read more