Source: http://marketingland.com/why-you-need-persona-based-content-marketing-strategy-125582
If you want to boost your influence over your buyers, make sure you are connecting to them and addressing their specific needs. This is done through targeted content, which can only be possible if you know how to implement persona-based content marketing.
Persona-based content marketing
What is a buyer persona?
A buyer persona represents your customers. You can have as few as two or as many as 20 buyer personas, depending on your business situation. You create buyer personas by identifying specific factors such as:
- Who are they?
- What do they want to accomplish?
- What are their goals?
- How do they behave through the sales cycle?
How can I discover the buyer personas in my business?
- Interview and do a survey of your customers.
- Consume content.
- Gather demographic information.
- Consult with your sales team.
- Do market research.
Buyer personas are also important when you’re selling to buying teams.
- Relevant content for VP of marketing includes case studies and thought-leadership pieces.
- For CFOs/controllers, case studies with ROI metrics.
- For individual marketers, company interviews, blog posts that highlight subject matter expertise.
Know the three stages a buyer goes through before he or she makes a decision:
- Awareness – buyer recognizes a problem and looks for content to solve it. Content is usually vendor neutral.
- Consideration – buyer researches for content that directly addresses his or her pain points. Content, which is vendor-published, must speak to the buyer’s unique challenges.
- Decision – features differentiating info with demos, trials, and comparison pieces; content should also point to the next steps after a purchase is made.