Personas are fictional representations of people interested in buying your product or service. Creating well-researched personas as part of your content strategy is essential for understanding your target audience and creating relevant, informative, and engaging content for them. This helps establish trust and rapport between a company and its customers. Companies can have a few different types of personas, and it’s important to learn how to distinguish between each.

Developing Personas

There are a variety of resources and templates available to help define personas. It can be useful to:

• Interview current customers to get an insight into their purchasing habits
• Consider how customers regularly engage with content offers
• Conduct market research to get trend information
• Identify customer demographics

Types of Persona Identifiers

Personas are based on any of the following demographics, including but not limited to:

• Age
• Household income
• Gender
• Occupation
• Geographic location
• General interests

These identifiers determine who the content piece is being written for and which persona will be targeted. They may also include online behavior and an educated speculation about their personal histories, challenges and goals. Remember, conducting in-depth research of your personas will help you create high-quality content that will appeal best to each. 

How to Create Content Based on Persona Behaviors

Once personas are established, the type of content, target keywords, and titles can be easily designated. It’s much easier to adapt content strategies by always keeping personas in mind. This will ensure that the content you publish remains relevant. 

Creating different personas allows you to develop an insight into who a company’s customers are and what problems they may be facing. Content should be created in a way that highlights how a company can help provide buyers with solutions through its products or services. 

For example, if a customer’s household income falls under a company’s ideal customer, a piece of content can be created explaining why a certain product or service is worth the money. 

The most popular content offers include:

• Blogs
• Advertisements
• Case studies
• E-books

When building out a content strategy, make sure relevant target keywords for content pieces are determined beforehand so they can be included in each. Generally, long-tail keywords are a good starting point, the more specific, the better. Once target keywords are established for each content piece, a persona should be assigned to it.  

Aligning Content with Each Stage of a Buyer’s Journey

Another important consideration when outlining your content strategy is taking into account where a customer is in their buyer’s journey. Ideally, content should be created for each stage of a buyer’s journey, allowing them to be accurately informed of the specific information needed to lead them to making a purchasing decision. 

The three stages of a buyer’s journey are:

• Awareness - Buyers are searching for solutions to problems during this stage. They seek informative content that will help them understand what is being offered and how they can benefit from it. 

• Consideration - In this stage, buyers should have questions answered from the content provided to them, but they are still looking for additional information that addresses their specific needs.

• Decision - Buyers are ready to make a final decision at this stage. Content offered could include product/vendor comparisons, free trials, reviews, case studies, testimonials, FAQ’s, and other detailed information.

In Conclusion

To create content that will entice and attract your targeted audiences, take the necessary steps to create your customer personas. Be sure that their needs and behaviors are depicted as accurately as possible. The better their behaviors are understood, the easier it will be to create relevant and engaging content.