Your website should be a roadmap to one destination: Conversions.
Of course, there are many routes one can take on your site to attain that ultimate goal. Understanding why your customers are interested in your products or services in the first place should inform content, both written and visual, your navigation and your social media presence. Your website exists for your customers. Even your about us page is there for their benefit. Oftentimes buyers want to know more about your company before they make a purchase decision. An effective about us page should give just the right amount of detail for the person who visits it to keep them on the path to conversion.
If you don’t provide the content that your target customers want, you risk losing them altogether.
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So how can you better understand your customer’s journey on your website?
This is where developing buyer personas comes in handy, the more detailed, the better. That means gathering demographic information—job title, age range, location, etc.—as well as understanding their goals, challenges , interests and more. Customer interviews work best, but you can also gather this information from your sales team and your customer service department. After all, they’re in the trenches, dealing with customers on a daily basis. They may have some insight to share, particularly about challenges your website needs to overcome to convert a site visitor into a paying customer. This ebook will guide you through the process of building buyer personas that will help you develop a digital marketing strategy that converts.
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Demographics This portion is critical. It not only helps you better understand your customer, but it informs what types of content they will want along the way toward the ultimate goal of becoming a buyer of your goods or services. In addition, it will help you determine which social networks your target customers are most likely to actively use. Consider:
1. Location
2. Age Range
• If you sell ski apparel, you’ll want to know where your target customers live. You might be surprised by a high concentration of people in warmer areas that enjoy annual ski vacations.
• Does your customer base skew younger, older or somewhere in-between? This will impact the types of content you should create, and the distribution strategies you should use, including social media.
3. Gender
• Do you supply a male-dominated industry? Or are your customers typically women? In the case of an independent repair shop, it can often be women with young kids bringing in the family car for service. In that case, your website and social media should definitely include photos of your welcoming waiting room, complete with a toy area for their children.
4. Education
• Do your target customers have high school diplomas, some college or do they typically have a master’s? While your website should be clear and concise for any site visitor, if your ideal customer has a doctorate, they might be looking for more in-depth content
5. Work/Job Title
• Is your ideal customer entry level, middle management or the CEO? Each will be looking for different information. A senior engineer in a highly technical field, would likely appreciate in-depth pieces of content relating to their industry and your products. In that case, you may want to produce periodic white papers.
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Goals/Challenges
Identifying your customers’ pain points helps put you in their shoes and see things from their point of view. When someone visits your site, they have a goal in mind, and if your site can provide the solution to their problem, you’ll soon have a paying customer. For that independent repair shop, website visitors are looking for a trustworthy, reliable shop that will repair their car right the first time. Customer testimonials can go a long way in convincing a potential customer to schedule an appointment for service. An about us page that showcases experience and skill level of technicians can also influence that decision.
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Interests/Buyer Influencers
For B2C companies, knowing your target customers’ interests and hobbies can help you craft content that will appeal to them. For the online shop that sells country décor, a blog post on decorating for the holidays could resonate with those potential buyers.
For B2B, knowing what trade shows your customers attend can help shape your blog editorial calendar, as well as your social posts. Disseminating content related to those events can help engage your audience and keep your brand top of mind. You should also consider what influencers each buyer persona’s ultimate purchase decision. If the customer is making a purchase for a larger company, they may have to clear the transaction with upper management. What types of content can you offer that will overcome any objections?
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Social Networks
Is your audience made up of dedicated Facebook users, or are you catering to a younger audience that spends the majority of their social media time on Instagram? This is important to determine, since you don’t want to dilute the effectiveness of your social media efforts. The biggest mistake any business can make is trying to be active on every available social network. Focusing your efforts on one or two networks is better than spreading you and your staff too thin trying to keep up with several social channels.
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Content Preferences
For B2C companies, you need to consider why your customers are visiting your site. A site that sells motorcycle, RV and marine batteries wants to get site visitors to the products they want as quickly as possible. But it’s also a good idea to include how-to articles that will help visitors determine which size and type of battery they need for their application.
Providing education can elevate your company in the minds of site visitors, and even if they don’t purchase right away, they’ll remember your brand in the future.
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Terminology
Determining what words or phrases your potential customers are using comes down to good, old-fashioned keyword research. With it, you’ll know how to better focus your content, as well as how to optimize it for search. In your research, you'll discover different queries searchers are using, along their journey to conversion. Some queries may include words like, "how," "what," or "can." These phrases are typically used during consumer research, to gather more information about a product or service. As the customer moves throughout the journey to conversion, their search queries evolve. Finding these different types of queries in your research will help shape your messaging and map out landing pages to match the searcher’s intent.
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Putting It All Together
Yes, it’s a lot of information to gather. Yes, it’s going to take you some time to put these together. But the benefits in this case far outweigh the costs: • • •
Putting together a blog editorial calendar will be much easier, when you know what topics your customers are interested in. Deciding whether to produce white papers or a video will be a snap when you consider your target audiences. Choosing the right social networks to engage your customers will ensure better ROI for your social media marketing.
Are you ready? We thought so. Use the following template to create your own buyer personas.
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Buyer Persona Worksheet Who Is My Ideal Customer?
Buyer Persona Name: While the persona’s job title will suffice, feel free to be as creative as you’d like. Using a real name may make the persona feel more real to your marketing team.
Demographics: Location: Age Range: Gender: Education: Work: What service does the company the persona works for provide, or what product does it produce? What is the persona’s job title and role in the company?
Goals/Challenges: What goals and challenges do they have that your product or service can help them overcome?
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Interests: What interests or hobbies do they have? What trade shows do they attend?
Buying Influencers: What resources do they consult for information on products and services such as yours? Who/what influences the final purchase decision?
Social Networks: Which social networks are they most active on?
Content Preferences: What types of content appeal to them? (e.g., blog posts, white papers, infographics, video, etc.)
Terminology: What words and phrases do these buyers use?
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About Deb Briggs Debbie Briggs brings more than 19 years of writing and editing experience to her position as the Brand Content Strategist at Pole Position Marketing. She helps clients in industries ranging from ecommerce to manufacturing build powerful content strategies and produce great content that gets noticed.
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About Kathy Gray As brand engagement strategist at Pole Position Marketing, Kathy helps businesses create and implement social media and email marketing strategies that integrate with their business goals and overall marketing strategy.
Pole Position Marketing Pole Position Marketing is a leading digital marketing firm that specializes in organic and local SEO, pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, content marketing, social media consulting, web analytics, website development, and more. Our agency was established in 1998 and serves B2B and B2C companies throughout the United States and in diverse industries, including retail, travel, health care, manufacturing, and higher education. As an enterprise-level SEO company that serves small, medium and large businesses alike, we provide reliable, affordable website marketing services designed to engage customers, drive brand awareness, and win conversions. Our firm’s team of experienced SEO and web marketing professionals is dedicated to helping businesses grow through efficient, economical and ethical web presence optimization strategies.
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