How Personas Drive Content Development

Blogging can sometimes seem a little abstract.

In theory, I’m writing for an audience. But I don’t always know who that audience really is. Too often, corporate blogs are written without much thought given to the reader – what would entertain them, inform them, and keep them coming back for more. They end up being too sales-y or too caught up in industry minutiae. But that’s not what matters here; these words, more than anything else, must be explicitly directed towards you. You are the most important piece of the puzzle I’m currently assembling.

This may seem pretty basic Writing 101 kind of stuff, but making thi distinction is the key to effective inbound marketing. Sometimes taking a step back to refocus the lens helps us see the bigger picture.

It’s long been said that the medium is the message, but that’s not entirely true. While marketing plans always use some kind of tool to get the message across – be it social media, billboards, commercials, skywriting, a logo tattooed across someone’s forehead – you can’t lose sight of the human element that drives your marketing; you can’t get lost in the medium.

Chances are, since you’re reading this, you’re interested in the logic behind developing true to life buyer/user personas. We use these personas to preserve that human element, to be sure that all that you do, say, or write, is always done in the proper mindset – that is, with your ideal consumer in mind. Once you take the time to develop these personas, chances are you’ll see your marketing tactics from a new perspective . The right perspective – your buyer’s perspective.

If you find that your marketing campaigns aren’t bringing in the volume that you want, it’s quite possible that it’s because your marketing efforts aren't connecting with your ideal customers in the way that you had hoped.

Whether it's for services that you offer or products that you sell, you have to get back to the basics and refocus your lens: Who are you trying to reach?