give your customers the content they want - persona based marketing

October 11, 2010

Paul Roetzer, President, PR 20/20 @PaulRoetzer

Give Your Audience the Content They Want Persona-Based Marketing

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@PaulRoetzer #HUG2010


Inspirations


Choice


Be Remarkable

Bring Value

Be Memorable


What Matters to Them?


Unique

Pers

onal

Aut

hent

ic

Relationships


Stand Out From the Crowd . . .

Win Their Hearts and Minds . . .

What is Content Marketing?

“Creation and distribution of relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience - with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

— Joe Pulizzi (@juntajoe), Founder of Junta42 & The Content Marketing Institute, Author of Get Content. Get Customers.


“We all have a story to tell.”


1.  Define & differentiate your brand.

2.  Build your content creation team.

3.  Profile your buyer personas.

4.  Connect content to your goals (and theirs).

5.  Choose your publishing tools.

6.  Develop your editorial calendar.

7.  Integrate your search, social & PR strategies.

8.  Establish your budgets (time & money).

9.  Launch, measure & evolve.

Winning with a Persona-Based Content Strategy



1) Define & differentiate your brand.

What is a brand?

Brand = experiences + perceptions


How to define your brand?

•  Who are we (in 160 characters or less, and without meaningless jargon)?

•  What are the three greatest strengths/weaknesses of our brand?

•  What are our greatest opportunities for growth?

•  What makes us different, remarkable?

•  What value (i.e. expertise, resources, guidance, tools) can we bring to our audiences?

•  What makes customers buy from us the first time (acquisition)? What keeps them coming back (retention)?



2) Build your content creation team.

Source: Driven By Content video series

Potential content creators

•  Internal: Marketing, communications, sales, executives, customer service, technical, journalism school interns

•  Outsourced: Freelance writers, publishers, journalists, PR firms


Importance of an editor

•  Maintain the editorial calendar

•  Keep the team on track

•  Proof all content prior to publishing

•  Ensure consistency of style, format, tone & messaging

•  Can be internal or outsourced


Source: What Your Blog May Be Missing

What makes for great content?

•  Strategic

•  Brand centric

•  Buyer persona focused

•  Optimized for search engines

•  Technically sound

•  Creative

•  Results driven


Source: 7 Key Elements of Great Business Content

Buyer-persona focused content

•  Make personal connections

•  Address pain points and bring value

•  Demonstrate a clear understanding of your audiences, and know how to engage them

•  Promote and deliver in their preferred format



3) Profile your buyer personas.

Defining your buyer personas

• What are their goals and aspirations?

• What motivates and inspires them?

• What are their problems/pains/obstacles?

• How do they consume information (online and offline)?

• What/who influences their buying decisions?

• What's important to them?


Other buyer persona criteria •  Geography

•  Demographics

•  Title/responsibilities

•  Industry

•  Preferred communications

•  Technographics (social media activity)

•  Buying cycle

•  Alternatives/competition

•  Success factors

•  MAD-R (Money, Authority, Desire, Response)


How do you research personas?

•  Analyze customer database

•  Talk to sales reps

•  Read industry publications, blogs & analyst reports

•  Check magazine editorial calendars

•  Monitor/participate in social networks

•  Run a keyword analysis

•  Review organic traffic reports

•  Assess competitor websites & content

•  Ask them



•  Type: Old school/laggard

•  Title: CEO, president

•  Industry: Finance, insurance, accounting, legal

•  Pains: Business flat or declining

•  Causes: Economy, lack of innovation/vision

•  Sources: WSJ, trade magazines

•  Influencers: Peers, media

•  Technographics: Inactive

•  Success: Bottom line

•  Content: Case studies, press releases, original reports

“ROI Ivan”


“Engagement Erin” •  Type: New school/early adopter

•  Title: Marketing director, community manager, owner

•  Industry: Technology, retail, arts & entertainment

•  Pains: Information & inbox overload, multitasking, platform confusion, too tactical

•  Causes: Lack of training, following the “experts/gurus,” reporting to “Ivans”

•  Sources: Social, blogs, webinars

•  Influencers: Peers, bloggers

•  Technographics: Creator

•  Success: Leads, inbound links, engagement, speaking opportunities, website traffic

•  Content: Blog, videos, mobile apps, webinars, eBooks

4) Connect content to your goals (and theirs)


Their goals


•  Knowledge

•  Confidence

•  Peace of mind

•  Efficiency

•  Differentiation

•  Competitive advantage

•  Growth/ROI

5) Choose your publishing tools.


• Participate in the community • Publish original research • Distribute email newsletters

• Get a blog • Provide how tos, tutorials • Make a few videos

Source: Google Webmaster Central Channel


Content-driven link building

6) Develop your editorial calendar.


The value of abstracts

•  Topic: How to handle negative comments about your brand online.

•  Categories: Social Media, Brand

•  Audience/Buyer Persona: Execs (Executive Eddie) and brand managers (Brandy Brand Manager) who are nervous about social networking because of the loss of brand control.

•  Goal: Education

•  Abstract: This blog post will provide actionable tips for brand managers on how to react to negative comments online — whether on review sites, personal blogs, social networks or in response to company postings.

•  Date: TBD


7) Integrate your search, social & PR strategies.


Source: How to Build Your Inbound Marketing GamePlan

8) Establish your budgets (time & money).


Primary budget factor = content creation


•  Internal = time

•  Outsourced = money

What does content cost?


•  Traditional = $1/word

•  Today = ???

9) Launch, measure & evolve.


Beware of the Content Flood

Some estimates indicate that in just a few years content on the Internet will double every 72 hours.


Closing Thoughts

•  Understand what makes audiences unique.

•  Have a plan and build a strong content team.

•  Be remarkable and memorable.

•  Take chances.

•  Put their needs and goals ahead of yours.

•  Bring value to their lives and help them find success.


Resources

•  Driven By Content video series

•  What Your Blog May Be Missing

•  7 Key Elements of Great Business Content

•  Google Webmaster Central YouTube Channel

•  How to Build Your Inbound Marketing GamePlan

•  2010 B2B Content Marketing: Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends

•  Content Curation: Bringing Order to Information Overload

•  HubSpot Inbound Marketing Services Marketplace


Twitter: @PaulRoetzer Email: [email protected] Web: www.PR2020.com

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