Have you read the Seven Habits for Highly Effective Sales Content yet? Don’t worry – either way, we’ve created this series of posts to highlight those 7 habits for success.
Habit #2: Personalization
When it Comes to Developing Personalized Content, It’s All About Personas.
Personalization is certainly a hot topic in content development today. On one hand, we understand the need to deliver targeted messages and dynamic content, but too often our efforts fall short. When it does, personalization is relegated to yet-another email message that simply opens with the customer’s first name.
It’s true that as content development professionals, we have more customer information and overall data available to us than ever before. However, the roadblock to delivering personalized content isn’t necessarily the “personalization” part. Often where we miss the mark is with the content itself.
Consider it the “content advantage.” In order to be relevant to the individuals that you are trying to engage, you have to be able to respond with content that addresses their specific needs. Among the seven habits of effective sales content, we talked about knowing your audience. Taking that habit a step further and understanding the personas behind those audiences is the key to developing relevant – and effective – content.
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Consider these questions as you try to develop personas and better evaluate your potential audience:
- What are the specific business needs or challenges this person faces?
- Is this person a decision maker, an influencer, or a business user?
- How does the solution we offer improve this person’s daily routine?
- How will this solution help this person achieve their version of success?
Address the problem, not the solution
Do you notice anything interesting about these questions? None of them ask about the features of your solution, or why your solution is better than a competitor’s offering. They all seek to diagnose the customer’s specific business problem. There’s an old marketing saying that says, “No one really wants a two-inch drill bit. What they really want is a two-inch hole.” Personalized content is about finding the two-inch hole in your prospect’s life.
When developing sales content, the ideal formula should be “Problem > Diagnosis > Solution.” The most important of these steps? Diagnosis. The more you understand what specifically ails the individual users, the better prepared you will be to develop relevant content that hits the mark. Even though the features and benefits of your solution may seem to be the same on the surface, chances are that they alleviate different concerns for the CIO than they do for the business user. Make sure you are prepared to respond to those audiences with content that will resonate.
Improve personalization with personas
Remember, personalized content isn’t about creating email messages with the customers’ name. It’s about being able to answer the most important question that is at the forefront of your customer’s mind: “What’s in it for me?” Developing a deep understanding of the personas that make up your customer base, and aligning your content development efforts to support them, will enable to you to more easily target each “me” that can influence the decision to buy.
Interested in learning more? Please download our guide, Seven Habits for Highly Effective Sales Content, to get a closer look at seven proven strategies for developing highly effective content. Please download the entire guide now to learn more.
