B2B Myth of the Week: My Brand Doesn’t Need Personas
by MGB2B
The Myth: My Company Doesn’t Need to Develop Buyer Personas
The Truth: Buyer Personas Help You Produce Content That Works
“Why do we need personas when we know our target audience like the backs of our hands?”
This is a question that many Marketing Directors and CEOs are quick to ask. After all, no one knows your customers better than you, right? But buyer personas bring a lot more to the table than a general target audience can. And with the constant evolution of ways to target buyers, personas are essential for developing a strong content marketing plan.
As B2B buyer behavior continues to change and marketing tactics change along with it, it’s important to know more about your audience than ever before. Personas are fictional characters who represent your brand’s potential buyers or customers. Make them highly detailed with information based on solid research. Details can include everything from name and age to pain points at work to how they spend their spare time. Since personas contain so much detail, they enable your brand to segment your content. Which ensures that the content you create resonates with the persona it was created for.
Here Are the Benefits of Developing Buyer Personas:
- Personas provide a deeper understanding of buyer wants and needs. Although personas are fictional, they are based on the behaviors and preferences of real buyers. Therefore, they are able to provide important insights into what buyers are looking for from your brand. Personas include detailed information about both demographics and behavior patterns. Thus, they enable you to focus on forming connections with your audience. It’s important to include information about responsibilities at work, family dynamics, and media consumption. This will ensure your persona receives messages from your brand that will resonate.
- Personas allow you to segment your audience with more ease. CEO Richard and Millennial Kevin face very different challenges while on the job. Their home lives are different. And the way they consume information is different as well. So why would you deliver a piece of content to Millennial Kevin that was written for CEO Richard? You wouldn’t. But he is an important part of the decision-making process. So you need content for him as well. And that content won’t likely resonate with CEO Richard. By creating personas that define age, buyer behavior, media consumption, and pain points, you’ll be able to segment with more ease. And hit more home runs with your content program.
- Personas help you create the right content. Once you have an idea of your ideal customers, you will be able to create content that is appealing to them. You need to get your audience interested in the content you create. Otherwise, you’ll get more unsubscribes and fewer converted leads. Get insight into the types of content that pique their interest by including details like your persona’s role at work or what they do in their spare time. A well-done persona will help you create specifically targeted content that appeals to the individual that it represents.
- Personas show you where your audience is spending time online. When you’re trying to reach potential buyers, it’s important to know what types of media appeal to them and where they find information. If your persona is a CEO who doesn’t understand how Twitter works, then you should put your time and money in a different direction when targeting him/her. Creating detailed personas will show you where you should be spending marketing dollars to generate the most leads. Your company will save time, money, and resources if you are aware of the specific places your personas visit – both online and off.
- Personas create consistency throughout your whole company. Share your personas with your marketing team. But also include other departments. Your sales and product development teams, for example, should fully understand your brand’s personas and how to appeal to them. Some brands – like MailChimp – even have portraits of their personas on the walls to remind employees on a regular basis about their importance. It’s essential to familiarize your employees with the personas so they know how to interact with potential buyers. Personas ensure that everyone in your company is on the same page about who your audience is and how your brand can help them overcome challenges and seize opportunities.
These are some of the benefits to keep in the back of your mind while developing your brand personas. With accurate and realistic personas, you won’t just be shooting in the dark with your marketing program. You’ll motivate your leads to buy and increase the likelihood that they’ll come back to buy more.
Continue Reading4 Types of Engaging B2B Content
by MGB2B
Rising above the noise can be a difficult task. According to Google Search Statistics, Google processes over 3.5 billion searches a day. So what’s the best way for your company stand out from the crowd? As with most things, content is about quality, not quantity. It’s worth your while to develop engaging content that allows the customer to interact with your brand. One way to enhance the quality of your content is by sharing interactive posts that will engage your audience and drive leads.
Here Are 4 Examples of Engaging B2B Content to Consider Using:
- Infographics: Infographics have been popular for a while now and can be particularly useful for B2B brands. Data can often be dry and boring, but infographics allow you to display it in an interesting and engaging way. Keep the design simple and eye-catching. If a buyer feels overwhelmed with information, they may lose interest, so present data in a way that is easy to read and comprehend. Make it stand out by adding an interactive element that requires readers to scroll or click to retrieve information (like this example from iLevel). Think of your infographic as a story. Stories are more memorable and keep your audience interested and wanting more.
- Calculators: Interactive calculators are a great way to increase engagement because they show potential buyers the benefits your company can provide. Buyers can get personalized cost estimates in an easy, non-stressful way. Calculators can also ignite a conversation between the company and buyer, pushing leads further into the sales funnel. By using a calculator, customers are assured of the value that your service can provide to them.
- Quizzes: Personality quizzes. Product evaluations. Knowledge tests. The options for interactive quizzes are endless. People love quizzes because they give unique results based on personal answers. The best thing about quizzes is that they can generate leads by requiring a name and email before releasing the result. Quizzes are a two-way road. They allow you to subtly share information about your products and services. Most importantly, if you ask the right questions, the answers can give your brand insight into your audience. Which is helpful when developing personas. And last but not least, quizzes can encourage people to share their results, which will result in more people taking the quiz and more leads captured.
- Surveys/Polls: Surveys and polls are great tools because they make clients feel like their opinions matter, and they enable you to gain important insights. Survey questions can be made up of closed or open-ended questions that allow you to find out even more about your audience than quizzes. Keep your surveys and polls short and sweet. That way people will take the time to fill it out and give the most accurate answers possible. It can also help to offer an incentive, like a gift card, which usually increases participation.
Sharing engaging content is one of the best ways to build your brand image and get more leads into your sales funnel. If you take the time to produce quality interactive content, you will engage your audience. And generate leads instead of yawns.
Continue ReadingB2B Myth of the Week: Video Content Is Too Expensive
by MGB2B
“We can’t afford to do video.”
“A video guy is going to be too expensive.”
“Who’s going to write it? Who’s going to edit it?”
Lots of questions start to swirl around when you talk about B2B video content. But video is actually not as complicated as it used to be. And if you partner with the right vendors or agency, you can get a high-quality piece of content that suits your budget.
So What’s the Best Way to Get Started on Video Content for B2B Brands?
If you have no idea where to begin or don’t have the resources to commit to exploring your options, a B2B marketing agency can help evaluate and negotiate with illustrators, video producers, editors, and online video resources that do it all. Whether or not you use an agency, here’s what you’ll need to do first.
- Know Your Purpose. What is the goal of your video? Lots of B2B brands know that they “must have a video” and create one just to put an X in a box. But you need to take a step back and think about why you need a video. Perhaps you need an educational video series to build credibility in your industry. Or a simple explainer video to educate about the use or installation of a specific product. Maybe you want a polished brand video to put on your homepage. Knowing your purpose and the story you want to tell will help you with the very important next step…
- Set a Definitive Budget. The simple way to avoid being overwhelmed by the cost of video is to include it in your marketing budget from the beginning. It seems like common sense. But a lot of companies skip this part. Can you only spend $2,000? Or can you spare $10,000? Different price points get you very different types of videos and levels of quality. Knowing your budget will allow you or your agency to select the right video partners.
- Evaluate Quality vs. Cost. When determining who to partner with, obviously cost is a consideration. If your budget is only a few thousand dollars, you’ll likely need to go with an online vendor instead of having a professional shoot. But quality can be questionable. Make sure you look at value instead of going with the cheapest option. Ask yourself: “What level of quality, speed, and service am I getting for the price?” It takes a lot of research to find the right fit. So if you choose not to hire a marketing agency, make sure you have someone in-house who can devote a significant amount of time to weighing quality vs. cost.
- Don’t Skip the Script. Know exactly what you want to say and show in your video. Don’t “wing it.” A script and/or storyboard will help guide you along right from the drawing board. While it’s not something that directly affects your budget, it will keep everyone involved on track to produce more quickly and efficiently. This will help you spend less time (and money) in the editing room.
Creating video content for B2B brands is almost a necessity in 2018. And there are certainly many affordable options out there. The most important thing is to do it right, building trust in your brand and ultimately boosting ROI. Follow the steps above, and you’ll be a few steps ahead of your competitors.
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