Mascola B2B Marketing Blog, B2B Advertising Agency
Category Archives: Customer Engagement

B2B Myth of the Week: My Brand Doesn’t Need Personas

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why do we need personas

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.

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Your Social Media Cheat Sheet for B2B Marketing

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b2b social media tipsGone are the days where you can say: “We’re a B2B company, we don’t need social media.” It’s now 2018, and to say you have no social presence, is to incur doubt from your clients, both present, and future. With that in mind, starting out, or revamping your social presence can seem like a daunting task. That’s why we’ve put together a helpful Social Media cheat sheet designed to get you and your B2B brand off and running.

First Thing’s First...

  1. Pick Your Poison(s). There are no social media platforms that are truly off-limits for B2B brands these days. From Facebook to LinkedIn to Instagram, there’s no end to where you can post and who you can reach. What truly matters is finding the right content for the right platform.
    • Key Takeaway: Don’t be afraid to experiment with social platforms, but don’t spread yourself too thin.
  2. Do Your Research. Yes, there is a “sweet spot” for every single social outlet out there. Typically, posting 3-5 times on Twitter per day is optimal, whereas posting any more than 2 times on Facebook on a given day could be seen as overkill. Decide how often you’re planning on posting to your given social platform(s), then build your plan out from there.
    • Key Takeaway: Sometimes, less is more. The quality (see: value) of your content will be held in higher regard by your audience, versus the sheer quantity of times you post.

Now You’re Getting Somewhere…

  1. Make a Plan. It seems like a given, but many businesses skip this important step. Planning out your content on a calendar will save you a lot of time and effort. Using tools like Hootsuite, HeyOrca, or HubSpot will not only allow you to schedule your posts days, weeks, and even months in advance, you’ll also be able to tweak your plan along the way. If a certain type of post isn’t resonating with your audience, delete and try again. Trust us, this will come in handy for Step 2.
    • Key Takeaway: Getting through each month on social is much easier when you plan it out. Don’t miss this!
  2. Get Creative. Just because you’re a B2B brand, does not mean you cannot have fun. Is there a national day, week, or month that is relevant to your audience? Let your audience know you’re celebrating! Are you working on a project that could show the more “human” side of your brand? Show it off. Your audience wants to know there are real people behind these social accounts. Let them know you’re there.
    • Key Takeaway: The people who drive your revenue are real people and want to be treated as such. If you give a little, you’ll get a lot back in return.

The beautiful thing about social media is that it’s always changing. What works one day, may not work the next. What your audience responds to one week, may not hold true the following week. So be sure to experiment, don’t be afraid to fail, and remember why you’re running these social platforms in the first place: to make meaningful connections with your audience.

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Using B2B Video Content To Boost Understanding and Trust in Your Products

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b2b video content

How the Brain Processes Video Content

Sell sheets are nice. But when you want to tout your product benefits and truly engage your customers, look to B2B video content. Why? Our brains are wired to understand stories better than bulleted facts. According to a study done by MIT, the brain can process images viewed for as little as 13 milliseconds. By contrast, text is processed at a much slower rate. Using B2B video content allows you to get your message across much faster. Consider why the most successful presentations we experience in business are full of visual information.

An Example of an Effective B2B Product Demo Video

This video from Milwaukee is a good example of a product demonstration video. It takes all the selling points of their M18™ ForceLogic™ Commercial Crimper and Cable Cutter and brings them to life. Hearing and seeing product specs from the mouths of people who use the products is much more effective and memorable than distributing text that promises results, but gives no visual confirmation of the results.

Using Video for Search and Social

So our brains are wired to understand video better than text alone, but a video is only as effective as the number of eyes that see it. When optimized correctly, video can help increase your search rankings. An investment in video also pays off by giving you interesting content for all of your social media outlets. You are more likely to gain traction and engagement by posting a relevant video than a simple link to, say, your new 30-page product catalog.

Video Content Is Like Pizza – Even When It’s Bad, It’s Still Pretty Good.

Your videos do not need to be the next great feature films. Getting meaningful content to the viewer is much more important than the quality of the recording. Research shows that people are more put off by videos that don’t explain a product or service clearly than by poor quality design. That’s not to say you shouldn’t make a piece worth watching. But relatable content trumps Hollywood polish.

Check out this video series created by etrailer.com. They don’t use expensive on-screen talent or high tech animations, just clear useable information that is super helpful if you are looking to install a trailer hitch on a 2015 Nissan Frontier. They set up a simple logo backdrop and created hundreds of videos with different truck models, so that when a potential customer searches for “how to install a trailer hitch on my [your vehicle here],” they are the first option that comes up. This video series allows them to both build awareness of their product offerings, and give customers confidence in how easy it is to use their products. This method of marketing also strengthens the sense of trust with the company. The eyes don’t lie; people love to see products in action instead of simply taking the company’s word for it.

 

In conclusion, there are many benefits to making video content a key part of your marketing strategy. It promotes greater understanding of your product offering while also building trust in your products and brand in general. With video recording devices and internet platforms being more accessible than ever before, a small marketing budget can still produce large returns with this dynamic medium. Put some money behind these videos, and you have a platform that can both elevate your brand and leave your potential customers with a memorable experience.

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