Give Your Audience the Content They Want
Persona-Based Marketing
Paul Roetzer, President, PR 20/20
@PaulRoetzer
October 11, 2010
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Inspirations
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Choice
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Be Remarkable
Be Memorable
Bring Value
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What Matters to Them?
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Authentic Unique
Personal
Relationships
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Stand Out From the Crowd . . .
Win Their Hearts and Minds . . .
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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.
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“We all have a story to tell.”
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Winning with a Persona-Based Content Strategy
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.
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1) Define & differentiate your brand.
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What is a brand?
Brand = experiences + perceptions
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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)?
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2) Build your content creation team.
Source: Driven By Content video series
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Potential content creators
• Internal: Marketing, communications, sales,
executives, customer service, technical,
journalism school interns
• Outsourced: Freelance writers, publishers,
journalists, PR firms
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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
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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
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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
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3) Profile your buyer personas.
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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?
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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)
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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
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“ROI Ivan”
• 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
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“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
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4) Connect content to your goals (and theirs)
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Their goals
• Knowledge
• Confidence
• Peace of mind
• Efficiency
• Differentiation
• Competitive advantage
• Growth/ROI
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5) Choose your publishing tools.
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Content-driven link building
• Participate in the community • Get a blog
• Publish original research • Provide how tos, tutorials
• Distribute email newsletters • Make a few videos
Source: Google Webmaster Central Channel
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6) Develop your editorial calendar.
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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
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7) Integrate your search, social & PR strategies.
Source: How to Build Your Inbound Marketing GamePlan
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8) Establish your budgets (time & money).
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Primary budget factor = content creation
• Internal = time
• Outsourced = money
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What does content cost?
• Traditional = $1/word
• Today = ???
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9) Launch, measure & evolve.
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Beware of the Content Flood
Some estimates indicate that in just a few years content on
the Internet will double every 72 hours.
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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.
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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
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Twitter: @PaulRoetzer
Email: paul@pr2020.com
Web: www.PR2020.com
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