Do you really know who your target audience is? I’ve noticed B2B tech companies are still using the generic “persona” approach when developing their ABM and Demand Generation campaigns. The problem is, using personas to develop your content and channels is generic. Personas are created to build a shared understanding of users for those in marketing. But they don’t take into account actual people (and are usually created in a silo).
Get to Know Your Customer
A better approach is to get to know your customers as people, rather than personas. How? You talk to them. You ask a few defined questions to get the ball rolling but generally, after that, it will be a natural, free-flowing conversation.
Most customers are happy to tell you why they chose your product over others and what type of information they find helpful.
This sort of conversation should have taken place during the product positioning stage as well. April Dunford provides the best information on how to do this in her book “Obviously Awesome”. I highly recommend reading it regardless of your role in marketing.
While you’re at it, you should have your customers review your website. You’d be surprised (or maybe not) by what their feedback will be…. I was.
At one organization I worked at, we had several of our customers go through our website based on some questions. They had varying titles and roles within the buying/decision group. We asked:
- Is there information we don’t have that would have been helpful?
- Is information easy to find?
- What suggestions do you have for improving our website, including design, information, and functionality?
- What do you think of the graphics?
- Is there information on our site that is helpful that is particular to your role?
- Do you feel there is information missing?
- Do you read our blogs? If yes or no, why or why not?
- What do you like most/least about our site?
Our customers told us that the website navigation was confusing. They also said that when they were researching vendors, they wished that we had more detailed technical information about the products. We thought that would be going against good SEO and content best practices, but in this instance, we were wrong.
Oh….and about campaign content for your target audience.
Is your content centered around the product and selling to your prospects? Does the content lack any true insight or is it similar to so many other content pieces that your competitors provide? What makes this more concerning is the use of AI to write content. Most AI tools use copy that already exists. You might end up converting bad content into more bad content, even after making edits and packaging it differently.
Before you select, modify or create content for your campaign, here are the type of questions you might want to ask your existing customers:
- What is a typical day like in your role – or maybe there isn’t a typical day?
- What is your reporting structure?
- What are some of the challenges you face in your role regularly?
- What resources do you use to help you solve the challenges in your role?
- What impact would it have on you to have these challenges solved? What would be its impact on the company?
- What industry or networking associations do you participate in?
- If you could have one challenge solved for you right now, what would that be and why?
(Keep in mind you don’t want to take too much of their time, so don’t get too carried away with the questions you ask)
Afterward, thank them for their time (you could give them a gift) and summarize the feedback you received. Let them know how you plan to use their feedback to make improvements. This follow-up shows that you value their input.
Now you can begin to understand that referring to basic personas for your marketing strategy doesn’t give you a complete picture at all.
Focus on your prospects’ motivations, goals and challenges.
You need to focus on real people (prospects/customers). What do people think, and what do they feel about their role? What are they trying to accomplish? What are their main challenges? By capturing this information, you can start to think about how you can improve your marketing and demand generation programs.
Most of the questions that B2B marketers ask their customers center around “What do you think of our marketing and content?” Instead, they should be asking, “What is your average workday like?” “What are your biggest challenges or concerns now?” You’ll probably get some very interesting and unexpected answers.
It’s surprising how many marketers haven’t spoken with a customer in a while (resource constraints are a part of the problem). However, they regularly make decisions on how to engage with them and what content they would prefer.
“Do everything you can to understand your target audience. The better you understand what reality looks like through their eyes, the easier it will be for you to make the right marketing decisions.”
Michael Aagaard
Freelance CRO Consultant, International Keynote Speaker, Former Senior Conversion Optimizer for Unbounce
Nothing is more important than getting to know the people you want to engage with and who you want to become your customers. This is how you will find the differentiators for your messaging and content. You’ll also understand what their preferences are (including channels, formats, content information, etc.)
It’s about building trust.
When you really make an effort to understand your customers and who your target audience is, that is when you truly begin to win.
The more you learn about who your customers are as people, the more you can provide them with the information and resources they find useful. Your target audience will discover that you understand their challenges. This will develop trust. They will be more likely to engage with you and even choose you over your competitors.
If you focus on helping – not selling – your customers, they’ll trust that you have their best interests in mind. This is why it is so important to provide content that doesn’t talk about your product or solution until later in the process and why you need to ungate more content.
This blog is via AI – Anne’s Insights NOT Artificial Intelligence.