How to write a solid customer persona

Happy Friday folks,

My year literally started yesterday.

Here’s my new view:

Moved from 🇳🇬 to 🇨🇦

Most of January was spent prepping for this, and now it’s over – I can focus on getting the best out of 2021.

This also means I need to rejig the time I send this newsletter.

Do you have any preferred time of the week you would love to read this?

Hit the reply button and let me know your thoughts.

Today, we’ll be talking customer personas and writing

Jeff Bezos recently announced that he would be stepping down as the CEO of Amazon. Bezos’ stratospheric success with Amazon is credited to his vision of building ‘Earth’s most customer-centric company’.

The Everything Store by Brad Stone is a great exposè into his brilliant mind.

In summary, Jeff Bezos succeeded by tirelessly asking one question:

What does the customer want?

Writing/content marketing/social is no different.

They all start with one thing: understanding your audience, whether it’s a prospect or a returning customer.

Now, this sounds simple, right?

Knock together some basic demographic psychographic data and you’re good to go…

Starting off your customer persona with those two data categories is great, but there’s more - especially if you work in social and content marketing.

You MUST have a detailed understanding of how your prospects and customers consumer information online.

Your customer/prospect’s information consumption plays a major role in the sort of content you’ll be creating for each part of your buyer funnel.

For example, if your prospects prefer social proof/testimonials, then you might be better off investing in case studies than how-to blog posts.

Here are a couple of questions that can serve as a guide to building a comprehensive customer persona:

• Do they love email newsletters?

• Are they active information guzzlers at work/coffee breaks or at home?

• Do they actively engage with paid media?

• What sort of content are they reading/commenting on/discussing with their peers?

• Why are they consuming that sort of content?

• Do they have a preferred format?

• What social networks do they use actively?

• What content do they consume at the different stages of the buyer funnel?

• Does the format of the content change at each stage of the buyer funnel?

• What influencers do they follow (actively or passively)?

These ten questions should set you on your way nicely.

You can get most of this information from your web and social analytics, customer interviews, and tools such as SimilarWeb and BuzzSumo.

Capisce?

Content Writing Jobs (Remote/Freelance)

• Content Writer: Illuminate Media | Apply here

• Freelance Writer: WeRateDogs | Apply here

• Freelance Copywriter: Institute of Noetic Sciences | Apply here 

All the best folks. And please share with any of your friends/colleagues who might find this useful 🙏🏾

My biggest takeaway this week 🚀

Always aim to go to bed smarter than you woke up.

What I’m thinking about?

Integrity and kindness compound way more than most people imagine.

Thanks for reading this far. I am grateful!

Stay safe & sane,

Dozie

P.S: If you like this newsletter and want to support it, please could you forward this newsletter to a friend with an invitation to subscribe right here👇🏾