How To Create And Write For A Buyer Persona
Step One: Get To Know Your Audience
First and foremost, get to know the audience you are trying to reach–even if that means spending a few hours scrolling through social media with them in mind! Get into their headspace, put yourself in their shoes, and try to imagine what they might be thinking or feeling as they interact with certain pieces of content. Interview a sample of individuals who have strong connections with your business (or the business you are writing for) and get to know their hobbies, preferences, careers, and anything else you can. Even little details like the foods they prefer, their political beliefs, and their aesthetic preferences will help you as you create and write for a buyer persona.
Step Two: Make A List Of Characteristics
Once you’ve done your research, make a list of your buyer persona’s characteristics. Everything from their level of education to their favorite genre of music to their age or age range. Identify which social media platforms they use, any goals they might have, challenges they could be facing, and how your business or your client’s business could help them face and overcome those challenges. Consider their demographic background, including income, lifestyle, career path, and family life. In the end, you get to decide what information to include in your buyer persona–but be sure to start with a comprehensive list and then narrow it down based on which information will help you create content.
Step Three: Personify Your List
After making a list of characteristics for your buyer persona, start narrowing it down and humanizing it. Give your persona a name, a favorite color, a list of hobbies, a physical appearance, and anything else that will help you feel more connected to your buyer persona. Although you may feel like you’re limiting yourself by creating such a specific buyer persona, you are actually opening the door to deeper connections with potential customers. If you believe that your services (or your client’s services) could reach two or three specific types of people, feel free to branch off and create more than one buyer persona–but make sure that each one is as detailed and unique as the others.
Step Four: Brainstorm Content Preferences
Now that you’ve finalized your buyer persona, it’s time to start brainstorming content preferences for that buyer persona. Does Anna the Architect prefer TikTok over Instagram or Facebook? Is Sam the Salesman a little uptight and would respond better to professional, academic language rather than friendly, informal dialect? Which platforms does your buyer persona use? How long is their attention span? Are they the type to call for an appointment or schedule online? Here are some things to consider:
Language
How does your buyer persona prefer to communicate? Are they informal, friendly, and direct? Or are they more educational, specific, and aloof? Will they be intimidated by professional language, or will they be unimpressed by conversational writing? How educated are they, and what is their reading level? Make a list of your buyer persona’s language habits and the types of writing to which they will respond the best.
Social Media
Which social media platforms does your buyer persona use most often? And within those platforms, which types of media do they gravitate toward? Is your buyer persona a middle-aged woman with an addiction to Instagram reels? Or is he a Generation Z TikTok enthusiast? Does your persona prefer to watch videos or read Twitter posts or scroll through images? What kinds of accounts do they follow, and why do they connect to those individuals or businesses? Make a list of your buyer persona’s social media preferences and the types of content they prefer.
Attention Span
How long is your buyer persona’s attention span? Can they spend hours reading about topics that intrigue them? Or do they get bored quickly? Will you need to hook them instantly, or do they have the patience to ease into interest? How long can they spend watching a video before they get bored and move on to something else? Will they even read blogs or articles, or do they need lots of images and smaller, more digestible pieces of content to consume? Take note of your buyer persona’s attention span and make a list of ways you can appeal to that attention span with the content you write or create.
Interactivity Levels
Is your buyer persona very interactive with the accounts they follow? Are they quick to comment on a post, or do they need some form of invitation, like a question of the day or a relatable piece of content? Who will they share posts with, and why? Are they more likely to share funny content or informational content, or a mix of both? What kind of posts would they be most likely to save? Make a list of your buyer persona’s interactivity levels and ways to encourage them to interact with content.
Step Five: Implement Your New Knowledge
The last and most important step is to implement everything that you’ve learned about your buyer persona. Now that you know what kind of content they prefer, start creating that kind of content! Shorten your videos if you’ve realized your buyer persona has a shorter attention span, and add more images to your blog posts if you’ve discovered that they appreciate visual content. Go through your entire website and adjust your writing style to match the one you’ve determined will work best for your buyer persona; maybe that means revamping it to be more professional or simplifying it to be easier to understand. Include small, relatable details in your writing that match your buyer persona’s hobbies and preferences whenever you can; this will help your readers connect more deeply with your writing and feel drawn to your (or your client’s) business. As you make these changes, you should begin to see a decrease in bounce rate (because you are attracting a more relevant audience) and an increase in session duration (because your audience is more satisfied by and interested in the content they find).
