MackCollier.com

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What’s the Difference Between an Audience and a Community?

In my book Think Like a Rock Star, I make the point that the rock concert is probably the greatest marketing tactic ever created. The beauty of the rock concert is that it gives fans a way to see and connect with their favorite rock star in a way that they can’t get from buying their albums or merchandise.

But more than that, it gives fans of that rock star a way to connect with each other. The importance of being able to connect with like-minded people that love the same rock star cannot be overstated. When you put a group of people together that share a common interest, it gives them a chance to connect with each other, and to become a community.

You hear so many content marketers talking about the importance of building an audience for your content. They talk about how to tailor your content so that it finds and grows an audience.

But what about building a community around your content? And what’s the difference between an audience and a community in regards to your content or your brand or your idea?

 

Meet Tim and Jason 

Tim and Jason are both fans of Alabama football. In terms of our discussion here, Tim will be your audience, Jason will be your community. Let’s look at how they differ:

Tim – Tim has been a fan of Alabama football since 2010, right after Alabama won its first National Championship under current coach Nick Saban. He has an Alabama cap and a couple of shirts, which he likes to wear on gameday. He tries to watch as many Alabama football games on TV as he can, although he does miss a few due to work and other activities. If Coach Saban retired and Alabama football had a losing season, he would probably start cheering for another team.

Tim is what you would call the ‘audience’ for your content. He will stick around as long as you are giving him useful content, and he’s just here for the content.

Jason – Jason is what you would call a ‘die hard’ Alabama fan. So are his parents and all his friends. Jason attended his first Alabama football game when he was 12 years old. He grew up watching Alabama football lose under Mike Dubose and later Mike Shula, which makes him appreciate even more how successful Alabama football is now. Jason is a season ticket-holder, and prior to last year, he attended every home game. He loves being on campus and each trip to Tuscaloosa was a day-long event. He would arrive on campus around 6 am, and tailgate for several hours prior to the start of the game. He enjoys meeting other Alabama football fans, and knows all the fans that tailgate around him for each game. As he’s gotten older, he spends more and more time on campus, he loves seeing all the sights and meeting other Alabama football fans and sharing stories about past seasons.

Jason is what you would call the ‘community’ around your content. He loves your content, but he also loves communicating and engaging with other people that also love your content.

As you read these personas for Tim and Jason, note the main difference: Jason is far more invested in your content, because he’s part of a community that loves your content, and he loves connecting with other members of that community.

Here’s another way to think of the difference:

Members of your community are actively engaged and invested in the community that they are a part of. They will devote more resources, whether its time or money (or both) to you and your community and seeing both grow.

So consider this when deciding if you want an audience for your content, or a community. And some people only want an audience, and there’s nothing wrong with that. They just want to create great content, and have people appreciate it, and that’s it.

But some people want to have a true community around their content. They want to create content that is found to be valuable with an audience, but they then want that audience to be connected with each other and become a community. They are willing to put in the extra time and energy to get to know the people that enjoy their content, and help those people connect with each other.

A community is more invested in seeing that community, and the things, ideas and people they support, succeed.

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: Facebook vs Australia, Why Millennials Buy, Spend Emails on Friday

Happy Monday, and welcome to ‘The Week When Things Started to Get Back to Semi-Normal!’  I can finally see the ground again, almost all the snow is gone. I hope my friends in Texas are staying to dig out as well, I’m hearing good reports. Let’s hope last week was winter’s last gasp, and the warmer Spring temps will start this week!  Let’s dive into the news!

 

This will be a fascinating case study. Australia recently passed a series of laws governing the sharing of news content saying that Facebook and Google would have to share its revenue generated from sharing and distributing links to news content via its platforms. Australia is said to be making this move to help local publishers, especially print media. Google is apparently willing to go along with this, but Facebook will not. As a result, Facebook has BLOCKED the sharing of all news content in Australia. It will be fascinating to see who caves on this first; If it’s Facebook, that will simply encourage other countries to make similar moves. If it’s Australia, that means Facebook will have even more advertising leverage. I suspect Facebook has drawn a digital line in the sand here and will hold out as long as they can.

 

Insights from eMarketer into what prompts millennials to make a purchase. It’s interesting that the top factor is free shipping, but the second one is coupons and discounts. The reality for eCommerce sites is that customers now expect free shipping. I think even to the point that it’s worth adding free shipping even if you have to raise prices slightly to cover the cost. Since the expectation is there for free shipping, when many customers get to the checkout and see there is even a $7.95 shipping charge added, it can kill the purchase right there. When it comes to ecommerce, focus on adding convenience (free shipping, easy returns) and it will increase purchases and revenue.

 

So it turns out I was accidentally ahead of the curve in launching Backstage Pass on Friday! It seems emails sent on Friday have the best engagement! Those sent on Tuesday have the worst, which surprises me a bit.

 

Speaking of my newsletter, I’d love for you to subscribe! It hits your inbox every Friday with a deep dive into the marketing, digital and content strategy advice and inspiration you need. And it’s pretty indepth, which is why it’s delivered on Friday, so you have all weekend to ruminate over the (hopeful) pearls of wisdom! You can check out last week’s issue here, or subscribe by clicking the image below!

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Your Complete Guide to Responding to Angry Customers Online

angry customers

Previously we covered the three types of people that you will encounter leaving negative comments about your brand: Angry customers, passionate fans and trolls.  Check out that post for help on how to identify each and advice on how to respond to each.

Today, I wanted to do a deeper dive into how your brand should respond to a complaint you encounter from an angry customer.  An angry customer typically is complaining about one specific event.  They have usually tried to resolve the issue on their own by searching Google or trying to contact your customer service department online, etc.  They are reaching out to you now cause they feel they have no other options left.  So here’s what you need to know when responding to angry customers online:

Things to Remember When Responding to Angry Customers Online

1 – Have empathy for the angry customer.  They are frustrated and angry.  So understand their mindset when you encounter them.  Yes, they will likely be upset and might even act pissy toward you.  But that’s because they feel that your brand has let them down.  They’ve probably already tried to solve the problem themselves, and cannot.  We have all been there from time to time.  We buy a new product and we are trying to set up or install it and we are trying to follow the instructions and it’s not working.  We probably feel dumb and we definitely are mad at the brand that made us feel dumb!  So when you encounter an angry customer, you need to understand why they are angry and sympathize with their feelings.  Take them seriously and do what you can to help them as quickly as possible.

2 – Respond as quickly as possible. This is paramount.  The faster you address and resolve a customer complaint online, the chances of you converting that angry customer into a passionate fan goes up exponentially.  On the flipside, the longer you let the complaint sit there, the greater of the chance it will attract more complaints and then suddenly instead of dealing with one customer complaint, you are tasked with handling 5 of 10.  A small problem can quickly escalate into a social media firestorm if you wait too long to act. HubSpot reports that 39% of social media users expect a response to an issue raised within an hour. That only happens if your company is proactively monitoring online for customer complaints.

3 – Listen and emphasize with the person leaving the comment.  Go back and read what the customer has posted and do research to figure out what happened that led them to complaining directly to or about your brand.  For example, if you see a customer tweet about a negative experience with your brand, check their blog and see if they have also written about the incident there as well.  You want to try to figure out everything you can about the situation because you don’t want to jump to conclusions about what prompted the person to respond. Think of this as ‘social media triage’, you are trying to figure out what happened, and why it happened, so that you can better treat the problem moving forward.

4 –Thank the person for leaving the comment.  Even if the comment is negative, the customer has done you a favor by bringing the problem to your brand’s attention because now it can be addressed.  Many customers would just stop doing business with your brand and move to a competitor.  Plus this helps you reframe the exchange as being an opportunity for your brand, instead of being a burden.

5 –Show respect to the customer and do not lose your cool!  Even if you think the customer is completely wrong, keep in mind that you might the one who’s wrong!  So keep an open mind and don’t lose your temper when dealing with them.  Keep in mind that other people will be watching your exchange with this person.  If you lose your temper and smart off to them, it not only invites more complaints, it makes your brand look terrible.  But if you are helpful and courteous, that reflects well on both you personally and your brand!  Doing so can even encourage your fans to come to your brand’s defense!

6 – You are within your rights to politely correct any misinformation that the customer has left about you or your brand.   This can often happen and the chance that it will is magnified if you don’t respond and let additional comments come in.  Here’s an example of how this can get away from a brand (and how they saved the day by replying smartly).

7 – Make sure the customer(s) understand that you are going to address their complaints, and inform them of what the next steps are.  You want to communicate to everyone that you take this issue seriously, and that you have a plan to address it.  This also helps to extinguish the chances of further negative comments, which often come as a result of inactivity by the brand. Simply communicating to the customer that you’ve heard them, and now you are going to do something, will put the angry customer at ease. Of course, you still have to follow through with action that addresses the customer’s concerns.

8 – Give everyone a way to stay in touch with you, and invite further feedback.  You want to make sure the issue is handled to the satisfaction of everyone, and again, by asking for additional feedback you are communicating to everyone that you take this issue seriously.

By following these steps you are doing everything you can to address the customer’s concern and turn a potential negative situation into a positive for your brand.

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Is Social Audio the Future or Just a Fad?

Social audio is suddenly the hot topic when it comes to social media. I think it’s great, because for the first time in at least 5 years, it feels like there’s some new to talk about in social media!

Social audio itself isn’t that new. Gamers have been using group chat functionality in apps such as Discord and Line for a few years now. But the idea of loading an app and having an audio chat with others is gaining momentum due to the explosive growth of Clubhouse.

Clubhouse really came along at the right time. So much of business success is due to simply being in the right place at the right time, and Clubhouse has become the app that a quarantined populace didn’t realize it needed, till we got it. What Clubhouse does is let you join chat rooms, where people can actually talk to one another! You join the chat room, and you can HEAR people talking, one at a time (ideally). You can even talk yourself, or create your own room, public or private.

Clubhouse launched in April of 2020. I didn’t start hearing anyone in my network really talking about Clubhouse till around October or so, and by the end of January, it seemed like everyone was on the app.

Clubhouse’s growth is going to have a ripple effect throughout social media. First, it will pull people off other social media apps. I’m noticing a lot of people that are active on Clubhouse saying that they are spending less time as a result on Twitter. Now I do think Instagram is actually benefiting a bit from Clubhouse taking off. Clubhouse doesn’t have a native functionality that lets you send a private message to another user. You can create a private audio room to chat, but you can’t yet private message them. To get around this, Clubhouse users are adding their Instagram and Twitter accounts to their Clubhouse profiles, and encouraging people to DM them on Instagram or Twitter if they want to talk privately. I am seeing more people on Clubhouse pushing DMs via Instagram than Twitter.

Second, the rising popularity of Clubhouse is going to lead to another company potentially buying Clubhouse, or at least trying to create their own version, adding social audio functionality to an existing site. Facebook is reportedly already working on a Clubhouse clone.

There’s been a lot of speculation about whether or not Clubhouse will last. I think what a lot of these pundits are missing is what Clubhouse will look like when everyone has access to it. Right now, the vast majority of Clubhouse’s members are early digital adopters, who have an iOS device. For those of you who are long-time social media users, do you remember what Twitter was like circa 2008 or 2009?  Then do you remember what happened a couple of years later when the media and celebrities all discovered Twitter and took over?  The experience on Twitter completely changed because the user base completely changed. The same thing will happen with Clubhouse. Maybe the change won’t be as drastic, but the experience we have on Clubhouse right now will NOT be the one we will always experience. For better or worse. We need to see what the environment on Clubhouse looks like after this growth spurt ends and when it gets rolled out to everyone to get a better sense of its long-term viability.

 

Now the obligatory ‘Should my business be on Clubhouse?’ portion of the post

This is one of the most common questions that all business owners or marketers want to know, if they should be on Clubhouse and will it help their business. I think the answer is ‘it depends’. First, you have to remember that Clubhouse is currently in a closed beta. That means the only way you can get on Clubhouse, is for a current user to send you an invite. Also, Clubhouse is currently only available if you have an iPhone or iPad. They are working on adding Android access, but that could be months away.

There’s a dirty little secret when it comes to social media hype: Pay more attention to what actual users of the social media platform say, and less to what marketers say. Marketers love to overhype any new social media site or app, and Clubhouse is no different. They go there, build a following, then proclaim it is the next big deal, so they look like a big deal for being a part of the next big deal. What’s different about Clubhouse is, a lot of users have been there for months, and some have already built massive followings.

So you’re seeing a lot of people with big followings on Twitter go to Clubhouse and host rooms with 30 people in them. While the guy that has 500 followers on Twitter has gone to Clubhouse and built a following of 100k, and they are hosting rooms with a thousand people. It’s actually one of the things I like about Clubhouse, that different voices and perspectives are being highlighted. You’re not just seeing the same guys with big Twitter or Facebook followings going to Clubhouse and getting the same traction. The influence on other platforms isn’t easily translating to Clubhouse, you have to work on it to build a following.

Having said all that, I do think there is an opportunity for certain business owners to make hay on Clubhouse. I’m seeing a lot of business coaches, PR agencies and a lot of influencers making moves on Clubhouse. On the other hand, if you are the CMO for a fast-moving consumer goods company, I don’t think you have a lot of opportunities to sell directly on Clubhouse. I think the way to approach Clubhouse is as a channel to meet new people and learn from industry experts. I’m having a lot of fun doing both, if you are on Clubhouse, please follow me, my name is @mackcollier, same name and avatar as on Twitter.

What is the future of social audio?

So we know that the popularity of Clubhouse is going to drive bigger social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook to attempt to copy its social audio format, or buy Clubhouse outright. One of the key issues with Clubhouse is that the conversations in the rooms aren’t recorded. So if you aren’t in the room, you don’t know what’s being said and have no way to review what was said. Perhaps this will lead to Clubhouse offering recordings as a premium service down the road.

The reality is that both Twitter and Facebook are seeing a userbase that’s increasingly frustrated with the platforms, and looking for something new. It’s part of the reason why sites like Clubhouse, Parler and Gab saw such growth in late 2020, because Twitter and Facebook users were looking for other places to spend their time. Both Twitter and Facebook will be focusing on getting users back in 2021, you’re already seeing Twitter buy newsletter site Revue as a play to keep users on the platform. Incorporating social audio functionality will be part of their plan for winning back users and bringing in new ones.

I don’t think your company should be diving headfirst into social audio and apps like Clubhouse, at least not yet. Having said that, you should absolutely check out Clubhouse if you have an iOS device and you should be keeping up with the monetization moves that the bigger social media platforms make this year. 2021 will be a very volatile year for social media, and that will create some opportunities for your business.

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: Twitter Needs Revenue, Top Social Apps Surprising, Staying On-Brand Means $$$

Happy Monday! Hope everyone is safe, warm and happy as we start the week. The warm part is gonna be tougher as a good portion of the southwest and southeast woke up to ice and snow this morning. It feels like I’ve been cold for weeks, let’s hope winter breaks way to Spring soon!

BTW, thanks to everyone for the great response to the first issue of the newly launched Backstage Pass newsletter! If you missed the first issue, you can view it here, and subscribe here. Next issue hits inboxes this Friday at 8am!

 

If Twitter’s recent moves are any indication, the social media site is anticipating a decline in revenue. Twitter is making moves to unlock additional revenue streams, such as recently buying newsletter service Revue, and now exploring adding charges to some features, as well as maybe adding subscription options for users. This could be setting up a very interesting Q1 earnings report for Twitter. I’m almost wondering if Twitter could be setting up such moves as a hedge against disappointing revenue performance or forecasts for later in the year.

 

For the first time in maybe a decade, there seems to be a real sense of competition developing among social media platforms. Just look at the top social media app downloads and note how Facebook and Instagram were shut out of the Top 3 on all lists, and Twitter didn’t crack the Top 10 on any of them. And breaking just as I’m writing this, it seems Twitter-competitor Parler is coming back online (still not loading for me, although I am seeing many people on Twitter saying it’s back up). And I would suspect Clubhouse will rank pretty highly in the next App Store downloads update.

 

And finally, I love this example of the power of branding that resonates with customers, and that’s on point.

 

Hope y’all have an amazing week! See you back here tomorrow with a new post on the social audio phenomenon, Tuesday night at 7pm on Twitter discussing overcoming our content creation obstacles on #ContentCircus. and Friday morning at 8am the next issue of Backstage Pass drops, helping CEOs and Managers deal with a workforce that’s suddenly remote.

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Case Study: The Morning Brew’s Newsletter Referral System

Recently, I came across a very detailed write-up of how popular newsletter The Morning Brew’s referral system works.  You can read all the nuts and bolts here.

There were two key points that struck me as I was reading the post that I wanted to highlight here. First, this quote from Tyler Denk, who created the system, discussing the prizes that current subscribers get based on their number of referrals, and the CPA (Cost Per Acquistion) for each:

5 referrals: we mail readers Morning Brew stickers. Bulk ordering 10,000 die cut stickers from StickerMule breaks down to a unit cost of $0.20/sticker and our pre-stamped envelopes cost roughly $0.65/envelope. That totals roughly $1.25 in cost, or a $0.25 CPA (cost per acquisition) for 5 new subscribers to the Brew.

For reference, the CPA for us on Facebook/Instagram, our largest paid acquisition channels, is typically between $3 and $5.

10 referrals: readers gain access to our exclusive “Insider” community. The private Facebook group, which is quickly approaching 10,000 members, is the place to discuss the latest stories, trends, and events in business, pursue career opportunities, and network with other like-minded Brew readers. Again, this reward comes at no real cost to Morning Brew.

To this point: In exchange for 10 referrals, we have provided value in the form of premium content, an exclusive community, and swag…all at the cost of $1.25.

15 referrals: we mail readers a custom Morning Brew silicone phone wallet. The cost of the phone wallet is $1.50, and the cost of the pre-stamped envelopes is $0.65/envelope.

When someone refers 15 people, the CPA on those referred is $0.23 ((cost of phone wallet + stickers)/15). We’ve actually managed to spend less per subscriber as someone continues to refer additional people.

For those who are bad at math, like me, it means that The Morning Brew’s cost to acquire a new subscriber is typically $3-5 each if they go the Instagram or Facebook ads route. If they use their referral system, the CPA plummets to 23-25 cents EACH.

One of the key points I make in my book Think Like a Rock Star is to challenge companies to rethink their customer acquisition strategy. The reason the Cost Per Acquisition for each new customer is so high for so many companies is because of the channels used. Most companies rely on traditional marketing in print, television and increasingly digital, to acquire new customers. Those channels are not cheap, and the acquisition rate for these channels is typically very low, which drives the acquisition cost even higher.

Yet when your customer acquisition efforts flow through your current customers (or in the case of The Morning Brew, its current subscribers), then the acquisition cost plummets. Research has shown this for years, but the simple reality is that we trust our friends and family more than we trust brands. That’s just reality. If the brand runs a commercial and tells us to buy it’s product, we will likely ignore it.  But if our brother or best friend tells us to buy that same product, we will listen.

Here’s the second quote from Tyler that I also thought was very powerful:

I also think that the referral program actually boosts engagement for the person who refers others. If someone goes out of their way to share a product or service with their friends, classmates, co-workers, etc., I think the likelihood they continue to engage with that product increases. No one wants to look foolish by abandoning a product they’ve so vehemently recommended so soon after making that recommendation

Bingo, these same subscribers that referred the new subscribers, will then become sources of ongoing encouragement, education, and even customer service for The Morning Brew. They current subscribers will likely check in on their buddy that they just referred in as a new subscriber, and ask them how they are liking The Morning Brew. Or if the referral has a question about The Morning Brew, they will probably reach out to the friend that referred them, rather than The Morning Brew itself. Which could also be a cost-savings for The Morning Brew in the form of a deflected inquiry to customer service.

This is why I am such a proponent of customer/brand advocacy programs and loyalty programs. If structured correctly, they can always become a pipeline for more engaged customers who have a higher lifetime value, with a much lower acquisition cost.

Have you subscribed to Backstage Pass? Every Friday, I give you an indepth, strategic deep-dive into the world of content, digital and marketing. Giving you all the tools and knowledge you need to take your marketing, digital and content strategies to the next level. Click the banner below to learn more and signup now!

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: Pinterest on Fire, Employees Love Remote Work, Hubspot Acquires The Hustle

Happy Monday, y’all! Ok guys I have an announcement to make, and I could NOT be more excited! This Friday, I am relaunching the Think Like a Rock Star newsletter as the Backstage Pass newsletter. If you are already subbed to TLAR, you’re in!

So why the relaunch?

For years, since at least 2015, I have had peers who are smarter than I, all industry names that you know, telling me the same thing. “Mack, you gotta get on email. Newsletters are where it’s at!’

So I launched the Think Like a Rock Star newsletter. But I couldn’t figure out the format, the audience I wanted to appeal to, or the content that should be included. And the schedule was non-existent. I honestly did everything wrong with the newsletter, and yet it still had over 3,000 subscribers. That told me that the subscribers enjoyed the content I was creating, I just needed to get the strategy dialed in.

At the same time, I am watching how my dear friend Ann Handley is killing it with her newsletter Total Annarchy. The branding is on-point, the schedule is consistent, and the content is spectacular. And recently, I’ve discovered The Hustle (more on them later) and Morning Brew newsletters. Both are insanely popular right now, and I love the format.  Then last week I was in a Clubhouse room where I heard Ann say that in 3 years of writing her newsletter, she had grown it to 45,000 subscribers.

That was the final push I needed to go all-in on newsletters. And that’s what I am doing with Backstage Pass.

What will it feature? Click here to get more information, and to subscribe. In short, I want every issue to replicate the content and material I would cover if I could spend a full day with your company, training and working with your marketing, digital and content teams. Each issue will be massive, it will require hours to consume, which is why I am delivering it on Friday so you have all weekend to enjoy it and can implement the ideas it contains starting on the following Monday. I spend approximately 20 hours on every issue, and it will hit inboxes every Friday at around 8am Central.

Please do subscribe to Backstage Pass. My best content will be here, and in Backstage Pass. Thank you!

 

Now…on to today’s Marketing Minute:

 

Not surprisingly, workers are loving the freedom of working remotely from home, as we see from this eMarketer chart. However, remote work is creating a lot of problems for companies that were forced into the move due to covid. Such companies are struggling to effectively manage suddenly remote workers, and the workers themselves are being affected by a loss of office life and in-person interactions with their teams and co-workers. Managing remote workers is actually one of the biggest concerns CEOs have right now, and I’ll be doing a deep dive into this topic and how to manage remote work in next week’s issue of Backstage Pass.

 

Pinterest is closing in on half a billion active users. What’s interesting is that Pinterest’s growth is mostly fueled by international users, growth in the US has pretty much stalled. Pinterest’s monthly usage grew 11% in the US, and a whopping 46% internationally. Additionally, most of Pinterest’s revenue comes from US users. So if the platform can figure out how to more effectively monetize it’s non-US users, it could be see massive growth in overall revenue in the coming years.

 

Finally, Hubspot acquired The Hustle last week. I’ll have more on this in Friday’s issue of Backstage Pass, but I did have to chuckle at how another popular newsletter Morning Brew, reported this news. The majority of their blurb on the news focused on how this signals that there is an acquisition market for select newsletters that have built a massive following. In sum: Morning Brew is thinking this news means they could be acquired as well, and they are probably right.

 

That’s all for now, please do subscribe to Backstage Pass, as the first issue will go out this Friday morning. And tomorrow night at #ContentCircus on Twitter, we will be discussing Winning Strategies For Creating Content on Twitter. And we’ll be discussing it on Twitter! How amazing is that???

And see you here in 24 hours for a case study on customer acquisition that I think you’ll find fascinating. See you then!

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#ContentCircus 2-2-21 Recap: How to Create Buyer Personas For Your Content Marketing Strategy

Last night, we had another great conversation at #ContentCircus on Twitter, this time discussing How to Create Buyer Personas For Your Content Strategy. Let’s jump into some of the key takeaways:

When you start creating buyer personas, you want to define who the persona is. For that, you need customer data. If you work for a business, your sales, marketing and customer service teams should be able to help you define your ideal customer. If you have a retail business, you and your employees that are in regular contact with your customers can give this information. If you are still uncertain who your ideal customer is, you can create a persona for who you would want this customer to be.

 

After collecting demographic data about your persona (age, gender, occupation, income, education), you want to move on to addressing the personas pain points. What are the issues and problems they face every day, that you can address via the content you create? Giving customers the solutions to their problems is a wonderful way to create content that drives sales, and loyalty.

 

https://twitter.com/chippermuse/status/1356791739323940868

When creating content for your personas, you want to be aware of where the persona is currently getting information, and which sources it trusts. You also want to know what type of content they prefer. Do they want to read long blog posts on their desktop, or do they want to see short videos on their smartphone? By understanding what type of content they want and from what sources, it helps you tailor content to meet the expectations of your customers.

 

Finally, when you are creating your personas, you want to define where the persona is in the Buyer’s Journey. We discussed creating content for each stage of the Buyer’s Journey back in December at #ContentCircus, here’s the recap post for our conversation. Additionally, you want to define the persona’s role in making purchasing decisions within their organization or household. Can they authorize purchases independently, or will they need approval from their boss or spouse?

 

So that was our discussion last night at #ContentCircus of How to Create Buyer Personas For Your Content Strategy. If you want to join the next #ContentCircus, it happens every Tuesday night at 7pm Central. Just follow the #ContentCircus hashtag. Next week’s topic will be Winning Strategies For Content Creation on Twitter! See you then!

 

Bonus: I wrote about How to Create Buyer Personas For Your Content Marketing Strategy here yesterday. In that post I also added the persona for Sarah, to give you an idea of what a persona looks like so you can better understand how it can help your content creation efforts.  Here it is again:

 

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How to Create a Buyer Persona For Your Content Marketing Strategy

If you want to take your content strategy to the next level, one of the smartest moves you can make is to create a buyer persona(s) for the content you create.

 

What is a buyer persona?

A buyer persona is an abstract representation of your ideal customer/client/donor/partner. Ideally, your sales and marketing department will already have existing buyer personas that you can work off of. If not, you’ll need to coordinate with these departments to create new personas.

What the big deal about a buyer persona? Think of personas as a ‘day in the life’ snapshot of your ideal customer. Personas help the content creator quickly and easily understand the person it is creating the content for, as well as the type of content that can best meet the needs of that person. Personas help give your content creators structure and direction on the type of content they should be creating. In fact, if your personas are developed correctly, you even set your content calendar with your personas instead of topics. For instance, on Monday you write a post for Sarah, on Wednesday you write one for Isaac, and Friday is for Jennifer.

 

Where do you get the information to create your buyer persona?

In other words, how do you determine who your ‘ideal’ customer is? A good starting point is to talk to your sales team. This group typically has the most hands-on experience working with and connecting directly with your customers. Also check with your marketing team, and see if they have done any customer surveys. Your ecommerce team can also help with information about who your customers are. Finally, talk to your customer service team, they can give you a different set of customer insights, which we will talk about in a minute.

These are all in-house sources of information. You can also look at market research, especially research done about customers in your industry and vertical. Also, study your competitors and try to get a sense for who they are targeting with their sales and marketing efforts, this will give you a sense of who their ideal customer is.

 

What does a buyer persona include?

There’s multiple areas of information that you want to focus on to help define each buyer persona that you create. For each of these areas, you want to be as specific as possible, while still being accurate. For instance, you don’t want to say your ideal customer is a male aged 18-34, because that’s a pretty big age range. You want to shorten that age range as a much as possible, while still being as accurate as possible.

Demographics

This is the first area of information you want to focus on. You want to include basic information such as gender, age, martial status, income level and educational history. If your company is a B2C, then you want to also make sure that your buyer persona clearly defines that person’s role within the family. You want to know how your persona relates to the other members of the family, and whether or not this person has direct control over purchases or not.

For a B2B, you want to clearly define the person’s role within their company. You want to clearly define their responsibilities within their company, as well as where their position fits within the company hierarchy. As with a B2C persona, you want to clearly define if this persona has direct control over purchases, or if they must work with someone else within the company to secure that purchases are made. In both scenarios, you basically want to know who has the ability to authorize a purchase; is it the persona, or someone else.

The persona’s pain points and worries

Here, you identify and detail what ‘keeps them up at night’. You detail what problems the persona faces in their home and/or business life. This is done to help the content creator understand the problems that your products and services help solve. You can also detail what worries them, and also what excites them about being in their position, whether it be in a personal or professional setting. For instance, if your persona works for Company ABC, detail what they like about their job, and dislike. Talk about the issues the persona faces on a daily basis that the persona feels is holding them back. These are problems that the persona faces, but they also can give you a sense of what type of content you should be creating to address those problems, or at least communicate how your products or services can address those problems.

What type of content does the persona prefer, and from what sources?

Here, you want to gain insights into the type of content your persona is looking for, and why. Do they want video content that can demonstrate how your products and services work? Do they prefer posts or articles that can explain how they work? Also, where do they get their content from? Do they consult blogs, or do they prefer to more ‘mainstream’ sites? You basically want to know what sources does the persona trust for information, and in what form does that information exist?

Where is the persona on the buyer’s journey?

At this point, let’s quickly review the buyer’s journey:

Buyer's Journey, Creating Better Content

You want to establish where your persona is on the above buyer’s journey. This will give you insights not only into the type of content the persona needs based on their location on the buyer’s journey, but it will also show you how to craft the content in order to move the buyer to the next stage. This is also a good place to review if the persona has direct control over purchasing decisions, or if they must convince some other person or party to approve purchases.

 

Meet Sarah, your new persona! 

This is a very basic persona I created in roughly a half hour using the format outlined in this post. You can go far more in depth than this, I’ve worked with clients that had about four times as much information in their personas. I just wanted to give you an idea of what this would look like.

Note that just from this simple persona, you can get a much better idea of who your ideal customer Sarah is, and how to create content that’s useful to her. You can see she needs content that helps her with her time management issues. So any products or services you sell that can help her save time as either a business owner OR a mom, will resonate with Sarah. You can also see where she is on the Buyer’s Journey, plus you get a sense of her income. Smaller purchases that can benefit her in either role as a mom or business owner, Sarah can likely make by herself. A major purchase would likely require she and her spouse to consult first. Additionally, her age tells you that she is likely more comfortable with emerging digital technologies and how she prefers to consume and interact with content.

 

So that shows you how personas can truly take the effectiveness of your content strategy to the next level. What I love about personas is they help bring clarity to your content creation efforts. Anything that helps clarify who you are creating content for, and what type of content you should be creating for them, helps you create better content, in less time. I’m all about doing more in less time, and personas can definitely boost your productivity when it comes to creating content.

Need help creating buyer personas for your content strategy? Email me and I’ll be happy to assist you!

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Monday’s Marketing Minute: US Adults’ Digital Usage Up, Facebook DAU Down, Clubhouse’s ‘Oprah’ Moment?

Happy Monday, y’all! I hope you’re ready for an amazing week as we say goodbye to January and launch into February! Here’s a few stories I noticed to get your week off in the right track:

 

eMarketer has found that US adults spent an extra hour with digital content in 2020. Now my first thought was, workers that typically commute to work stayed at home in 2020, so they gained back an hour of time right there. This is all about understanding and focusing on the changes in your customer and client lives as more of them are now working from home. This, and all indications point toward an increased appetite for digital content, and that creates opportunities for your company, if you know how to leverage them.

 

Ironically, as the above eMarketer study finds that US adults are spending more time with digital content, comes this story from Social Media Today that found that Facebook’s number of Daily Active Users in the US was actually DOWN in 2020. Count me in that group, over the last few years I’ve gone from checking Facebook a couple times a day, to now maybe checking a couple of times a week. Most of the time I now spend with Facebook is with Facebook Groups that are devoted to marketing and business. I think we will see core user usage metrics fall or stagnate for both Facebook and Twitter in 2021.

 

My timeline this morning was all abuzz with Elon Musk popping into Clubhouse. Probably 75% of the tweets in my home feed were about this. When celebs use a social media platform, it brings a lot of extra eyes to it, and Musk’s popularity is white hot right now, and that will definitely benefit Clubhouse.

 

That’s it for this week’s Monday’s Marketing Minute! Hope you have a wonderful week and don’t forget to check out #ContentCircus tomorrow night on Twitter at 7pm Central! This week we will be discussing How to Create Buyer Personas For Your Content Marketing Strategy! It will be a great discussion on a very valuable topic! Tomorrow post will be on the same topic, so see you back here in 24 hours!

 

Oh wait…let’s do one more! I thought this story from The Hustle about the illicit trade for the world’s most expensive fish was interesting, but click through and check out the photos of the fish.  Yeah, I know, $300,000 for a fish is completely bonkers, but look at those colors! The fish themselves are absolutely gorgeous!

 

Ok I’m done, see you tomorrow!