An effective content strategy works to connect site visitors to resources that will lead them through your sales cycle. In the first blog of our three-part series about Content Strategy for Your Sales Funnel, we looked at what the three main stages of that sales cycle and a brief introduction on how it’s affected by content. In this blog, we will explore methods for identifying audience personas for the sales funnel.

While generating content to strengthen the stages of your sales funnel may seem pretty straight forward, too many organizations are finding that their efforts fall short. Recent research by Qvidian asked sales and marketing teams about the impact of content throughout the sales cycle. Of the teams that responded, roughly 14% felt that their organization was effective in creating content that spoke directly to each stage of a visitor’s journey.¹

When an organization’s content efforts fall short of their goals, it’s likely due to a misunderstanding of their audience pain points. The wants, needs and desires of your audience can be identified by creating comprehensive audience personas.

Finding Your Audience Personas

In digital marketing, audience personas are used to predict a user’s journeys based on previous behaviors and attributes. The best content strategies take these personas a step further and generate content that will lead their audiences to take action. There are many methods that can be used to find data on your audience:

Qualitative Research

Some marketing teams use qualitative research for a clearer direction in developing personas. Qualitative research starts with open-ended questions for a foundational understanding of “how” they’re reaching their audiences and “why”. Some common methods of qualitative research are:

• User Interviews: Conducting research Q&As with a target segment of users. The quality of the answers provided are heavily influenced by the questions asked. It’s important to perform user interviews in target segments to ensure that answers given are attributed to your proto-personas.  
• Ethnographic Research: Analyzing “field samples” for shared patterns of belief, language and behavior. Social networks like Twitter where communities are use Hashtags to group responses are excellent resources for ethnographic research. You can also search forums for specific keywords and other methods of systemic listening to better identify your personas.

Quantitative Research

Unlike qualitative research, quantitative research uses empirical data to understand behaviors. Quantitative research is normally performed after qualitative research as it helps to identify how content will be used to inspire target audiences to act. The key is to use methods that invite large sample sizes for broader insights:

• Analytics Tools: Organizations that utilize analytics tools like Google Analytics or other PPC tools have the advantage of tracking demographics. Site information about pages, queries, user information and paths are easily accessible, offering information for more accurate user personas.
• Internal Sales Data: Information on sales, calls and visits, product returns, reviews, contact information and transaction values are vital to sales teams and should be shared with marketing.
• Multiple-Choice Surveys: Unlike user interviews, multiple-choice surveys compare one option out of a group for quantitative data. Multiple-choice surveys are great for answering direct questions, but keep in mind that responses are voluntary. Depending on how the survey is distributed, certain audiences may be more willing than others.

It’s best to combine multiple methods for an accurate description of your target audience. Having accurate personas will help you develop content that effectively communicates how your solution alleviates their pain points.

Communicating Solutions to Your Audience

After you’ve developed working audience personas, the next step in your content strategy is to ask what their pain points are and how your organization can offer the solution. Start by asking yourself:

• What are the overarching goals of the persona?
• How do these goals relate to their business?
• How can your solution make them perform better/look better in front of their clients/bosses?
• What do they like/dislike about other products?

When you define the pain points of your target audience, you can then generate content that will distinguish your solution from other competitors through the sales funnel.

So far, we’ve looked at the three main stages of the sales funnel and outlined methods for identifying your audience personas. In the last blog of our Content Strategy for Your Sales Funnel series, we’ll look at how to develop content strategies that strengthen your sales funnel by alleviating the pain points of your target audiences. When all three stages work together, you’ll have a consistent flow of information that will lead visitors to conversion.

With years of experience in developing successful digital strategies, Strongpages has generated significant results for clients in a variety of competitive industries. Strongpages offers professional content development services that drive conversions and generates repeated business for clients.

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¹ Amanda W. “Measuring the Impact of Content Across the Buying Cycle”. Qvidian. http://www.qvidian.com/blog/measuring-impact-content-marketing-infographic