Stress-Free Steps To Reach The Ideal Buyer Persona In eLearning
Contrary to popular belief, eLearning buyer personas aren’t the stuff of legends. You can narrow the marketing scope and identify your target buyers, especially if you make the most of modern tech and tap into the power of your marketing metrics. Granted, there are several steps involved and you need to pinpoint your USPs beforehand. Another key component is SEO analytics, as Big Data can help you identify search trends, buying behaviors, and pain points.
Let’s take a step-by-step look at finding the right target buyers in eLearning. Then, we'll determine if strategic planning is a good fit for your content marketing strategy.
7 Steps To Target The Ideal Buyers
1. Evaluate Your Selling Points
What sets your product or service apart from the competition? Why are corporate training buyers investing in your brand? The first step in developing eLearning buyer personas is to evaluate your Unique Selling Points and value-added proposition.
For example, let's say you need to focus on LMS buyers in a specific sector because your features support their use case. This usually calls for lateral thinking since you need to brainstorm all the creative applications for your product or service. The result allows you to generate leads in the eLearning niche and expand your audience without overreaching.
2. Chart The Buyer’s Journey
You must identify customer touchpoints to generate leads and improve conversions for your eLearning brand. While some eLearning prospects are on a fact-finding mission, others are ready to seal the deal and simply need more information about your product. Thus, content marketing success depends on the sales funnel and where your buyer personas are in their journey. While top-of-funnel (ToFu) content covers the essentials and raises awareness of the topic, bottom-of-funnel (BoFu) content is aimed at decision-makers.
In most cases, it's best to develop buyer personas that cover the entire spectrum that way you continually generate new eLearning leads, as BoFu buyers convert into sales.
3. Analyze Your Site’s SEO Performance
An SEO report analysis can help you a) evaluate your current site traffic b) choose the best eLearning topics for your content marketing strategy. Besides, it will assist you in identifying and targeting buyers' pain points based on their search intent. For example, you can see which keywords they’re interested in to pinpoint their needs.
These metrics are crucial because they allow you to focus on eLearning buyers who’ve already ventured into the marketing funnel. Thus, they’re already on a reconnaissance mission to learn more about the topic and/or your products.
Therefore, you’re able to determine which leads your strategy currently attracts. And then, you fill in the gaps with a 360 inbound marketing lead generation approach, guiding your ideal buyer personas down the funnel with lead nurturing and combined assets like eBooks, articles, webinars.
Always remember rule number one: When selecting eLearning topics, always think of your buyer personas' search intent.
4. Look For Keyword Patterns
Your SEO analysis should reveal keyword patterns that help you target your ideal buyer personas. For instance, certain demographics or locations might use similar phrases or certain users gravitate to your BoFu content versus your ToFu content.
While many organizations concentrate on keyword popularity, you also need to focus on intent. For example, suppose one of your most popular key phrases for authoring tool buyers is "eLearning software budget," these leads are looking for a cost-effective solution, as well as tips to stretch resources.
5. Focus On Search Intent To Reach Your Ideal Buyer Personas
Now that you’ve identified patterns, it’s time to build different buyer personas in the eLearning niche. Every lead has unique buying requirements and pain points; however, there’s usually a common thread among personal groups, and you can use these commonalities to develop content that draws in qualified leads.
Using the example above, those authoring tool buyers are probably interested in articles, eBooks, and webinars that boost ROI—perhaps an eBook that covers RFPs, budgeting tips, and vendor vetting techniques. Likewise, other keyword patterns help you focus on eLearning buyer personas with different focal points, like boosting employee engagement or moving ILT programs online. Mapping content for different buyer personas is all about getting into their headspace and fulfilling specific needs.
6. Scope Out The Competition
Your content marketing approach should stand out from competitors’. But that doesn’t mean you can’t learn from their SEO successes and failures. Which keywords do they use to attract their target audience (AKA your potential leads)? Do they publish articles that focus on a handful of niche topics? Is there a lot of activity on these posts, such as comments, social media shares, or high traffic stats? You can also delve deeper into their SEO integration. For instance, what is the typical article length and formatting?
There's nothing wrong with following a proven content strategy, just try to create better content than your competitors by offering valuable content to your readers. The reason they come to you is that they need a solution. If you present it to them from a unique angle, you might get impressive results!
7. Collect Feedback From Your Sales Team
Your sales team is another great source of content marketing data because they engage with customers directly. They know what leads are looking for and how to tap into their pain points. This allows you to create more precise eLearning buyer personas, and then you can build your content marketing strategy around them.
As an example, say 80% of your customers cite the same online training challenges or buying concerns. It would then be wise to develop content that highlights your key selling points or even features troubleshooting tips.
You can also gather feedback from your call center staffers and customer service team. Essentially, anyone who is on the front lines of your organization is a source of ideas, whether it’s generating leads or helping clients choose the perfect product.
How to Create Content That Focuses On Detailed Buyer Personas With Strategic Planning
A successful inbound marketing strategy includes strategic planning, a targeted editorial calendar, and SEO competition analysis to identify valuable keywords for creating better content with buyer personas. You'll spot topics that may be trending or oversaturated at the moment. Above all, you need to understand your target audience so that you can deliver value-added content instead of trying to cast the marketing net wide and overlooking essential steps in the buyer's journey.
So, do you want to boost your traffic stats and target eLearning and HR professionals in your niche? SEO experts can be your new best friends when it comes to maximizing exposure to the ideal audience. Our 360 inbound marketing approach can help you do just that: launch a complete content marketing campaign backed by SEO analysis.
The 5-step plan includes a personalized content strategy for ongoing lead generation. Check it out!
