“On the Second Day of Planning, your boss will ask of you:

2 Website Questions . . . (and 1 Measurable Marketing Plan) . . .”

Q:  What is Each “Buyer Persona” (or Type of Target Client) Looking For?

(And why isn’t our website focused on those items?)  As part of your marketing plan, analyze your website from the point of view of each of your buyer personas individually. For each persona:

  1.  Make a list of what that typical type of visitor may be looking for — at each stage in the sales process — when he or she may visit your website.

When a persona has a problem to solve, the steps in the sales process tend to look like this:

  1.  Research different types or categories of solutions to solve the problem, to find out what’s available
  2.  Compare different types or categories of solutions
  3.  Identify potential companies in the chosen category
  4.  Compare company offerings

Why not think about the questions potential buyers want answered EARLIER in the sales process? Do you have web content that’s useful to your potential buyers during their early research stages? Could you point out the benefits of your category of solution and improve your chances of getting on the potential supplier list?

How could you learn more about each Persona? Look at your most popular blog posts, which may reveal your audience’s hottest topics. Read every blog comment. Read every comment you’ve gotten on your social media pages.  Do the same for your competition — read their blog comments and social media comments they’ve received.

Read any emails or letters your sales or customer service team has received from customers. You may find some research available on your target Personas from a trade association or publication.

The best way to learn more about your Personas?  Ask them. For B2B, schedule interviews with a small sample of customers. Try to include your different types of Personas in the sample. For B2C, you may be able to send out an email survey to learn more (and be sure to include a motivator — a special discount code, etc.).

 Q: Can Each Persona Instantly Find it on Your Website Navigation Menu?

For each buyer persona, go through the list of what he or she is looking for when visiting your website. If you were looking for each item on the list, where would you INSTANTLY believe you would find it?

  1.  Your visitors will click on the FIRST LOGICAL LINK. Don’t frustrate your personas by hiding the information they’re looking for under menu topics that don’t make sense.  It’s too easy to click away to the website of your competitor.
  2.  Don’t rely on pull-downs the visitor must mouse-over to reveal what’s within the menu topic. If I have to look at your pull-down, your menu topics must not be very clear — and your usability not that good.

If you have a lead generation website, can each Persona find a lead generation Offer to take advantage of — by visiting a product/service page or blog post? Be sure not to hide your Offers — put them on Home, product/service pages, every blog post — so your Personas can easily take the next step.

Did you miss the First Day of the 12 Days of Digital Marketing Planning?

Excerpted from our new BEST-SELLING book, “The Results Obsession: ROI-Focused Digital Strategies to Transform Your Marketing” is now available on Amazon!

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Learn more about The Results Obsession and see the Table of Contents

The book includes a chapter on website navigation, a separate chapter on building Buyer Personas, and chapters on website content, website copy, and SEO.