Soulati-'TUDE!

When you invest in digital marketing school via HubSpot, as I have, what you’re told out of the gate is to know your buyer persona. Now that I understand that phrase better, it makes perfect sense. Quite simply, you need to understand the characteristics and demographic of the person most likely to hire your services.

Define Buyer Persona

What’s not as simple as defining buyer persona is writing to meet those criteria every day. To get there, you have to take a hard, introspective look:

What is your purpose writing blog posts every day, three times weekly or once per week?

If, when you look at a blank screen and see only obligation and weariness, then perhaps your spark for blogging has dimmed.

Instead of looking inward at only you, think about your audience. But, first, think about your business goals.

Bloggers have two paths to take when taking up the virtual pen:

• Be a personal blogger and write to share about families, travel, school, emotion, etc.
• Become a professional blogger where content is king and drives your business ROI.

It’s not easy making the leap. When a blogger writes solid and educational content with genuine authority on a highly consistent basis, that’s when things begin to happen.

Write For An Unknown Audience

How do you get there from here? You put yourself in the shoes of your buyer, reader, customer, prospect. What sorts of writing do you think your unknown audience wants from you?

You need to be developing #RockHot content every day; it’s imperative to ensure you’re climbing the rungs of the never-ending ladder.
Each of us who has been blogging more than three years consistently and has a goal to optimize a blog for monetization (the elusive), knows there’s a steep learning curve to the next plateau. To differentiate, it’s up to you to deliver content oriented to the reader you have never met.

The content you craft has to answer the question, “Does this blog post entice a total stranger to pay attention to my writing?”
Let’s get back to the buyer persona thing for a minute. In my view, keeping my target audience top of mind when blogging is a challenge. I have an incredible community built over time who are at varying stages of business success, who are personal friends, who are bloggers, who are business owners, and who are not likely to hire my services.

Here’s the rub…for all the people you know in your community, there are five handfuls of people you don’t know. It is these lurkers and occasional readers whom you want to lure back every day you post content.

If you’ve determined the characteristics and demographics of that occasional reader and defined your buyer persona, then perhaps the content you craft for your blog can be tailored to that group of people.

Switching gears to write for the buyer is a challenge for me.

Everything I read, every conversation I have, and each time I listen provides blog fodder for me. Because I want to teach and share my passion and enthusiasm for what I do, writing content to earn new business is where I struggle.

I’m working on it; trying to make the total leap to being a solidly successful business blogger who is regarded for authoritative content. Right now, the rocky path I’m on is exactly right. No one said a learning curve is without a detour, and I need to keep reminding myself that it’s OK to stay true to your school.

What about you…any hot tips to share about why you blog and how you regard your audience?