2 quick marketing tactics for your playbook
Why images are important, and how to know your buyer/user persona better
One
A couple of weeks ago, I published what I thought was a really useful, and fun post on the newsletter: 5 reasons why no one cares about your product.
But when I first shared it, it didn’t get as many readers and reactions as I’d thought it would. This puzzled me, because it is exactly the kind of quick and sharp post that does well. I let it go and went about my day, until Sid Ram, my colleague at Accel, pointed out what I’d done wrong: The picture I’d used to go along with it, of a dog yawning, just didn’t work.
My assumption was that the yawn would signify boredom, but evidently it did not, and my audience probably could not make the connection. It confused them, the cardinal sin of marketing communication. And they did not click.
I changed the picture, and voila, it picked up immediately. You could argue that I should have known better, and you will be right, but we all need reminders, don’t we?
In your roles then, do start thinking about the images that go along with your content, and especially in your social sharing. Pull some of them up, see what you can do better, and ask yourself this question: If you want people to click and read, is your imagery, along with your copy, telling them clearly why they should?
If not, work on it, get design help, and run a few experiments. I’m sure just making this better will increase click-rates and views.
Tip: Pay attention to YouTube thumbnails. Some of them are nonsense, of course, but the YouTube screen remains the most ultra-competitive, hotly contested space for clicks and views. See what they are doing, and steal the best ideas. You are welcome!
Two
For some startups, the user persona is the same as the buyer persona. For others, these are different. This difference is crucial when you plan and execute a marketing strategy.
That out of the way, here’s one of my content secrets. I’d shared this in a session I did for SaaSBOOMi last year.
When you are trying to create content for buyer personas that are difficult to pin down in terms of reading habits and interests, go to Twitter. One common behaviour Twitter users have is to use the 'likes' as bookmarks. They see something interesting, but don’t have time to read it, so they 'like' it and come back later.
How do I know this? Because I do the same thing.
Likes are usually public, so you can go in and check what your buyer persona is interested in. This also brings up individual interests, of course; mine will show you essays I’ve bookmarked. But you will also be able to figure out what reports your user persona is reading, what blogs they follow, which industry analyst they pay attention to.
This is valuable information, which you can then use when planning campaigns, deciding on topics to write, which industry blogs to run partnerships with, and even when doing ABM. Again, you are welcome!
There you go, then, two tactics: One I myself should pay attention to more, and another I have used for a while. It’s still early in the year to include these in your processes and checklists, and impress your managers. Go for it!