📝 How to Create Effective Reader Personas for Your Blog
Marketers and other business people often create personas for buyers and social media followers. But did you know you can develop reader personas for your blog as well? The concept is similar and can help you get better results from the content you produce.
If you own a blog or thinking about starting one, an effective reader persona can prove quite helpful. Why? Because, according to one IBM-backed study, as much as 79% of consumers believe some of the information received from brands they interact with is irrelevant to their needs.
What is a reader persona?
This is a compact profile representing the average reader in your target audience. While many definitions liken personas to be fictional characters, they are developed based on the personalities and attributes of real people you expect to come in contact with your content. Creating an effective reader persona is simply identifying the type of user who will find your content valuable and, in turn, using that information to produce blog posts and other information that will be relevant to them. It’s a win-win.
Reader persona benefits
Improved conversion rates
Lower bounce rates
Higher open and click rates for emails and newsletters
More targeted SEO strategies
Greater satisfaction for readers
Increased ROI potential for blog monetization goals
Creating effective reader personas for your blog
Now that you know what a reader persona is, and the benefits to be had, it is time to learn how to create one. By the way, please note that you may need to create more than one persona if your blog offers content on several different topics.
1. Map out your ideal reader
Do you know what type of person is (or would be) interested in your content? What age group are they in, and what is their educational level? Where do they live and hangout? What challenges do they face in their daily lives at work and/or at home? What are some of the things they like doing online? What do they need help with in relation to your content, and what are their alternatives?
Finding answers to these questions will help you figure out what demographic your target audience belongs in and allows you to start narrowing down your persona. This step often involves doing research. Some tools you can use to extract data on current readers include Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, Alexa, surveys, heat mapping tools, etc. Many newsletter platforms such as MailChimp also allow you to find out details about your subscribers that can be useful in narrowing down your reader demographic.
Identifying your demographic, as you can see, can be time-consuming. However, you need to be as thorough as possible to if you want to create a reader persona that accurately lines up with your brand.
2. Get feedback from current readers
In the process of identifying the attributes of your reader persona, don’t forget to get the opinions of your current readership. You don’t have to let it be known what your endgame is, but you can ask questions to find out what readers think about your brand and the content you put out. Ask questions such as:
Which topics/posts they find to be most helpful so far
What kind of topics they want you to write more about (or suggest ones you haven’t touched on yet)
If they find your content generally relevant to their needs
Suggestions they can give to improve your content to better suit their needs
How likely they are to share your content with their circle
What if you are just starting out and don’t have any readership or subscribers as yet? In such a scenario, there are ways you can still get answers that can be used to shape your persona. Start by looking around at your competitors and take notes of the types of people interacting with them. Read through reviews left on Google, Amazon, TrustPilot, app stores, etc., as well as comments and testimonials posted on the competition’s social media pages and blogs. Follow relevant hashtags on Twitter and Instagram to see how they are being used, and by whom.
In addition, you can ask people you are close to, as well as colleagues, to give feedback on your content ideas (or about unpublished pieces you have already written). If you have a content team, you can also get their views. While these people may not necessarily represent your target audience, they can still provide valuable insight that can assist with developing your reader persona.
3. Analyze
Your research will uncover data about your audience members (including people who may not necessarily fall in the category of being your ideal target reader). This data can include the average age (group), gender, religion, professional experience, education level, and location of the people consuming your content and/or following you. Data about the types of content that get most views and the keywords people often use when searching for the content should also be collected to find out reader intent. Once you have all the data you need, you can start analyzing the details to flesh out the relevant attributes of your reader persona.
4. Start creating the persona
Armed with your findings, as well as any feedback gained from your audience, it should be possible to determine the intentions of readers (or the readers you want to have in the future) and move ahead with building your reader persona. Begin by putting all the identifiable info together to create a clear image. Write down the age, educational background, location, and professional level of the persona based on an average of the entire dataset and feedback you have collected. Don’t forget to create an appropriate fictional name that represents your reader persona. Here is an example of a reader persona for a blog about overcoming student debt:
Name: Dahlia
Age: mid to late twenties (28)
Location: New York/North America
Education level: College educated, first degree holder
Interests: financial management, blogging, earning online
Challenges: high cost of living, low wages, lacking money management skills
Overall identity: Dahlia is a recent graduate working as an assistant manager in a large firm. She is from a small town and grew up in a lower middle-class family. She moved to the New York City in order to attend college and find suitable employment, amassing substantial student debt in the process. Her interest in your blog stems from a need to make and save more money, so she can pay off her student debt in the shortest possible time.
If you are not sure how to put all the pieces together to create your persona, there are a number of online tools you can use. These include ready-made persona builders and templates available from HubSpot and other platforms.
5. Optimize content based on your reader persona
Now that you have managed to define and create your reader persona, it is time to produce the type of content that matches their intent. You will be able to develop better content strategies and deliver more relevant information that readers will be eager to share.
Creating an effective reader persona is an ongoing process. Be sure to keep communicating with your readers so you can know when their needs have shifted and how to update your persona accordingly.
Until next time!
—Casey