Powering Content

Chapter 3. Designing Content Personas

These days, everyone is either building an audience or being an audience. Someone, somewhere in the world is thinking up content that will appeal to you as you read this. You are someone’s target audience.

Let’s stop there for a second: what makes you a desirable target for a brand creating content for the web? Perhaps the answer is that you are within a certain age group. Maybe you just had your first child, or recently were married. For all they care, you might be a heavy-metal t-shirt collector. As long as you are the type of buyer that would be interested in their product, you are the muse. That’s right: you.

Now, go back and think about your content. Who is looking for your product? If content is the product, how can you design it in a way that resonates with this person? Look at your product as if it were not yours at all:

What is your product used for?

Where is your product being used?

How often is your product being used?

Who is using your product most frequently?

These are the types of questions that will help you to define your audience.

Defining Your Content Personas

Personas are fictional people with very real needs that you design to serve as placeholders. Instead of thinking of “all brides-to-be,” for example, you begin thinking about “Sophie”—a persona that represents a collection of some of the common traits you have spotted among the audience at which you are aiming.

Content personas became my ...