Remember when we looked at creating back-of-the-envelope customer profiles for your content marketing?

Well, what do you do with that envelope? How does it help you create content to attract your customers?

I’m glad you asked.

In the previous article on customer profiles we pieced together 8 pieces of information you should know about your ideal customer.  These would give us an at-a-glance view of the interests of our ideal customer and included:

1. Who are you writing to (specifically)
2. What do they want? 
3. Why do they want this? 
4. What worries them if they don’t achieve this? 
5. What do they need to do before they achieve this? 
6. How can you help them? 
7. What other methods could they use? 
8. Why would they prefer working with you? 

At the end of the article I suggested that whenever you write content, you should glance at this profile and try to address as many of the points as possible in your content.

And in this follow-up post I thought I’d give you an example to show you what that might look like (and how simple it is).

First – complete your customer profile

I did this at a recent corporate content training event for a client who provides English language learning resources for teachers.

Their profile looked a little like this:

1. Who are you writing to?  – Teachers
2. What do they want?  – To improve their teaching skills
3. Why do they want this? – To improve their job opportunities
4. What worries them if they don’t achieve this? – Being left behind, missing out, making mistakes in classes
5. What do they need to do before they can achieve their goal? – Learn up-to-date and effective teaching methods
6. How can you help them? – With easy-to-use, high-quality online resources
7. What other methods could they use? – Books, seminars
8. Why would they prefer working with you? – Strong reputation and high-quality content

Second – insert the details directly into your copy

Now remember in the last article how I said that most clients gave me real copywriting gold when they answered my questions straight off? That’s because a lot of people get bogged down with copywriting techniques and end up in a real muddle.

You’re much better off spending time pinning down the issues and challenges your customers faces, and understanding how you help them. Once you have that, writing is a lot easier.

Let’s look at some sample copy using the above information…

If you are a teacher(1) looking to improve your English language teaching skills(2) we can help. 

If you’d love to access more job opportunities (3) both here and in the UK, improving your skills (2) as an English language teacher (1) is essential. 

We have the most up-to-date resources (6) compiled by today’s top teaching experts(8).  This means you get to use the latest, most effective methods in your classroom. (5) 

You can access these resources easily online (6) and many of them are free! (6)

For more information…

The numbers indicate which part of the profile we’re addressing in the copy.

We’re not doing much more than telling our customer in simple, straight-forward terms, how we can help them. The language is specific, and we’ve got clear examples of how we can help them.

Now I haven’t used all of the items in the customer profile, but it would be just as simple for me to include:

If you’re worried about making mistakes in your classes (4)

or

If you’ve found seminars too expensive… (7)

With strong compelling content, the key is to really know your customer, rather than worry about dressing up your content in fancy language.

How about you? Want to share some elements of your own customer profile and have us work on ideas for your content? Let me know in the comments below.