Is your B2B persona concept languishing in a drawer? This is how you develop content that converts

SUMMARY: Many B2B companies go to great lengths to develop persona concepts – which then disappear into a drawer. Why? Personas provide answers to the question “Who do I want to reach?” But not “How do I address this person?”. Read in this article how you can use the ReThink180™ methodology developed by Leadvolution to systematically develop suitable content ideas from your personas and create targeted content with added value based on them. We also offer you a free expert call.

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About Leadvolution

Leadvolution is one of the most experienced social media B2B marketers in Europe with over 140 advertising setups for fast growing startups, exciting SMEs and over 25 global market leaders. Within 4-6 weeks we build a globally scalable social media lead generation for very specific & complex B2B target groups for clients, generating up to 500 leads/month. Read More

About Leadvolution

Leadvolution is one of the most experienced social media B2B marketers in Europe with over 140 advertising setups for fast growing startups, exciting SMEs and over 25 global market leaders. Within 4-6 weeks we build a globally scalable social media lead generation for very specific & complex B2B target groups for clients, generating up to 500 leads/month. Read More

The problem: Personas alone do not deliver content with added value for specific target groups

Persona concepts answer the question for B2B companies as to which people they want to reach. This is very valuable, which is why almost all B2B companies have defined their personas – but marketers are then faced with the challenge of having to produce content for these very personas that generates measurable results. In terms of the messaging required for this, however, personas do not provide the answer. As a result, the persona concepts, which are often developed with a lot of effort, are hardly used.

B2B marketers often talk about who their company is, what products they have and what they can do. For push media like social media, however, this usually does not lead to good results because users have to explain to themselves which of their problems are really solved for them and then often still wonder what quantifiable results they can expect. As a rule, they cannot intuitively decide for themselves whether the content played out is actually relevant to them and whether they should pay more attention to it.

What is missing? Personas usually do not analyze the problems of the decision-makers and the individual consequences of these problems, or only very superficially – and even if they do, there is no systematic methodology for developing lines of argumentation for the messaging. Without this, however, it is tedious & difficult for the content team of any B2B company to develop concrete ideas & concepts for content that works.

In this article, we show you how to close this gap. Arrange a free expert call with us here to evaluate the conversion potential of your content.

The solution: With the ReThink180™ methodology developed by Leadvolution, it is possible to systematically generate lines of argumentation for each persona, with which customers understand in 15 to 30 seconds why the respective product makes sense for them personally and generate the realization that they should request more information.

In social media, the user’s situation must be considered. B2B companies should explain which of the recipient’s problems are solved with which result or which opportunities arise with the product in question and what exactly can be achieved with it.

It is not a question of explaining the product in detail – it is sufficient if advertisements only generate interest. It can be explained later in the sales talk.

How exactly does the ReThink180™ methodology work? In a systematic process, the perspective of your customers is analyzed - various argumentations ("messaging") are identified, which provide ideas for all content types

To analyze the perspective, you should proceed in 4 steps.

  1. Explore all relevant pain points for your target group that you can solve with your product.
  2. Identify the consequences of the pain points for specific job profiles that you would like to reach within your specific target group.
  3. Quantify the results that your target group can achieve with your product, define buying obstacles and gather arguments to overcome them in your communication.
  4. Finally, collect references to your company.

From these points, you can develop an argumentation that, in contrast to a general “awareness” text, has a high relevance for your target group, generates direct product interest and, by the way, also delivers real and sustainable branding. Reason: The customer can link the now learned product added value with your company name.

This has been proven to achieve 50 to 200 percent higher click and conversion rates than previous campaigns. And not through intrusive, empty advertising messages or click baiting, but through information that is relevant to the customer, offers real added value and thus generates lasting interest.

Best of all, you can use this messaging not only as a storyline for social media ads, but for any content, including blog articles, testimonials, “Always on” posts, videos, trade show content, or lead ads. Do you need a new idea? Then select any pain point, provide it with an example and derive the further storyline for your content directly from it.

You can test this approach live with us in pilot projects within four to six weeks and thus generate meaningful success data in this short period of time, which is worth its weight in gold in internal discussions.

A ReThink180™ messaging not only generates more leads, but also higher quality leads with buying interest.

Getting to the heart of an ad’s message clearly has another benefit: the lead quality increases. If the customer already understands the added value he can achieve with a product, this generates genuine product interest. Such a lead is much more valuable for sales than someone who was only interested in a generally informative white paper – because it leads to higher appointment rates. The customer is happy about the call from the sales department instead of reacting rather annoyed because someone else called him, but he actually only wanted the whitepaper.

Last but not least, communication oriented towards the customer’s problems or added value makes sense on all channels. You should therefore use the high reach on social media in connection with ReThink180™ to first test the communication on all channels in a data-driven way and only then actually use it on other channels

B2B websites, after all, usually have too small a reach for A/B tests to deliver truly meaningful results statistically. On LinkedIn, you can test several ads with different communication approaches with a high number of impressions and use the most successful statement on the website and other channels as well. Feel free to contact us if you would like to learn more about ReThink180™.

Conclusion: It pays to develop content from the customer's perspective.

The ReThink180™ method breathes life into your personas. Our framework helps to develop very targeted content in a short time, to arouse high interest and to achieve significant registration rates. The content generated in this process can help improve contact rates not only on social media, but on all channels.

Simply request a free expert consultation:

Together with you, we will evaluate individual potentials for your company – how to bring your personas to life, how to provide them with suitable added-value content in a targeted manner and how to build an efficient content process from idea generation to setting up the appointment with your new lead.

    Hannes Fehr: Leading Expertise in B2B.

    • 20+ years experience in digital business. Leading positions in media companies (e.g. Tomorrow Focus, Gruner+Jahr etc.) and serial entrepreneur.
    • One of the most experienced German marketers for B2B lead generation.
    • Over 70 B2B Marketing setups for fast growing B2B startups as well as for large B2B enterprises > 2bn € turnover.
    • Official B2B Marketing Guide, B2B Dinner host & speaker @Online Marketing Rockstars, Host & Speaker @Hannover Messe B2B Marketing Executive Dinner series, Official “XING Insider” for B2B Marketing.
    • Marketing & BizDev Mentor at several high-class startup-accelerators (e.g. Google, Microsoft, Axel Springer, Telekom etc.).
    Connect on LinkedIn & request a FREE expert call