7 Ways you can give your content the right persona.

Right Content Persona

You have a website and have something to say to your audience? Content is exactly what you’ll rely on. After years of technological advances that we’ve witnessed, content still happens to be the best medium to give vital information to your readers. While the aim for the future is to give up about everything into the hands of technology, Content will still probably be approached non-technologically, humanly, if you will.

Experience

A weird one to start with, “experience” counts for a lot when people communicate. Have you ever wondered why you’re more likely to listen to and follow experienced people, rather than those who are inexperienced in case of that particular matter? The answer is pretty simple and obvious, we “trust” people who’ve been through a situation that we ourselves are expecting to “be in” some time in the future. Humans are hardwired to follow guidance and trust information that comes from a source that is known to have the “experience” factor. Content needs to be trusted by the reader first, in order for the content to prompt him or her to act in your favour. Experience is one of the foremost personas that you would want your content to have, to build that vital relationship from which there are ways you can educate your reader.

Position

The most persuasive people, if you’ve noticed, are those who can make their “targets” feel in a commanding position over themselves. Though it takes educated skills to do it, the results are positive, just about every time. In such a position, a person is much more likely to take a decision, given the freedom to act. Language can be used here as an instrument to make the reader feel in a powerful position, as if he or she has excess knowledge or resources as compared to others and thus should not suffer the disadvantages of not having your product and services. The idea is to get the potential customers to feel as if they have a better hand over you and others in general.

Emotion

There are many basic emotions that we indulge in almost regularly like joy, grief, anger, fear, surprise, and disgust. Napoleon once said: Men are moved by two levers only—‘fear’ and ‘greed’. If you can inform your reader about the disadvantages of not having your product or services and get them to fear those disadvantages, that increases the likelihood that they buy what you are offering. As far as greed is concerned, the technique involved is the opposite—enlist the advantages of having it. This usually drives the human instinct of the potential buyer to act. If your content finds the right balance between these two emotions, it generally brings increased sales. Surprisingly, according to research, ‘disgust’ works just as well, if not better than fear and greed, as an emotional trigger.

Secretive

Even if you’re only a little social, you probably must’ve heard of some kind of “secret” bar or restaurant nearby, and you most likely wanted to go there yourself. It is one of the basic human instincts to want to know, experience, possess, and share what seems outside of common knowledge. Delivering content that gives your reader that extra bit of information your competitors fail to provide can give your audience something to sit on.

Identity

The words ‘identity’ and ‘persona’ resound similar meanings in many ways, yet there is an important distinction. ‘Persona’ is a set of special or unique characteristics attributed to an individual (or a body of work), while ‘Identity’ is a set of common characteristics that could be attributed to most individuals. In other words, not everybody has a persona, but almost everybody has an identity. Identity in your content comes from using words like “you” and “us”. Addressing your reader in the first person gives your content a human-like identity. The reader feels as if a human is talking to them. A story always gets your reader more interested and engaged in your content, especially when the story rolls along with an identity, triggering compassionate human instincts and motivating your potential buyer to act!

Images

Creating a persona is not only about writing your content in a certain way, it’s also about creating a feel that is more natural. Whenever we map out an individual’s persona, many other factors come into play, even those seemingly separate from the individual. The images in the background impact perception. Your content must include images that appropriately complete the impression of your content’s persona in your reader’s mind. The right image complements the subject of your content. Subtle hints work better and more proactively than things presented upfront.

Empathy

To sound more like a true writer, the best writing listens to its readers’ minds. If your content is highly informative but not concerned with what’s going on in the reader’s head, it’ll be difficult to get your audience to respond.