Agile Marketing and Content: Applying User Stories to Personas

Recently, I wrote about how to use an agile practice called user stories to unpack the intent behind your keywords and create useful content for your target audience. To quickly recap, a user story is something developers use to explain features in software by talking about what a user wants to be able to do.

I borrowed the concept from a leading authority on agile development, Mike Cohn, after taking a course with him. In my last post, Mike left a comment and talked about the importance of roles in user stories. He said it’s not just want the user wants to be able to do, but who the user is, too.

This got me thinking about personas, and how there can be more than one type of persona behind the keyword query – even if that user is in the same stage of the search funnel as the other user.

Depending on the persona, the content you create for a single keyword phrase can be different to cater to each set of needs. So today, we’ll talk about how you can start with user stories to develop your personas, and map your content to what they want and where they are in the search funnel.

Applying User Stories to Create Personas

In my last post, I showed you how to apply user stories to answer the “what” behind the keyword. You can use the following template to figure out what it is the user is trying to accomplish with that query by pairing it with where they are in the search funnel (research vs. buy).

Here’s the template:

“As a <type of user>, I want <some goal> so that <some reason>”

And in my example from the last post, I showed what a user story might look like for the keyword phrase “dog beds”:

“As a search engine user, I want to find more information about dog beds so that I can decide if I want to get one for my dog, and which kind I want to explore further.”

Even though we can infer that the head term “dog beds” means the person is in the research phase, it doesn’t tell us much about who the person is. And who the person is may very well affect the type of information they are looking for.

So there’s another way we can apply user stories: to help us define the “who.” Looking again at our template:

“As a <type of user>, I want <some goal> so that <some reason>”

You can replace the <type of user> with a persona you’ve developed that represents a group of common users of your goods or services. So let’s say you own a pet supply business, and two of your personas include first-time dog owners and owners of multiple dogs.

Using the template above, your persona user story could look like this:

Persona A: “As a first-time dog owner, I want to find a pet supply store I trust so that I can continue to go there for all my dog needs.”

And:

Persona B: “As an owner of multiple dogs, I want to find a well-stocked pet supply store with good prices so that I can find everything I need within my budget.”

I’m greatly oversimplifying the process of defining personas to make a point. In order to define personas, it takes research and wisdom about your business and target customer to really know what those people want from your brand.

Here’s a resource on personas created by Nielsen based on lots of research. These are typically generic and leave a lot to the imagination, but can be a starting point if you’re feeling stuck.

Applying Personas to Keyword Intent and Creating Useful Content

Taking my previous example for “dog beds” as the query, let’s apply what we’ve discovered about our target audience through the user story persona exercise to content:

Query: “dog beds”

Persona A: First-time dog owners

What matters to this persona:

“As a first-time dog owner, I want to find a pet supply store I trust so that I can continue to go there for all my dog needs.”

Persona B: Owns multiple dogs

What matters to this persona:

“As an owner of multiple dogs, I want to find a diverse pet supply store with good prices so that I can find everything I need within my budget.”

Content Checklist

It is possible to meet the needs of both these personas for one query through the content you create. Here’s a way you can visualize this:

And here’s a sample checklist that shows ways you can create content that speaks to both:

• Demonstrate authority by creating an information-heavy section of the website that’s dedicated to helping first-time dog owners find the right bed for their beloved pet. I touched on this in my past blog post where I talked about including interactive widgets also. (Persona A)
• Incorporate trust signals into the Web content, such as rich snippet reviews, testimonials, awards, involvement in non-profit organizations and access to social networks like Facebook, etc. (Persona A)
• Create a one-click downloadable resource (no email required) such as an ebook on the top 10 beds for small, medium and large dogs (for Persona B) or create separate versions of the ebook and let the user pick which one (small, medium or large dog) applies to them (Persona A). Include special offers in the ebooks for both personas. For the owners of multiple dogs, you could give savings when they bundle dog beds. For first-time dog owners, you could give discounts on their first two beds.
• Create a sharable infographic for Persona B that shows the costs of having more than one dog, the average lifespan of a dog bed by type of dog (small, medium or large, or active versus non-active or chewer versus non-chewer), then offer ways to shop smarter by showing the various dog bed materials, their longevity, types of beds and their warranties, etc.
• Create a sharable infographic for Persona A that shows the types of dog beds that grow with the first-time owner, from puppy to adulthood or from rescue to new home, as these dogs undoubtedly have different needs.
• Create separate videos for your YouTube channel that address the needs of the first-time dog owner (for example, selecting the right dog bed to welcome their pet home) and for multiple dog owners (for example, selecting the right dog beds that last and give them the most bang for their buck). Drive these people back to specific landing pages on your site that will help them select and purchase the right bed.

You can get really creative and explore the needs of your personas through several different content mediums that fulfill keyword intent for both where the user is in the search funnel and who the user is.

Hope these agile marketing ideas inspire you to explore your personas and their intent a bit more, so that your content really connects with them!