How do you write content for one product with three different buyer personæ without alienating others?
Part of a content writer’s job is to understand the potential market audience (buyers) of a product or service in order to write compelling copy that will provoke either purchase or further inquiry about the opportunity. But what does a writer do when there are three different buyer personæ for the same product under the same conditions? Each buyer persona understands features and benefits differently.
For instance, a hospital, who is the ultimate end-user of a piece of medical equipment will see ease of maintenance, operation, and reliability as the primary concern. However, if the equipment is part of an overall building package, typically the contractor purchases the equipment, and they are primarily concerned about price and ease of installation. Lastly, the design engineer specifying which products should be used for the job typically focus on building code compliance and overall integration of the equipment with other elements of the new building.
In these situations it’s never readily apparent who makes the ultimate decision. Therefore, it’s important for the content writer to really know the product inside and out, how the industry works, and how to point out features and benefits for each group without a negative perception from the others.
Before I left to begin my own marketing firm, I worked for an amazing company who has been the number one manufacturer in medical gas systems for decades, BeaconMedaes.
Medical gases are used to anesthetize patients, insufflate organs, run equipment in the OR, and sterilize instruments. Patients lives are at stake if something goes wrong. Medical gas equipment is considered a capital expense, or big purchase that is typically budgeted a year ahead of time and normally part of a new building or renovation. Anyone who knows how the construction industry works understands there’s a lot of hands in the pie making decisions. In these projects there are usually three entities (or more).
Example
Before I left, my previous company came out with a “vertical zone valve box” which is really a very boring but necessary piece of equipment. It wasn’t fun or sexy, heck, it wasn’t even cool or impressive. It’s about as boring as it gets in healthcare…unless you’re installing one. But even boring stuff has competition which can make or break a deal.
There are features to a vertical zone valve box as opposed to conventional zone valve boxes. They’re easier and quicker to install, can fit in tighter spaces (and even in hospitals, space is at a premium!). When it came out, I had to figure out how to introduce it to the market, and how to get people excited about it and convince them to make sure it was purchased.
Satisfying the 3 legged stool!
This new vertical zone valve box was more expensive than the regular kind, “oh boy” I thought! Now I have to convince people to pay more for this boring thing? That’s when it got interesting, and fun! I had to start thinking like all three types of customers.
I walked into then engineering firms with a great piece of copy describing how the dimensions of this valve box are a third less than a normal sized valve box. This meant that it fit right between studs behind the wall and fit easily into tight spaces in hospital ORs where there is a lot of equipment, sensitive wires, pipes and ducts of all kinds. Simply describing dimensions doesn’t communicate value. The numbers need a story, a reason why they’re important. If something is a third smaller, impressive, but not enough. A good content writer will note that one-third doesn’t make much of a difference on the outside of a wall, but it makes all the difference behind the wall especially if you don’t have to cut out wall studs to install the valve box! One down, two to go!
Then I visited the hospital. Even though they might not ever know the difference, it’s important for them to know the advantages. Every hospital staff member understands space is at a premium, and their engineering staff would be interested to know that the opportunity for dangerous leaks are reduced by one-half because there are fewer brazes or welds in attaching the box to the pipes. While the hospital critical care staff may not care all that much, their engineering staff and building design department understands the value. Not super sexy, but enough of an advantage over a competitor that all things being equal, saving space is always preferable.
Lastly, I went to the contractors. These are the guys who usually buy out the project and the ones I need to convince. They’re also the most difficult to persuade when the price is one-third higher than every other option! Even if the hospital or engineer specified this piece of equipment, oftentimes a contractor will submit the lowest bid possible (understood, they’re trying to win a job) and put an adder price for the equipment actually specified. Often general contractors who are also concerned about cost will take their chances on the lower price.
Market research for this situation required me to figure out how much time is allotted per braze to install the valve box, and cut that in half. Remembering correctly, the extra cost of purchasing the vertical valve box was cancelled out by the fewer welds required, so it was a wash, a good thing. But a better picture is painted when you add up 200, 3 valve boxes which is a total of 4,800 brazes. Reducing that number by half, even if pricing is a wash, it saves an immense amount of time which is always critical on a construction project.
Here, good market research which is part of content writing, demonstrates a definite advantage without alienating any other groups with a different buyer persona. Market research requires thinking outside the box by making phone calls to engineers, union locals, or other groups and conducting some interviews for information in addition to computer searches.
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