Target Your Audience

Content is key in today’s world. With the many different businesses competing for the consumer’s attention, having the best content that is the most applicable to the audience will set one business apart from the next. In Is Your Content Strategy Guided by Audience Intent (or Just Keywords)? by Laura Lippay, she discusses how companies are creating content focused on putting the most keywords in the page in order to generate page views. She states, “Content is a means of communicating and building a relationship with an audience.” Therefore, companies cannot create pages with an excessive amount of keywords to increase readers. They have to create content that is unique and will interest the prospective audience. Laura Lippay suggests before creating content, one should analyze the goals of the content, the goals of the company, and the audience intent.  Understanding this before creating content should help it be more successful for the company.

Jayson DeMers discusses some mistakes companies make when creating content in 5 Mistakes You’re Making With Your Content Marketing Strategy. One suggestion is to be transparent with the content. Readers know what the aim is for companies. Do not try to deceive the readers by hiding the original motivation of the content. This transparency could help build trust between the company and consumer. This could be the future of a lasting relationship, because trust builds strong relationships. Another mistake companies make that Jayson DeMers points out is the content is not directed towards the right audience. He suggests some possibilities for problematic audience targeting including, reading level mismatch, content that does not address the needs or interests of the audience, and content that does not use the format the audience prefers. The solution Jayson DeMers suggests is to try out different content with different audiences to see what works. In addition, analyzing previous efforts and their success will help guide the future.

John Hall, in Without Tailoring Content to the Buyer's Journey, You're Missing the Mark, gives a great example of how having ineffective content does a disservice to a company. He writes, “Creating content that doesn’t directly speak to your audience is like accidentally gifting your mother-in-law a men’s razor and some aftershave. It’s a waste of resources, and you’re bound to lose a lot more than trust.” I think this is a great example of how content that is not targeted correctly can hurt rather than help a company. This is the third article stating a company has to define the target audience in order to create successful content. Creating content for the different type of consumers at different stages in the buying process will broaden the reach of the company and increase reader traffic. John Hall calls the process of a consumer making a purchase a “buyer’s journey.” I think this phrase perfectly exemplifies that consumers go through a journey when they purchase products or services. Keeping this concept in mind while writing content will help companies write content that is more prevalent to the consumers’ current place in the journey.