It was the January of 1996 in which Bill Gates’ essay titled ‘Content is King’ was first published. This was way before digital marketing was even considered indispensable for marketing success and way before social media dominated our mindscapes.
25 years later, it still holds true, and even more so given our times.
The Many Changing Faces of Content
Content has continued to evolve ever since, and today, the content landscape has completely transformed. Instead of a few content publishers with large audiences and huge budgets, each of us today is a content creator and publisher in our own right, with our very own niche audiences. Nobody is too big or too small, and location doesn’t matter – for publishers or audiences. Moreover, there is also quite a huge array of choices when it comes to content types. Apart from the usual long and short form textual content, one can choose from a variety of podcasts, video and music streaming services, social media feeds, user generated content and much more.
As of 2020, the average urban person spent an estimated 6.5 hours online each day, and a large part of this is taken up by consuming content of different types and formats – both from brands as well as individual creators. In fact, content has been touted to be the great leveller, levelling the playing field for anyone willing to play.
This is precisely what makes it challenging and exciting to be a content creator. For brands, what this translates to is that everybody is competition when it comes to content. Well, almost. When vying for attention on the same platforms for the same audiences, it then becomes imperative to be able to stand out amidst all the chatter. This has fuelled the rise of content marketing as a veritable specialty in itself, with expert teams being set up to create content that engages and lands the desired impact.
The Content Marketing Conundrum
It would not be a stretch to say that with the right content and the right strategy, it is possible for nearly anybody to succeed as a content creator.
But content marketing success isn’t just about putting out content on a regular basis and hoping that it hits bull’s eye. It really depends on taking care of a few basics – such as the message, the medium, the audience and the timing, while also being tuned to what’s happening around. In fact, a large part of getting this right is to really know your target audience well. Because when you know who you are speaking to, it will guide your content creation and strategy to organically align with what your audience wants. And this is essential to be able to build connection and the possibility of conversion.
We can then concur that finding the right target audience is a crucial key to content marketing success.
I am often asked about how one can be sure of actually reaching the right people online. If you have the same question on your mind, read on.
5 Essential Tips to Connect with the Right Target Audience
Before we get started, first things first. Have you defined your target audience?
Target audience definition is much more than just your regular demographic filters of age, gender, location and socio economic status. These are often plain and do not do much to paint an accurate picture. Your definition should be as detailed and sharp as possible – you need to be clear about who you want to target, as well as the ones you don’t want to connect with! Getting this right will make it a lot easier to create content that is not only great, but also streamline your own focus and efforts in the direction you want to go.
Once you have a fair idea about this, you can build onto that and continue finetuning your definition as you go along.
- Customer Personas
This is a wonderful way to bring your target audience to life, virtually! This entails creating a life-like character sketch of your customer in such detail, that anyone reading it can visualize what this person’s personality would be like, and the challenges, pain points, triggers and inspirations that this person experiences. It helps to give these personas mock names, to build on to the “realness” of the persona. When this happens, not only will it be easy to create and evaluate content, but you would also be able to identify deeper motivations and feelings that your prospects would likely associate with your product / category. This gives you a better sense of what you could do for a person like that. This will of course, evolve as you go along, but it is a very good first step in reaching your audience online.
In case you are wondering why this is needed when you already have some filters to identify your target audience, then here’s why. It isn’t always easy to relate to these facts and figures, and see them as real people. But when you have a clear picture of who you will be speaking to, your content will naturally flow in a certain way, and will likely have better resonance with your target audience. Of course, I need not mention that these personas work best when based on generalised and verified audience data points available.
- Developing your Content Strategy
Your content strategy should outline the ground rules, focus and the playing field for content creation. Many businesses make the assumption that their content strategy needs to be all about what their business offers. But this is just one part of the equation. Your strategy should certainly be aligned to your business’s raison d’être, but should also take into account the current needs of your customers and what your competitors are up to. This is a more holistic approach.
You need to deeply understand what your customers are seeking, their likes / dislikes, challenges and what matters to them, so that you can find new ways to serve them with content. Of course, you need to be mindful that the content being put out is connected to your business and its mission either directly or indirectly.
This approach works much better as compared to just talking about who you are and what you do, and helps you build a bridge between what you offer and what they are looking for. Moreover, when you keep track of your competition, you also have the benefit of seeing what is working, and bettering it yourself!
- Diving deeper into Analytics
Analysing audience data can uncover stories and insights unlike any other. Thankfully, there are so many rich minefields of data today – from Google Analytics and Social Media Analytics, and many tools and resources available to help make sense of all this data. All of this data allow you to get a sneak peak into the minds of your diverse audiences, and get to know them closely, without having to go onground and conduct expensive research. Right from where they stay, what they like, their marital and professional status, their areas of interest, the areas of commonality and differences – you can get a pretty overview of all this and more, just by digging into your analytics. Some platforms, such as Google Analytics also give you insights on where your target audience spends time online, how they come onto your site and where they go on to. This data can be extremely beneficial while deciding on which platforms you should be focussing on, and guiding your digital media plans.
I would however, also urge you to match this with your actual customer data. There is always a possibility that you might be surprised, if there are customer groups that you aren’t creating content for, or if there are content consumers who aren’t your real customers. Either way, it is a good idea to repeat this exercise every year to ensure that you are engaging with the right set of people online and offline.
- Monitoring Content Performance
Content creation and distribution takes time, effort and resources. But as it is a rather subjective thing, it can be difficult to sometimes evaluate what would work before you actually put it out. And this is why, regular monitoring of what is working (and what isn’t) is one of the keys to be able to get a hold on what you should be doing, content wise. Doing this initially will also help you set the right KPIs for your content strategy.
You can use your analytics dashboards to find out what is your best performing content – whether it is an email, a blog or a social media post. The total number of visits or views should not be your final metric. If you are able to track specific actions taken by your audience after interacting with your content, then that would be a very good barometer of performance. This also offers insights on what your audience really wants, and allows you to focus your efforts on doing more of that and less of the rest. This is also a good way to build a stronger connection with your target audiences online.
As a content creator, you will likely get the best insights, ideas and directions when you seek feedback directly from your readers! Whether you are a brand or an individual creator, there is nothing more powerful than being authentic, and seeking honest feedback from the very audience that you are creating content for.
Just as businesses do product surveys, you could do a content survey. There are many ways you could do this – through emailers, via your website, comments on your blogs or social media posts, or even one-to-one interactions via phone / video / email. You may not have everyone willingly participate, but the more engaged audiences will be willing to spend some time and telling you what they like, and why. You should even be prepared to hear things that may not be to your liking. But you could look at this as an opportunity to have a meaningful interaction with the audiences you care about, about what it is that they care about. And this can form a strong foundation on which you could further strengthen your connection.
Doing content right is not exactly the rocket science it is made out to be. All it needs is a regular investment of time, effort, skills and discipline. And if you are willing to commit to this, then taking care of the other basics will be a breeze indeed.
