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Find Your Audience with Content Marketing
So you’re ready to start your content marketing strategy. But do you know who you’re aiming it at? You might think you understand your existing audience, but rather than limiting your content just to the people who already know you and what you do, you should be considering your wider audience too.
After all, the purpose of content marketing is to attract new customers. So, how do you find your audience with content marketing? In this article we’ll explore the different ways to engage and expand your customer base.
Define the target audience for your content marketing
Before you start thinking about the specific types of people you want to attract, you should understand the types of audience that will find you through content marketing. Knowing your target audience and the types of audiences that you could be missing is key to developing an even better content marketing campaign.
Purchase intent – people who are looking to make a purchase but are researching companies before buying. It’s important to attract these audiences through trust-building content. And if you miss the sale this time it gives you a chance to consider how you could better produce your content to convert into a lead next time.
Interest – sometimes, people like to search for and read about things just because they’re interested in them. It’s often linked to hobbies but can also be influenced by current events or trends. Understanding this as a reason for some people reading your content can help you to angle your topics to appeal more to those who are already interested in what you do.
Subcultures – how can you appeal to people who define themselves as part of a specific group? Spotify is a great example of a service that creates content to fit specific niches, like its playlists that delve deep into musical subcultures. Is there a way your content could appeal to a very specific kind of interest?
Understanding your audience
When you’ve figured out how you can attract customers with specific interests, as well as those already primed to make a purchase, you can begin to understand who your potential audience actually is. Your target audience is a fairly specific group defined by a set of statistics, namely:
Location
Age
Gender
Employment
Income
By creating a persona that represents your target audience based on this information, you can understand how to create content that will best appeal to their wider needs and interests. You can also use this information to understand how your target audience will make their purchasing decisions and when they will be most likely to buy.
Using audience personas, you can reach the people who will be most interested in your company and service, and avoid wasting time targeting people who won’t be relevant for your audience.
Content marketing success key
Once you understand your target audience you can begin to track their behaviour using tools like Google Analytics. Your website and social performance is an excellent indicator of how brands find your site, where they go within your site, and how long it takes them to make a purchase or leave.
This is useful for your content marketing because it can help you create content that keeps your audience engaged. If you target your content to your buyer persona, as outlined above, you can begin to mould your strategy to fit their activity once they’ve reached your site.
Finding your audience through content marketing can be easy or complex depending on your industry. For example, if you sell children’s ballet clothing then you know your audience is parents of children within a certain age group. But if you sell computers your audience could be almost anybody. Taking the time to fully research the kinds of people who are already searching for your product or service, and using that as the starting point for your content marketing strategy, is the simplest route to take.
Still not sure where to begin? Let OggaDoon help. We are a content marketing agency based in Bristol, and can take the weight of marketing strategies off your shoulders, so you can focus on doing what you do best.