The Importance of Knowing Who You’re Writing Your Marketing Content For

If you’re familiar with content marketing, you’ll know it’s no secret that in order to create an effective message, you need to properly communicate it to the right audience.

Take a look at the content your company creates.

Does this content speak to a specific person? Does it address a specific need? Is it meant for that person’s need at a specific point in his or her buyer’s journey?

If it doesn’t, it’s time to re-evaluate your content. Your content needs to reflect your knowledge and understanding of your audience while guiding them through the buyer’s journey. It needs to be targeted content.

What is “targeted content”?

Targeted content is content created for a specific subset of your overall audience, also referred to as a persona. It’s designed to elicit a specific response from that group, backed by data about the group. This data becomes the backbone of content planning. It should factor in certain attributes pertaining to demographics, psychographics, their stage in the buying process and more.

By getting a strong idea of who your personas are and what they want, you’ll be able to generate content specifically for them. By why is this better than just tossing a bunch of content out and hoping some of it sticks?

See these four reasons why targeted content is key when it comes to content marketing.

Reason 1: Targeted content is an opportunity to show your customers you get them

Picture this–it’s finally springtime and you’re ready to start up a lawn care routine. You take to Google to search, “when should I start cutting my lawn?”. You click on a home services website that looks like it could have the answer, but all you find is a page listing the company’s lawn care services and a form to schedule a service. Since you’re not yet looking to invest in lawn care services, this is of no use to you. You’re not yet there in the buyer’s journey.

You keep searching for another website that might help you out, and you find one with a blog hub that hosts content on HVAC maintenance, gardening, carpet cleaning, and the holy grail of lawn care tips. You’re able to find the answer you were looking for, all because that website contained content that understood your needs and addressed it. That same website also turned another user into a customer through a specific services page that addressed issues with their HVAC and how the company could solve it.

By creating content that identifies the needs of customers in a way that works with where they are in the buyer’s journey, you’ll be able to better appeal to them.

Reason 2: Targeted content gives customers what they want increased sales and improving customer satisfaction

Your personas are unique, so your content shouldn’t be “one size fits all”. By producing content that caters to each specific persona, your marketing efforts will become more effective overall. You’ll be able to guide each persona through the buyer’s journey in a way that works best for them, resulting in increased sales and improved customer satisfaction.

Reason 3: Targeted content encouarges engagement

Think about a blog or an article you read recently. Was the information useful? Did you share via Facebook, LinkedIn, email or any other channel so that others who might find it useful could read it too? When the content you produce is seen by your audience as useful, they’ll be more opt to share it with others. 

For example, beekeeper Lisa recently found a blog about new beekeeping technology from the company she buys her beekeeping equipment from. It spoke to her interests, and she thought the other members of her beekeeping club might enjoy it as well–so she shared it in their Facebook group. Now all of the members of the group have found value in the blog, and they know that they’ll be able to find valuable information from that company in the future.

Reason 4: Targeted content improves your search rank and results, which will increase visibility

If your content truly is targeted content, it should be more effective in reaching the audience searching for it. When your content contains high ranking keywords, it gains visibility. This will have a direct effect on increasing brand awareness and visibility. And the more content you have that is good quality, the more likely you’ll be seen as a leader in your industry.

The positive effects of having targeted content are evident when it comes to content marketing. Put your focus on your personas’ interests, needs and where they are in the buyer’s journey, and you’ll be sure to win big with your content marketing.

Your content isn’t the only aspect of your marketing strategy that should be targeted for your audience. Download our Guide to Understanding Your Target Audience where we explain further why knowing your target audience is important, how to build out your own buyer personas, and which characteristics about your audience are useful.

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