Your website, social media, and blog together form the platform from which you address your target audience. But do you know who's looking back up at you? Yes, it's easy to say a target age range, gender, or activity seeker. But who are they?
How do they communicate? What type of content do they read, or do they skim? How about interests and hobbies? The tangled maze of questions grows, and it's our job as content writers to know the answers. Without those answers, your online content may be falling in front of the wrong eyes. But we can fix that.
Let's take a few minutes to discuss the pieces that make up the puzzle of your audience. While reading the following sections, however, remember that a professional content writing service is often your quickest and easiest method to ensure correct audience targeting.
Identify Your Target Audience – Broadly
Here, the first step is the easiest. Remember those broad audience generalizations from earlier? Now is the time for you to pick out the age range, profession, interests, and other demographics for the audience you wish your brand to attract. In all likelihood, your business plan or online presence should automatically fill in the blanks to this statement: My audience is A, who is B and interested in C. Let's look at how.
Part A: What generation do you want to attract? (Generation X, Y, or Z)
Part B: Does your product or service require a considerable monetary investment to enjoy?
Part C: What niche does your product occupy? (Sports, professional, travel, gear, or technology)
Answer these questions, and plug the answers into the previous statement. An example statement may read: My audience is Generation Y, who is financially secure and interested in travel. Do this, and Voila: your general audience is in the spotlight. But don't make the mistake of stopping here! There's so much more work to be done to reach that audience.
Bring That Audience Into Focus
Our simple formula for identifying your general audience yields only a fuzzy picture. You can almost make out the faces in the crowd, but it's still too blurry to see clearly. So let us help you bring it into focus.
The key is research. Meticulous, detailed, and thorough investigation. Does your target audience use social media? Are they reliant on smartphones over computers? What do they look for in online content?
Every one of these questions will provide valuable insight to your target audience and make that picture just a little bit clearer. But how can you get the answers you need?
Thankfully you have several open avenues. The Pew Research Center and Center For Generational Kinetics have both published very informative research on social media usage and audience trends. Dive in, take notes, and slowly twiddle that focusing knob until you're satisfied that your online content is as accessible as possible for your target audience.
Another option is to enlist the services of professional content writers who share the same characteristics as your target audience. Want to appeal to travelers? Let life-long travelers fill in the blanks on how to reach them. Or are you aiming to intrigue STEM industry professionals with your publication? Allow professional engineering content writers to get the message across.
This option is made even easier by the fact that our writing team includes engineers, backpacking guides, career travelers, mountaineers, and so many more. Each writer knows the field and will hone your online content with laser precision for your target audience. Give us the idea, and we'll draw up the blueprints for a multi-platform bridge to provide a robust connection between your business and your readers.
Publishing Targeted Content
We know the target audience and their trends, now it's time to craft stellar content for them. But hold your horses before you take off writing and publishing your work. That content will be a significant investment in both time and energy, and worth asking if your project needs a professional writing service. Remember, It's not just the information and structure that's influenced by your readers; it's the presentation. Here's why:
Different audiences use different online media to find their content of choice.
The physical device used for connecting to the internet varies significantly among readers
Most potential customers hinge their decision on positive interactions.
These points boil down to two primary questions: where are you publishing, and how are you publishing?
As to where: does your target audience look for content on informal social media, professional networking sites, or blogs directly? Remember, being found is the trick, and we must, therefore, hang our content where are readers are most likely to find it.
Now the how. Does your target audience view online content through smartphones or computers? A small distinction, perhaps, but it has a tremendous impact on how your article is formatted and published. Thankfully, the Pew Research Center has generated a useful mobile internet fact sheet covering this exact topic. Plenty of excellent articles have been passed over unread due to poor formating on a smartphone screen.
Along with presentation comes interaction. Recent studies have shown that interactive content can generate up to twice as many conversions as passive content. Along with useful content, interaction strengthens that bridge between you and your readers. But how to apply that interaction depends on your specific message.
Are you responding to the readers' questions and comments on your content? Thereby showing you are active, present, and concerned about your readers' feedback. Or are you implementing interactive infographics and quizzes?
It's certainly more work than directly publishing your content and moving on. But the point is to reach a target audience and offer a connection to your brand, right? To do that, we need to put that extra effort into making online content as appealing as possible.
As you can see, crafting that customized content can be just as laborious as identifying your target audience in the first place. Every single facet of your publication must work together to sharpen the final product with absolute precision for your reader. That final product, with the right amount of work, will emerge to be a relevant, useful, and worthwhile read.
But finding the time to invest in that work is tough. There are a million and one points to building a brand. So why not let a professional writing service handle your online content? At BestDraft LLC, we know your readers, the content, and the strategy. Let us put all three to use on your writing project.