Creating content that is highly targeted to your target market is a surefire way to attract readers who will convert and visit your blog on a regular basis. Communicating and confirming your business’ goals and values through your content will build trust with your audience.
I’ve put together 4 questions that will keep you focused on what really matters to your customers and your company, while creating targeted content for your target market. Ask yourself these questions and you will be able to generate a quality list of relevant topics that will engage your target market and assist you in reaching your business goals. For this post I will be using a fictitious company, Lost Pet Finder.
Here are the 4 questions:
1) Who is your target market?
In this case your target market could be pet owners in the suburbs of major cities with a combined family income of at least $70,000. You know this because the data from your studies tells you that this is where the majority of runaway pet occurrences take place and where the residents have the means to purchase your service.
2) What is your niche?
You sell GPS locators and a web app that tracks them so pet owners can see where their pets are at all times. This could be your elevator pitch. If you can’t explain your niche in the pet product market, then you will have a hard time selling your products.
3) What do your readers care about?
Readers with enough disposable income for your service will also care about choosing the right pet for their family, their pet’s health, veterinarian information, and sharing/watching videos of cute pets online. Below are a few content ideas for the topics mentioned above:
- Dogs vs. Cats: Which Pet is Right for Your Family?
- Top 10 Healthiest Dog Foods
- Lost Pet Finder’s Recommended Veterinarian List
- 15 Cutest Pet Videos Weekly Roundup
4) What does your company care about?
When communicating your business goals say things like, “One of our goals at Lost Pet Finder is to prevent families from losing their beloved pets. Over 1,000,000 pets are lost each year; we aim to reduce this number by 20% in the next 2 years. We can only accomplish this goal if you help us by sharing our mission with your fellow pet owners. – Share this to Facebook or Twitter to get a free voucher for $20 off the GPS device and your first month of service free.”
Here you’ve provided a CTA that give them a direct financial benefit and promotes your product to others in your target market.
You have great ideas, now what?
You need to plan, create, and promote your content. Here’s a quick rundown of what to do:
1) Plan
First, you need to decide what you will create? Let’s say you decide to create the Top 10 Healthiest Dog Foods content idea mentioned earlier, you now need to determine what resources are needed.
You will likely need a team to research many dog food brands, a set of criteria for judging, a designer to create an infographic, a copywriter to write the post. Assign these jobs to people on your team or outsource them as needed (perhaps in the case of the design work.
Next, and perhaps most importantly, how will you promote the content. You should definitely reach out to the top brand that you choose as the healthiest. Online pet magazines will also be very important. Think about where your target market might spend their time online. After all, the end goal is to sell your product and services.
2) Create
Outline your content to give it structure and to focus your efforts on researching important information for your content. Graphic work takes time so gather data at the outset of the project get a start on this early. Even designing a mockup of how things are going to look will save you time later on.
Once you have an outline, get to work on writing the copy. Don’t worry about getting everything perfect. Focus on putting all of your thoughts onto paper (or in your WYSIWYG). I suggest waiting at least a few hours to proofread and edit your content. Waiting a day is best and it’s even better to have a second set of eyes look over the content as well.
Now that you have all of that completed, hit the publish button! Don’t break open the bottle of bubbly just yet; you still need to promote your content.
3) Promote
Share your latest content on social media and reach out to any contributors that may have worked on the piece as well. If you hired a design firm to create an infographic ask them to share it with their audience. This will help promote their work and your content. One of the easiest ways to get more shares is to email your article to your colleagues and others you know in your field.
Reach out to the online magazines in your industry either on social media or through contacts your created earlier by asking questions or seeking input for your content.
Now that it’s all done you only need to track the success through whatever metrics your company deems valuable, and learn from any mistakes made along the way. Remember, there’s always room for improvement. For further reading on promoting your content I suggest reading SEER Interactive’s guide on effective outreach.
Conclusion
If you follow a plan when creating content you will save time, financial resources, and end up with content that serves your target market and accomplishes your company goals.
I’ve created a graphic outlining these steps (below). Feel free to print it out, embed it on your site, and share it with your friends and colleagues.
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