“My website isn’t drawing much traffic. How do I grab my audience’s attention?”
“Folks visiting my website aren’t contacting me. Why?”
Does either of these statements ring true for you? If yes, then what you’re likely missing is content that’s tailored to your customers. Thankfully, both can be addressed by taking time to learn how to target your audience and create content that your customers crave.
Step 1: Research Your Audience
Consider who your dream clients are. Where do they work? How old are they? What are their online habits? Why do they seek out your services?
When you have a starting idea of who you want to serve,you then want to take to the Internet to dive deeper into the interests, questions, concerns, dreams and more of your ideal audience. Here are three non-conventional ways to do just that:
- Scour sites like Quora and Reddit to see what questions your ideal audience is asking about your service or product. These’ll give you insight into their concerns and fears.
- Read customer reviews of books on your service area/product area, paying close attention to the 3-star reviews. These reviews will help you see what the books missed that the readers wanted to know, which is prime fodder for the marketing fire.
- Hang out in Facebook groups targeted at your ideal audience and watch the conversations there. If you have a Facebook Ad Account, use the Audience Insights tool to uncover similar pages and interests that would allow you to better reach your audience.
Researching your ideal audience’s needs, desires, fears, concerns, dreams and more is always time well spent. It will help you get to know your audience better. And it will help you as you move into Step 2.
Related Post: 5 Secret Ways to Get to Know Your Target Audience Even Better
Step 2: Craft Your Ideal Customer Avatar (ICA)
Ideal customer avatars (ICAs), also referred to as buyer personas, are key to writing highly personalized content that connects. Don’t believe me? Check out these stats:
- 48% of customers are more likely to consider businesses that personalize their marketing to address their specific issues
- 71% of companies who exceed their revenue goals have documented personas
If you don’t yet have an ICA, now’s the time to create one.
When defining your ICA, it’s important to understand that you are building out your perfect customer in great detail. This means you need to make this persona feel real.
Using the information you found in your research, move forward to create your ICA. Include items such as:
- Demographics (age, gender, family, education, job title, income, etc.)
- Psychographics (needs, desires, fears, etc.)
- Motivations
- Social behaviors
- Hobbies and interests
- Goals
- Challenges that get in the way of reaching those goals
Once you have all that defined, give your ICA a name and include a picture. That way, you can start to visualize your ICA every time you start to write.
Related Post: All About Personas: Why and How to Create Them
Step 3: Write to Build Connection With Your Audience
With ICA in hand, it’s time to start writing. It isn’t enough to just put words on a page, however. You want to write in a way that immediately connects with your audience and pulls them in.
Here are two tips to help you create content that connects.
Tip #1: Use Your Audience’s Words in Your Copy
This may sound obvious, but you’d be surprised at how often writers will choose to reframe what others have said “because it sounds better” or “because it’s more grammatically correct this way” or “because I wanted to.”
Don’t put words in your audience’s mouth. Instead, repeat their words back to them.
- If they ask a question over and over again? Put that question in your copy. Then answer it.
- If they use a specific term or phrase when searching for what you do, use that term or phrase—regardless of whether it’s the “right” term for your industry.
- If they raise objections about why your service or product is needed, address those objections straight on.
By using your audience’s lingo in your content, you’re telling your audience you hear them. And being heard is what everyone wants.
Tip #2: Use “You” and “Your” More Than “We” or “Our”
Your content is not for you. It’s for your audience. So why should your content focus more on you than them? (HINT: It shouldn’t.)
When crafting your copy for your website, emails, social media and elsewhere, keep a close eye on your “we” vs. “you” statements.
- If your “we” statements outnumber your “you” statements, edit accordingly.
- If you start more sentences with “we” and “our” statements, rearrange or rewrite your sentences to put your audience first.
- If your copy focuses more on what makes you great than on solving your audience’s problems, go back to the drawing board.
Tailored Content Is Content That Converts
The hard truth is that creating a lot of content for your business means nothing if that content isn’t properly tailored to your target audience. Take time to get to know your audience and then write copy that draws them in, answers their questions and points them in the right direction.
If you find you could use some help at any step along this journey, don’t hesitate to reach out to our Word Nerds. We’re here to help!
