You know those songs which remind you of your life experiences and they make you feel that they were made only for you! Similarly, when you publish content, it should be targeted to people who are awaiting it and will be the true benefiters of your content. This does not mean you cannot sell to everyone. It only means you should target your niche audience for attracting high-quality leads. If you follow the approach of ‘one-size-fits-all’ and do not customise your content as per the preferences of your target audience, you are basically missing out on the stars while going after the moon. Accept the fact that it is not necessary that your content reaches everybody’s feed or inbox, but it should definitely reach those who truly need to know about you.
For instance, if your ideal customer belongs to a rural area and has limited resources around them, they would want to know how to make the most of the available ingredients and cook a delicious meal for their family. If your article throws around the names of ingredients that they have never heard of or will never be able to find in their community, it does not add value to their lives. The purpose of the content, for example, promoting your brand’s utensils, is defeated.
To make target marketing a reality, be well-versed with the interest and behaviour of your customers. Once you know them in-depth, half the battle is won. Start by understanding your present customer base and keep a track of their engagement with your content. Once you have the basic structure of your buyer persona in place, you can conduct a little more research and align it according to your business objectives. When you analyse your customers, keep a note of their demographics like age, gender, marital status, etc. whatever is applicable to your brand.
In addition, conduct psychographic segmentation and be aware of their belief system and their lifestyle. How they interact with the brand is also important along with geographical segmentation like their place of residence. So that you ensure that you are posting content according to their time zone, when they are awake and not letting your content go down the drain. Make use of your website and social media analytics to gain information about this.
Once you are sure that you are targeting your content to your niche audience through ads, paid keyword searches, optimised SEO, guest blogging, and other methods, always keep in mind to discuss the benefits of your product and not merely its features. Only if the audience is convinced that your content is adding value to their lives will they be interested in associating with your brand.
Does this mean you only cater to one particular segment of customers throughout? No. One can always experiment, revisit their buyer persona, evolve with time, and reinvent their marketing strategies. No matter what you adopt, the basic remains the same. If you wish your voice to be heard and not fall on deaf ears, you need to invest your efforts in making meaning out of the broad customer spectrum and finding your niche audience. This will help you to have a quality reach and also give you insights on how you need to improve as per customer engagement.
Pleasing everyone was, and will always be a myth. Instead of utilising your resources to relate with a mass audience, research and introduce strategies that will wisely leverage your potential to tap into the minds of those who are genuinely interested. Leaving an impression in their lives will generate significant conversion rates as compared to trying to make a scattered mark among many.