In marketing, reaching and connecting with your target audience is critical. While it is first important to define your target audience and buyer personas, making the effort to connect with them through content marketing makes all the difference. One way to make an impact is through personalized content. Oftentimes marketers are in such a big rush to create content they do not think of how it matches with their audience, don’t have enough time to create content in general or do not have a solid grasp of what content target audiences want to consume. This creates a disconnect between what your content is talking about versus what audiences want to learn more about. Personalized content, content that is tailored to the audience’s needs or characteristics, can increase the impact your content has on customer and prospect relationships as well as help to build credibility.
So, what does it take to create more personalized content and reach target audiences? Check out these four strategies.
1. Understand the Characteristics of Your Target Audience
Why It Matters: Target audiences and buyer personas typically have a set of key characteristics including demographic, firmographic, psychographic and behavioral data points. Without these characteristics, it would not have been possible to define them in the first place or describe who they are and why you want them to buy your product, service or solution.
How to Create Personalized Content Using Target Audience Characteristics: With the understanding of how important key characteristics are to the definition of target audiences, they also matter to content marketing. Knowing some of their key behaviors, values and demographics help in the content creation process. This guides what content is created, ensuring information connects and speaks to some of those characteristics and data points. For example, writing a blog that addresses key audience pain points is a great way to create more personalized, impactful content.
2. Use Language Target Audiences Can Comprehend
Why It Matters: Have you ever read a piece of content about something in your industry and had a hard time understanding what was being conveyed? This is important to avoid. When you put out a piece of content, you want it to be easily understood by the audience it is intended for.
How to Create Personalized Content Using Customer Language: To create personalized content that speaks to target audiences, it is best to use language that those audiences can understand. For example, if you are creating a blog about digital banking, use language and terms that are commonly used in the digital banking industry. This helps bridge the connection between content and audience. It is also important to avoid using overly technical terms or complicated concepts which can often leave audiences in a state of confusion.
3. Leverage Key Industry News, Trends and Insights
Why It Matters: Industry news, trends and insights are valuable and can be leveraged in a variety of ways. From key events to emerging trends and more, being informed on what is happening in the industries your target audiences are a part of is crucial.
How to Create Personalized Content Using Industry Trends: Using knowledge of recent trends, events, insights, etc. can help you create more personalized, timely content. For example, you can take a recent trends report and add your commentary on an in-depth analysis of the trends and how they apply to a specific industry vertical. This gives your target audience a new perspective, new ideas to consider and more. Not only does the timeliness of the trend help make a connection with target audiences, but it also personalizes the connection with information that is relevant to their interests and priorities.
4. Apply Social Listening for Greater Awareness
Why It Matters: Social listening has emerged as a popular term as digital becomes the primary way of doing things. With the multitude of information shared on a wide array of digital channels, it can be easy to get overwhelmed. But, despite the mass of information, it can all be very valuable and reveal what people are talking about, their biggest challenges, what they are looking forward to and more.
How to Create Personalized Content Using Social Listening: Applying social listening tactics can help you better connect with target audiences. Take portions of what people are saying on social media, in the news and on other digital platforms and consider how you can turn that into personalized content. For example, if you are in the digital banking industry, you might be able to create an infographic talking about “The Ten Things People Are Looking Forward to This Year in Digital Banking” by leveraging what others are saying in various channels. This gives audiences relevant, timely and impactful information.
Incorporate Personalized Content into Your Content Strategy
With the understanding of how important it is to create personalized content that speaks to and makes an impact on target audiences, it is also a key component to incorporate into your overall content strategy. Ready to take the next step and create a content strategy that connects the right message with the right people at the right time? Start with this online marketing course, Build a Breakthrough Content Strategy and Plan. This course, with the opportunity for one-to-one coaching, provides you with the complete process of creating and implementing a content strategy that will get you business and revenue results.
