Good content is one thing, but good content written for a specific audience takes your marketing to another level. Identifying who you’re trying to reach prior to putting pen to paper will help you to create successful content.
Identifying Your Audience
You first need to figure out who your business’ target audience is. This is known as a buyer persona. Rather than going after a large group of people, the idea behind a persona is that you're targeting one specific type of person with certain characteristics.
Identifying your persona can take time. You’re representing your ideal customer, and it shouldn’t be done in haste. Creating a persona helps you to relate to and get in the mind of the person you’re trying to reach. It’s obvious how this technique can help you to write content that will hit home with your target audience.
Tone
Once you’ve defined your persona, all content decisions should be based on who you’re trying to reach. The overall voice of your content should resonate with your persona. For example, determine whether your persona responds better to a conversational or informational tone. A website trying to reach successful small business owners and a website targeting social college students should have dramatically different tones.
Word Choice
You need to speak your target audience's language. Choosing the right words to communicate to your persona can take your content from good to great. When it comes to word choice, less is almost always more. Getting overly fancy with your wording can feel obnoxious to the reader—especially when there are numerous unusual words. Aim to keep your wording straightforward, and add a dash of flair with interesting turns of phrase where appropriate to your persona.
Length
All of your content should be concise, but the length can still vary based on persona. As a general rule, you want to make your point using as many words as it takes—but no more. When determining the appropriate length for your content, consider your persona’s attention span and also how they’re accessing your content. If you’re targeting a busy athletic director who’s always on the go and likely using a mobile device, you definitely want to keep your content short, informative, and to the point.
SEO
To get in front of your audience, you have to keep SEO in mind at all times. Start by identifying keywords. Choose words that your persona would use and also that align with your business. Optimize your content by incorporating these keywords where they fit naturally. Avoid overuse of keywords, and never force them into your text. Using important keywords throughout your content will help to elevate your search engine rankings, and since you’re using terms that your persona would, you’re going to get your content in front of your target audience.
The key to writing great content starts before any actual writing takes place. Don’t make the mistake of skipping the step of identifying your buyer persona(s). Create content that reaches your target audience by speaking their language and keeping them in mind as you write.
Content creation is complex. If you need help with your content, let Blue Frog's writers help you. We'll write content that not only speaks your persona's language but also enhances your SEO and overall online presence. Contact us today to connect with our teams in Des Moines, Iowa.
