Question: We are trying to figure out how to grow our readership while simultaneously focusing our content on our specific vertical. Our concern is that our business is fairly niche and we feel it will limit who will read our posts. How should we approach this?
The very first thing before I jump into this topic is I would like to ask you a question.
What good will a few thousand extra eyeballs do for your business if none of them are potential buyers of your product/solution?
My immediate guess is that it will do almost no good to have more readers, so the real answer to your question comes down to defining your audience.
A lot of marketers have recently become really caught up in metrics that by in large don’t mean all that much. I end up covering this with clients all the time that are worried about likes, followers and page views.
In the end I’m always trying to reel them back into what is most important. For your business that is getting as many of the “Right” eyeballs as possible to read your content.
So to answer your question in short, don’t worry for even a minute about writing content that is going to be pleasant for the general population if it doesn’t help those that are realistic buyers and advocates for your products and/or services.
Focus on writing content that helps your “niche” audience become better informed about how you help them solve their business problems and then seek to inspire them to take action by guiding them through the buying cycle. (This is what the new consumer wants)
How To Write For Your Target Audience
Here are a few simple tips to follow in writing for your target audience.
- Define who your potential customer is (demographic, vertical, geographic etc.)
- Understand their level of comprehension (technical, executive, general etc.)
- Write naturally, as if you are conversing with them face-to-face.
and here is one more simple piece of advice for the road.
In the B2B world, forget about metrics that don’t matter. Everything about your content campaign should revolve around building trust, relationships with your “Target” audience, and ultimately leading to conversions (sign-ups, engagements, sales and so on).
In this short video we discuss the important of being focused on your target audience
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Daniel Newman is the co-founder of V3*Broadsuite and is an experienced C-level executive, serving as a strategy consultant for small and mid-sized businesses. He’s also an insight/analyst partner to four Fortune 50 enterprises and previously served as the co-founder and CEO of EC3, a hosted IT and communications services provider. Prior to that, he served as the CEO of United Visual, Inc. in Chicago Illinois.
He is a widely published writer who contributes weekly to Forbes, Entrepreneur, Huffington Post and industry publications such as Commercial Integrator, Sound & Communication and Corporate Tech Decisions. He’s also author of three best-selling business books including The New Rules of Customer Engagement, The Millennial CEO, and just recently Evolve: Marketing (^as we know it) is Doomed.
Daniel has established a reputation as a leading thinker in topics such as Social, Big Data, Cloud and Mobile. He has been named to many top influencer lists in all of these areas, including recognition by the Huffington Post as one of the 100 business and leadership accounts to follow on Twitter. He is also an adjunct professor of management at North Central College.