Consumers are looking for content that caters to their interests. Many marketers use content marketing to attract more visitors and convert them. However, if the content is not what their audience is looking for then there are very few chances of content giving the desired result. Marketers might write content intended to help them rank better on Google’s search engine results page. But in doing so they overlook their audience. Marketers should focus on user intent before creating any type of content. Content personalization can make it easier for them to reach their target audience and make an impact on them.
Irrelevant content is often ignored by consumers. Consumers know exactly what they are looking for. They also have a short attention span. Which means they will not waste time on content that is not useful to them. To get your user’s attention and continue to keep them interested, you need content personalization. Marketers think they are personalizing their content but sometimes they might get sidetracked. In this article, we will discuss how you can personalize your content to reach your target customers.
First, here are some statistics that illustrate the importance of content personalization.
How to personalize Content?
Gather Data
Gathering data on your target audience is an important first step. This will help you figure out what type of demographics and psychographics you are targeting. While developing your products or services you already know which audiences you want to target. To create your content for them you would need to take an in-depth look at their hobbies, interests, pain points and search queries.
To gather this intel, you can take a look at your direct competitors. Look at their social media platforms, website content, ads or any other form of content strategy they are using. If they are successful in these efforts means they are creating relevant content for their target market. Social media platforms can help you see the amount of likes or comments each of their posts has. More engagement would clearly indicate the success of their content strategy.
Another way is to look at all the organic keywords they are using on their website. Researching about these keywords would give you a fair understanding of what your users are searching for. If your competitor has a blog, you can look at the type of keywords they are using. This can give you an insight into what type of blog content you can write to influence your buyers.
Create Buyer Personas
Buyer personas are fictional representations of your target customer. Creating a buyer persona will help you analyse and target the right customers. You can build buyer personas based on the demographic and psychographics of your ideal customer. Through buyer persona you can determine what age group, location, occupation, interests etc., you are targeting. Most importantly you need to look at the buying habits of your customers. You can use analytics to identify the touchpoints your customers had before converting.
For example, your buyer persona is 20-30-year old working professionals and tech savvy individuals who love to shop online. They are active on various social media platforms and follow brands for inspiration. They are most likely to click on social media ads that will take them directly to the product page of a website.
Having buyer personas can make it easier for you to develop a customized content strategy. You will know what type of content your customers prefer and which channels they use. Considering the above stated example, if the majority of your customers prefer social media then you can create engaging posts to attract them. Also invest in social media ads which can help you send more traffic to your website.
Carry out an in-depth research on the preferences of your target audience and build your personas accordingly. This can make it easier for you to develop your personalized content strategy.
Planning to create a Content Marketing Strategy for your business? Click here to find out more about building a successful content strategy.
Buyer’s Journey
Content is also personalized based on the buyer’s journey. Every customer is different. They might interact with your brand in different ways and be on different buyer stages. A buyer’s journey consists of awareness, consideration and decision. You cannot use the same content for all three stages. You need content specific to each stage which can help your customers reach the final stage. Hence, when you build your content strategy you need to create content for all these stages.
For example, you can use a blog to attract a customer. If the customer has engaged with your website and opted in for a newsletter, you can proceed to nurture this lead. You can use email marketing campaigns to stay in touch with this customer by providing them with more information they need on your products. If the customer purchases your product you can send them an email to ask them how their experience was with your brand.
You can also create content and offer it as a free resource in exchange for the user’s content information. This type of content can help you get potential leads you can nurture. Even after a customer has converted you can keep sending updates on upcoming products or services. Ask them to give reviews and rate their experience which will make them feel that their opinion is important to you. You can expect to build long-term relationships with your customers with these types of content.
Keep Updating Your Content
It is a good practice to review your content strategy frequently. Take a look at what content had more impact on your customers. If your customers did not engage with a particular type of content, you can always update it. Also, look at how frequently you are posting your content or communicating with customers. For example, if you are sending emails every day and your customers are not engaging often maybe you can tone down. Send emails once a week. This will save you from losing them.
You can also review the keywords you use. Consumer’s search queries are always changing. It is a good idea to look at trending topics or queries you can use in your content. Analyze social media insights to understand how your followers are engaging with your posts. Post more topics they are interested in. Updating and improving your content can help you stay relevant to your customers.
Personalized content is all about creating the content your customers want. The key here is to look at the interests and preferences of your customers. Create content with your customers in mind and you will never run into a risk of being irrelevant. Don’t just create content to rank better on Google’s search engine. Keep your target customers at the heart of your content strategy.
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