How to Write Content that Appeals to Your Target Audience – A Community Chat #VCBuzz

Content creation is tough: You have to come up with interesting topics, do your research and write the way it stands out and engages.

Yet, there’s one mistake many writers do: They tend to only take themselves into consideration neglecting their target audience.

How to create content that appeals to your target audience?

Let’s discuss!

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Questions we discussed

Q1 How did you become a digital marketer? Please share your career story!

23 years as a Computer Tech @IBM – Fell into #PPC and specialized in that for 5.5 years. Switched to #Smallbusiness Marketing Strategy, writing, project management and community management. #vcbuzz https://t.co/ZLHqR1neMr
— Gail Gardner (@GrowMap) July 6, 2021

A1 English major who was going to become a college teacher but got into SEO instead and quit everything else! :))) #vcbuzz
— Ann Smarty (@seosmarty) July 6, 2021

A1: happy corporate copywriter until I met Ann. Then quit my cushy job and went freelance. Don’t regret it for a second … well, maybe a minute or hour 🙂 #vcbuzz
— Don Sturgill (@DonSturgill) July 6, 2021

It started a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away…
I grew up with computers, always been pulled in to IT,
went for web design, ended up picking up SEO … and UX/Ads etc …
… but I apply any/all knowledge from other jobs/roles (inc. sales, support, services etc.)#VCBuzz
— Lyndon NA (Darth Autocrat) (@darth_na) July 6, 2021

It is if you have Sales and Services, and read a lot 😀

I also try to learn from every client – not just their market, but their culture, processes and methods.
Over time, it adds up to be a fair bit of actionable insight.#VCBuzz
— Lyndon NA (Darth Autocrat) (@darth_na) July 6, 2021

Q2 When you are just choosing a topic for your article, how to identify what will interest your audience?

A2a If you have an established audience, you can poll them to find out what they want you to cover.

Or they may have already told you in the comments or interacting with you on social media. #vcbuzz https://t.co/JxtWLUQLE5
— Gail Gardner (@GrowMap) July 6, 2021

A2 I am an SEO, so I usually start with a keyword research! #vcbuzz
— Ann Smarty (@seosmarty) July 6, 2021

Q2: Ann taught an intersection method that is genius. Boost a related niche by tying it to a hot niche. #vcbuzz
— Don Sturgill (@DonSturgill) July 6, 2021

Main element will be provide solution driven content. Look around the queries/problems and write the best answer for them with the content form. How to guides, Q & A are great example of it. #vcbuzz
— Hiren vaghela (@hirendream) July 6, 2021

A2 I do a variety of searches on Google and some social channels and see what articles rank well. #vcbuzz
— Jon-Mikel Bailey (@JonMikelBailey) July 6, 2021

#VCBuzz A2.2

For Ideation – there’s no shortage of potential info/insight sources.
Q&A sites
Forums/communities
Google suggestions/search
Competitor content
Social content
Tools such as Buzzsumo etc.

The difficulty is finding topics that align with business and audience(s).
— Lyndon NA (Darth Autocrat) (@darth_na) July 6, 2021

#VCBuzz A2.5

It’s also worth doing other mediums/formats over time, as it may expend your appeal/reach to a broader/deeper audience, and can help reinforce your SEO (esp. if you interlink properly etc.)
😀
— Lyndon NA (Darth Autocrat) (@darth_na) July 6, 2021

As @darth_na says, it’s important to set a process whereby we start analysing the data we’ve got on different platforms , competitor analysis and what we’re already doing and how it is working #vcbuzz
— Montse Cano (@MontseCano) July 6, 2021

Q3 What lessons can a writer learn from their past content?

A3a By checking your analytics to see which of your content gets the most visits, you can get a better idea what kind of content your current readers are seeking. #vcbuzz https://t.co/hMkZxnFwB6
— Gail Gardner (@GrowMap) July 6, 2021

A3: how valuable a good editor is #vcbuzz
— Don Dingee (@don_dingee) July 6, 2021

A3c You can also do a Content Gap Analysis for #SEO to get more traffic to your site from the search engines. @SEJournal wrote about how in https://t.co/agXtvWT8HR #vcbuzz
— Gail Gardner (@GrowMap) July 6, 2021

Quick asses of engagement level, bounce rate, average time duration, comments and traffic stats. These are high level metrics which can help to identify content performance. #vcbuzz
— Hiren vaghela (@hirendream) July 6, 2021

A3a: oh, you meant in terms of writing stuff that performs ….

The first thing to understand is there’s a difference between your content being found, your content being read, and your content being acted on#vcbuzz
— Don Dingee (@don_dingee) July 6, 2021

A3 My favorite part of writing is the editing part. That’s where I really learn what bad habits I have and need to work on. Going back and looking at older posts can show me how much I’ve progressed and which bad habits seem more prevelant. #vcbuzz
— Jon-Mikel Bailey (@JonMikelBailey) July 6, 2021

A3 How much topics or industries have evolved! It’s interesting to look back at—and update—older content to see how much things have changed. Reviewing past content might give you fresh content ideas for today. #vcbuzz https://t.co/7sGTqMON94
— Jaime Shine ?️ (@jaimeshine) July 6, 2021

A3. Analyse your past contents and check which ones worked well, what were the major elements you added there?
Also check the worst ones where you went wrong, research well, work on those areas for improvement..#vcbuzz
— Amal Ghosh (@AmalGhosh3) July 6, 2021

#VCBuzz A3.2
Cont. >>>

* Author
* Timing
* Quantity/Quality of competition for those terms
* What it achieved (money, awareness, rankings etc.)
* Whether it is/was temporary/long-lived/sustained

Careful examination can help you see not only What worked, but Why.
— Lyndon NA (Darth Autocrat) (@darth_na) July 6, 2021

Q4 What are the most common content creation mistakes?

A4a Many bloggers and #smallbusiness sites start out writing about random topics.

Those don’t really help you develop your audience or server your customers (unless you’re just trying to figure out what niche you want to serve). #vcbuzz https://t.co/ZiNqWHbWl2
— Gail Gardner (@GrowMap) July 6, 2021

A4 Creating content without a clear understanding of the audience or their motivations and needs. #vcbuzz
— Jon-Mikel Bailey (@JonMikelBailey) July 6, 2021

A4: Writing what you want instead of what the audience wants. #vcbuzz
— Don Sturgill (@DonSturgill) July 6, 2021

Yes, everyone by now needs to be using sub-titles correctly. Anyone getting paid to write needs to learn how.

And personally, I like the #WP plugin that automatically creates an outline and links to each sub-title for you. Great for readers and #SEO. #vcbuzz https://t.co/BW5CpV4i3e
— Gail Gardner (@GrowMap) July 6, 2021

A4. Content creation mistakes:
? Creating content without a strategy.
? Pushing what you like without caring about what your audience wants.
? Not accepting feedback.
?Publishing content and not promoting it once it’s live.
? Always talking about your brand. #VCBuzz
— Teodora Ema Pirciu (@EmaPirciu) July 6, 2021

A4. Failing to spend enough time on research, proofreading, editing and optimising content for search engines, not for users are some of the common mistakes..#vcbuzz
— Amal Ghosh (@AmalGhosh3) July 6, 2021

#VCBUzz A4.2

And then, on top of those, we have common writing issues:
a) Poor knowledge of topic
b) Poor communication ability
c) Badd spelling
d) Grammar terrible
e) Not getting it properly proofed/edited
f) Not producing content on a “level” the audience is comfortable with
— Lyndon NA (Darth Autocrat) (@darth_na) July 6, 2021

A4) Not trackinh that content, not proofreading it, too many cooks in the kitchen when creating and uploading it #vcbuzz
— Montse Cano (@MontseCano) July 6, 2021

Q5 What are your favorite content creation and marketing tools?

A5: I’m liking @neilpatel Ubersuggest tool. #vcbuzz
— Don Sturgill (@DonSturgill) July 6, 2021

A5 I love Grammarly and Yoast’s readability tools. Also, and this might be weird to some, I use Notepad a lot. I just all my article ideas in there. I find it makes me focus more on the ideas and less on formatting, etc. It’s the core ingredients all in one place. #vcbuzz
— Jon-Mikel Bailey (@JonMikelBailey) July 6, 2021

A5 The #content tool I use most consistently is @BuzzSumo. They have a forever free version to get you started or if you don’t do much writing.

But the pro version is worth it if you do. #vcbuzz
— Gail Gardner (@GrowMap) July 6, 2021

Q5: Also love one from https://t.co/oH8wSHvCik … Keyword Researcher. #vcbuzz
— Don Sturgill (@DonSturgill) July 6, 2021

A5: Headline Studio by @CoSchedule is helpful in writing effective headlines: https://t.co/3rWCblmUit

(They have an email subject line tester as well.) #vcbuzz https://t.co/0dLsRCLH7H
— Jaime Shine ?️ (@jaimeshine) July 6, 2021