We’ve talked about whom you should be talking to and how you should be talking to them in the past, but today I want to talk about what you should be saying to your audience.
What does your audience want to know?
Once you’ve figured out who your target audience is you need to make sure that the content that you’re creating is what they actually want to be receiving.
This can be far more difficult than it sounds because most of us have a tendency to explain things as if we’re talking to our peers. However, our potential customers aren’t our peers and that usually means we need to take at least two giant steps back before we start trying to explain anything.
Start at the beginning
While this isn’t true for every client base, a lot of the time what you need to do when creating content for your audience is make sure that you’re breaking things down for them into easy to understand and digestible pieces of information.
If you are a personal trainer you may want to explain the reasons why exercise can help a person feel better, stronger, and healthier instead of talking about the science behind how a body will feel better when consistently active. Most people ready to make a change would feel intimidated (or bored) by anything too scientific.
If you’re a web site designer who works with business owners who don’t feel comfortable with technology, you may want to talk about the merits of different kinds of sites, the importance of having a web site at all, or how to make simple changes to your own site but you wouldn’t want to create tutorials on how to do code your own web site.
Or maybe in the middle
I’m not suggesting that everything needs to be dumbed down. If what you specialize in requires people to have a certain level of knowledge, then you don’t have to start at the beginning, but chances are, you need to still take a few steps back from where you currently are.
If you are a lawyer who deals in real estate law and you are creating content for realtors, then you know that you can use the language that realtors know, but you shouldn’t use legal language because your audience isn’t lawyers.
What do you want them to know?
You want to create content that demonstrates your expertise and help lead your potential clients towards purchasing what you sell. With that in mind, what kind of content can you create that will help you do those things?
Think about the things you get asked when people are inquiring about your business. Think about all the information you think people need to know before making a decision about whether or not to work with you. Jot down 4-5 things. If the answers to those questions aren’t on your web site right now, you have the topics for four or five blog posts or videos (at least) and the answers you give people to those questions are your draft content.
What do you think your audience wants to hear about?