5 Tips For Content Writing That Hits The Target Market
Posted by John Henderson on Mon, Jul 25, 2011
Creating content has become an invaluable tool for establishing relationships and providing value to any target market. The biggest problem that can occur during the content writing process is simply not understanding what will really grab the attention of the target market.
It doesn't matter how well written or inspired the content is if the audience isn't interested. Nobody likes to hang out with the person who is always talking, but never says anything interesting - the same true for reading website content. Here are 5 tips for writing content that will hit the target market right between the eyes.
1. You Can't Engage With People You Don't Understand
If you don't really understand the information consumption habits of your target market, then it is arrogant (or just silly) to think that you have some magical insight into their mind. Fortunately, learning about them doesn't take very much effort. One of the best things to do is to take a look at the top 5 websites within that niche with which your potential audience actively engages with.
You should focus on the tone of the writing (relaxed or professional), depth of analysis provided, and even what format they prefer. With some markets, the best websites are blogs that post new content every few days, whereas other markets like static websites, articles, or e-zines/newsletters.
Maybe you will need to pair your content with a video or podcast. To quickly increase the effectiveness of your content writing, start to learn more about how your target market prefers to consume the type of information you are providing.
2. Start With the Buyer and Work Backwards
Another method to really connect your content with whoever your target market might be is to work backwards. Start out by looking at the products that appear to be the most popular. From there, start to identify what content is driving people to those particular products. This will allow you to identify the influencers within the market and what type of content they use to grab the audiences attention and convince them to take action.
3. Leverage Social Topics
If you are in a position where your content writing spans multiple markets then you may not have the time to really dig deep into each of them. This is often the case for content creators who work with multiple clients who are all in different niches or don't focus on building long-term clients. When this happens, the best place to start is social media sites. By tapping into the current conversations, you can pinpoint exactly what the target market wants to find out and then create the content needed to draw their attention.
4. Feel Their Pain and Enjoy Their Pleasure
Every market has its own problems and pleasures that you can leverage to make sure that your content more compelling. It doesn't matter if you're creating a sales copy or just writing a standard information-based article. You need to give your market a reason to listen to what you are saying and nothing gets to their attention faster than indulging their own emotions.
People inherently bond with others in the same state of mind. Sports fans are great example of this – they cheer, scream, and cry with total strangers, all because they bond over a single interest – their team. Fans will even start a conversation with strangers on the street because of the logo on their hat.
5. But They Didn't Tell You...
For content writing that really hits the target market, nothing is easier than using what competing websites are already saying. All you have to do is take it one step further and add an additional, valuable piece of your own information. You are essentially recapping content that has already proven to connect with the target market and then position yourself as the “bigger giver” by saying “Buy what the competition didn't tell you was...”
This strategy leverages content that has already proven itself as winner and simultaneously gaining trust from the target audience because you gave them “that little extra” that others didn't.
In order for the content writing process to be effective, you need to know a lot more than how to write. You need to know how to create compelling content that will build trust with a specific audience. By adding just a few of these 5 tips to your pre-writing ritual, you can rest assured that your content writing hits the target market every time.