Who are you producing content for? A carefully described target group defines what to publish

Have you ever sent an email without knowing who you are sending it to? You probably usually know at least some individual things about the recipient: probably their name, and the reasons you are approaching them by email, such as their role in the company, what kind of things they work on or what they are interested in.

Sending an e-mail message to anyone at random would seem strange and pointless - if you don't know who will receive the message, why would you even send it?

When you know who you want to talk to and what they want to hear, you can send a message - or produce content - that really interests your target group and provides them with useful information. Without thinking about who you're producing content for, your marketing is hit-or-miss.

Don't leave the definition of target groups half-way - 3 steps of segmentation

The first step in defining the target group is to find out the demographic information of your customers. Age, gender, location and education level can give you a first idea of what your audience might look like.

Many leave their target group work at this first stage and then wonder if the whole thing was useful. In fact, this was really only the first step, a preliminary preparation for studying the target groups.

Demographic information about the target groups should be written down. You can already at this point divide your target groups into different segments - i.e. you can find out, for example, that one part of your target group is urban young adults that visit your store, but another important group are young mothers living in small towns who shop on your website.

When you have a rough idea who your target group or segment is based on the demographic characteristics, next think about what kind of problems or challenges your target audience faces. What kind of challenges they try to solve in their everyday life, what goes through their minds? Also: what goals do they pursue in life? What do they appreciate, what do they dislike, what kind of conversations do they have with their friends and acquaintances?

After you have described your target group a little more precisely with the help of these questions, you can move on to thinking about how you can help them achieve these goals or solve their problems. Now we are at the content topics.

So here are the three steps of segmentation:

1. Demographic factors - list as many segments as you can think of

2. Find out the interests, values, goals, problems and challenges of each segment

3. List by segment how you can solve their challenges and help them reach their goals

Once the target group is defined and the segments are ready, you can start planning the contents. Take a look, for example, here, how to start content planning.

When the target group is known, you know how to choose the right style and channels

Understanding your target audience helps define the right tone and style for your content. You can conclude from the interests of your target group and the challenges they are looking to solve, whether they value, for example, a matter-of-fact and fact-focused style, or a relaxed and conversational style. Of course, this is also affected by the service you offer: insurance should probably be presented more seriously than party supplies.

Defining the target group also helps you choose the right channels for publishing and sharing your content. For example, people in their thirties can be found best on Instagram these days, on the other hand, young professionals also spend time on LinkedIn for work matters.

Finally, defining your target audience will help you monitor and analyze the effectiveness of your content. You can see, for example, from the visitor data of your social media channels and websites, whether you are reaching the right people. When you know who you want to reach, you can also set clear metrics and goals to evaluate the success of your content. You can track engagement, conversions and other important metrics that help you evaluate how your content resonates with your target audience.

Defining the target group is therefore an essential part of content marketing. It helps you create relevant, useful and targeted content that engages your target audience. When you understand the needs and desires of your target group, you can build a strong relationship with them by producing content that they enjoy working with or from which they get important information.

Are you still wondering how to get started? Send me a message and let's see together who you should start publishing content to!