Understanding Audiences is Core to Reach Them Online

Digital Media has erased the geographical boundaries and now communities can interact across the globe freely. But, the audience is transformed formally, from passive recipients of information to participative citizens. Now, the writers need to understand the mindset of the audience more deeply than ever before. In this tidal wave of content, people have no time, they are very busy. It is you to understand the audience, as it’s the core to reach them online, as a result, create the strategy for content writing.

Under this environment, to create an effective content marketing strategy, the biggest challenge to the content strategist is as:

• How your organization should Communicate effectively, the central story, to the people?
• What media fits into the life of recipients of information, as they have very less time?
• Where and when to communicate these media?
• How to communicate these media?

To achieve all this, you need to understand the concept of media engagement. The reader’s engagement with a particular brand is the outcome of experiences, which he obtained while going through the media. Furthermore, the key element for audiences, are the experiences that keep them, remain engaged with a particular brand.

To describe it further, the experience is the relationship between the media and audience, built over a period of time because of usefulness and relevance.

We mostly find people, talking about the phrase “media engagement”. For media engagement, you need to understand, two basic ingredients, first are Audience and the second is Experiences.

Audience and Experiences

Although, you craft the media, to reach the audience and for the audience. But they will absorb your media on some pretext, and that is the experience. The experience will generate the reason for the audience to interact with your media if it fits their life. Anyway, Experiences should be:

• Relevant and meaningful.
• And the right set of experiences for your target audience.

It is not possible for any media brand to offer a different set of experiences in one place, as they will end up succeeding with none. Therefore, once you have understood the audience, only then you can create a concept, stating as, what the content should mean, to its readers or viewers?

With this concept statement in mind, create the mission. The mission must have the promise, which you are about to fulfill with the audience. If the promise is fulfilled, your audience will remain engaged with your brand. Craft the content in line with your concept, which is already directing you as to what experiences you want to give to the audience.

Forms of Experiences

Depending on the target audience you have, experiences could be of many many forms, but I will concentrate on the following few:-

• Identity Experience.
• Inspiration Experience.
• Talk about and share Experience.
• Civic Experience.
• Utilitarian Experience.
• Time out Experience.

Actually, the process of experiences, which you are going to offer in your content starts, with the understanding of audiences. So, the core remains the audience.

• Who are they?
• Lifestyles as, what are their lives like?
• What are their goals?
• Their aspiration?

Before you craft any content, you must understand that there are no mass audiences. First of all, you determine the target audience and establish, what they are motivated to learn, not what they want to know. People will only, attend to those topics and pay attention if they are motivated to learn.

Let’s take the example of Facebook, they have a large no of audiences but they all are not in the same group. They are different in needs and desires. Old people like to have different content than the younger ones. but all are using the same forum on Facebook.

Segment audience by Interest, Needs & Social Identification

First of all, understand the lifestyle, behavior, and attitude of your audience, so that, you can project what they need, even if they don’t know what they need. Therefore, be ahead of people in understanding their needs. With this knowledge of their psychographic needs and demographics, create a persona. Personas are archetypes of individuals, made on the basis of research, not just assuming. Interview the people, follow their interest in the day, how they behave? what is their attitude? talk to them, understand them what they value the most, and so on?

In addition, find out and understand, how your audiences spend their time? What they are doing at different times during the day? and how best you can meet their needs? Personify the people, so as to understand the very center of your target.

Importance of Content with Regard to Audience

Finally, understanding the audiences you want to reach through your content is very important. It may be Content Strategy or Content Marketing. While with any type of content, audiences remain the center point.

Just to differentiate and explain the phrases of content strategy and content marketing,

“Content Strategy is crafted to for the targeted audiences to be better informed and be smart while Content Marketing is crafted to derive the prospect to take certain action”.

Whatever the motive it may be, people want and need the content;

• In the ways credible, trustworthy, and transparent.
• Where, When, and how they want.

Whereas, to reach the target audiences to communicate your message in an expressing way;

• Deliver value to improve audiences.
• It is so effectively crafted so that it enhances the value in the lives of people.
• People accept the content which is in the context and it is convenient.

Always keep John’s three truths in mind when crafting the content for your audience:

• Truth-1 Tidal wave ( The Content is all around you have to create the content which value in the lives of people)
• Truth-2 No More time ( Everybody is busy, nobody has a minute to waste)
• Truth-3 More Complicated (How to reach the Audience. Where, When, and How).

Take Away:- If you want to engage your audience, understand them, Create Experiences for them. An experience is a Powerful tool, It Attracts the Audience.