The primary purpose of your content is to engage your audience.
To do this, you have to offer what they want to read, not simply what you’d like to write about.
So, how do you offer a consistent flow of information that your audience will read and love?
There’s an easy trick and if you keep this in mind, you’ll never run out of great ideas.
Solve your audience members’ problems.
How Does Your Audience Look for Information?
Put yourself in your audience members’ shoes.
You have a difficult problem and you’re looking for help.
No matter what you do, you just can’t find a solution.
You’d naturally search online to find answers to this question.
How would you feel if you found a piece of content that offered a simple, easy-to-understand solution?
How much better would you feel if you could try that solution right now?
Finally, what would you think if your got immediate results?
How would you feel about the person or company who delivered that solution?
You’d remember where you found the information and see what else they have to offer.
This is the kind of reaction you want to get from your content.
The next step is to keep this person with you and start to build a relationship.
Again, think about your audience’s perception.
Once they start following you, they come to see you as a go-to source for help with similar or related problems.
They know they can find the help they need from your content.
Learn About Your Audience and Their Problems
To be able to solve your customers’ problems, the first step is to get to know them.
Start by creating a target customer profile.
This is sometimes know as your “customer avatar”.
Think of your customer avatar as a fictional character that represents your ideal customer.
It’s like creating an imaginary friend – except this one pays for your products or services.
Creating a customer avatar involves getting to know all the juicy details about who they are.
- What age range do they fall into?
- Are they married?
- Do they have kids?
- What kind of job do they have?
- What hobbies and interests do they enjoy?
And most importantly, what kind of problems are they experiencing that your product or service can solve?
The best way to create this avatar, and keep learning about your audience is to research them online.
Find out where your audience hang out and connect with them there.
Follow them on social media and read their comments.
You can also reach out to them and ask about their goals and challenges.
Pay especially close attention to problems they face and questions they ask.
Make a list and see if you can provide solutions through your content.
Building a Relationship with Your Audience
You don’t have to solve every problem your audience faces through your free content, and you can’t.
But if you can provide a bit of help that they can try and get immediate results, you can then start building a relationship with them.
Continue to provide the help they need and somewhere down the line, they’ll buy from you when they need it.
Call to Action
Each piece of content should include a call-to-action.
It tells your audience where you offer further free content and other types of help.
Ask them to connect with you on social media, sign up for your email list, or download your free information product.
Keep them engaged through helpful content and you’ll develop a strong relationship that will ultimately lead to sales.
