Get to know your online customers

VIEW TRANSCIPT

Everyone is different, so when it comes to creating online content it’s good to think about who your audience is, and what they want to know. This is where audience segmentation can help.

In this lesson, we’ll explain what audience segmentation is and how it can be used to improve your content marketing campaigns.

Segmentation involves dividing your audience into groups of who they are and what they like. Rather than spending time and money targeting a wide range of people, segmentation helps to identify the groups most interested in your product or service. The result is a more cost effective and persuasive way to connect with potential customers.

By researching your audience and segmenting them into groups, you can then create specific content that excites, entertains and engages them.

For example, imagine a new dog walking business building its content marketing strategy. The first step would be to segment potential audiences and identify who would benefit from its service: this could be busy dog owners who don’t have enough time to walk their dog, or people who want to socialise their pet with other dogs.

The next step would be to create content with that specific group in mind. For the busy dog owners segment, this could include helpful content about puppy boredom busters, or a guide on how much daily exercise is ideal for certain breeds.

But why exactly is audience segmentation so important when creating and distributing content?

Understanding the habits and preferences of an audience can help you target content directly to that specific group of people.

For example, if you’re looking to launch a new dog teeth-cleaning gadget, and your website analytics reveal that young men are statistically more

interested in buying dog gadgets than other demographics, this would suggest you should target your content to this group.

Another benefit is being able to pinpoint audience behaviour and using this information to refine your marketing approach. Now that you know young men are interested in dog gadgets, you could research a step further and find out how often this segment walks their pets and at what time of day. Try to answer: What social channels does this group use? What do they do with their free time? For example, people who enjoy the visual nature of a social media platform like Pinterest are likely to prefer different content to those who like to read and contribute to forums. All this information can provide value when it comes to creating tailored content for this group.

To get insights into what people search for, try free online tools like Answer The Public and Keyword Planner. You also can utilise analytics features on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to get a glimpse of audience demographics and behaviours. Experiment with a number of tools and compare results to get a more complete picture of who your audience is, and how they behave online.

Finally, don’t forget to talk to people. It may be easy to forget in this online world, but connecting with people face to face can yield some truly unique insights into who they are and what they need.

To wrap up, here are some questions for you to contemplate:

• why is audience segmentation so important in content marketing?

• how can it help brands when creating and distributing content?

• and which tools can you explore to better understand your audience?