Targeted content: what it is and why it should matter to your business

Did you know that about 400 hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute? Every 60 seconds on Facebook, 510,000 comments are posted, 293,000 statuses are updated, and 136,000 photos are uploaded. 100 million hours of video content are watched on Facebook daily. To date, more than 1 million members have published content on LinkedIn.

We know what content is and based on these statistics, there is an alarming amount of it being posted every second, every minute, and every hour of each day.

We are drowning in content. In fact, on Instagram, 70% of posts don’t get seen at all. While Instagram boasts the highest engagement rates, it also deals with content overload and saturation.

And this is exactly why we are seeing the rise of targeted content. Marketers can no longer just build a content marketing strategy, execute it, walk away, and expect people to come. To be heard above all the noise, content has to be strategically targeted at a specified group of people who are the most likely to convert.

What is targeted content exactly?

Targeted content is content that’s been created specifically for a defined subset of your general audience otherwise known as a persona. Armed with insight into what makes your persona tick, you can create meaningful content that has been designed to elicit a specific response from them.

It starts with defining your target audience and identifying what type of content they are looking for, what has worked in the past, and what didn’t do so well. When you know what type of keywords your prospects are using to look for the solutions to their problems, create content with those keywords.

And when you know what type of content your persona is demanding more of, be ready to deliver it. So your content bombed and was left ignored? Study the reasons why and avoid committing similar mistakes in the future. Remember that number of likes doesn’t determine a post’s success alone; engagement such as comments and shares paint a more accurate picture and gives you more insight.

Why targeted content should matter to you

If you want to see your sales increase and your customers more satisfied, content that caters to their personas is the way to effectively achieve that.

People naturally ignore content that they don’t feel speaks directly to them. After all, there’s no sense in consuming content that doesn’t address their needs or offers them solutions to their problems. What they will pay attention to is content that applies to their immediate concerns and gives them answers to their burning questions.

And when your audience finds your content to be relevant and useful, they are more likely to share it with their network, making it perform better in online search results. With improved search results, you get to enjoy an increase in brand awareness and visibility which highlights you as an industry leader.

Think that targeted content marketing doesn’t matter to you? If your bottom line is to make more sales, it should. When you understand your target prospect’s interests, you are more equipped to meet them and tailor your content to provide the best message that will give them a highly-personalised and memorable experience. And when your audience is happy and trusts your brand, they are more likely to convert into paying customers who will go on to maintain a lasting brand relationship with you.