Content is king but is it relevant to your audience?

© John Schnobrich via Unsplash.

I have come across start-ups that have no idea what type of content they need to share to drive a certain goal. Gone are the days when adverts used to be just adverts, today adverts are content, and they need to be relevant. “Content is King”, is the most common phrase in the media industry but it is also the most misused. Yes, content is king but is it relevant? How do you then create content that is most suitable for your audience and generates the results you are looking for?

What is the message you want to communicate?

The first thing you need to ask, why are we creating this content? What message do we want to communicate? There are several reasons why you may want to create content, but before you do it be sure about what message you want to send across and why that message specifically.

Is it to drive sales or for brand awareness or a tutorial on how to use a product or it is an advert or for entertainment? There are different types of content so you will need to be sure about that before you do anything you even start.

What do I want to achieve by saying this?

When you are now sure about your message, you move on to the goal. What do I want to achieve by saying this and how do I say it in order to achieve my goal?

Most of the time I have come to realise that we just write blog posts, we design graphics and post on social media, content that has zero contribution to your goals. You end up scoring an own goal. If it is a blog post and it is meant to increase sales, the way you word your post should be convincing enough for someone to want to buy your product.

Who is my target audience?

When you sit down to plan on what you want to say and the goal you would like to achieve and how you want to say it, you should know who you are targeting. Your target market should have a lot of influence on the way you are going to create and deliver your message.

There is a certain way you communicate to teens and a certain way you communicate to pensioners and all this must come into consideration when you are creating your content. When publishing you need to know if your audience is online or not? This helps to avoid firing shots in the dark.

How do I publish my content?

How do we say it in order to get the response we are aiming for? How you publish your content is crucial. If you are aiming to invoke emotion you may find that either a video or written word may work better than a brochure.

If you are advertising clothes a brochure with different colours, sizes and a price will work better, no one wants to rewind over and over again just to get the price, people want to be sure. The method by which your content is published matters a lot. It is that which determines the results. A lot of planning is needed when developing a content strategy.

Which platforms do I use to communicate?

Last on your strategy should be your channels of communication. With social media readily available, a lot of content is getting lost somewhere in the algorithms. Though it is great that we have social media, it has also become a hub of content thus making it difficult for your message to reach your intended audience.

If you are creating content for social media, you might have to go an extra mile. When mapping out your content strategy, make sure that you know how you will be conveying your message to your audience, that way you create content for that platform.