What Your Audience Wants
3 questions to ensure you’re creating the right content for your users
So, you know you need content.
You know that it helps with SEO, is a necessary tool for branding and a requisite for appealing to younger customers.
But what should your content be, exactly?
Many businesses make the mistake of simply writing about what they know or what they’re good at.
But this isn’t the best approach.
There’s a simple way to make sure you’re writing the best possible content for your audience, and not wasting anyone’s time.
And it only takes 3 questions.
Let’s Get Started
1. Who are your users?
The first step in creating an effective content strategy is to identify who you are producing content for.
If you have not already, write out the different profile categories that you could fit your users into. (I’d recommend actually doing this exercise on note-cards or Post-Its.) Maybe you cater to medical professionals around the world, or millennials living in major European and American cities, or entrepreneurs in South Asian countries.
This task is easier if you personally know your clients or can use actual people as examples.
To make this a little more concrete, let’s use AirBnB as an example.
Who are their users?
There are two types of users: Guests and Hosts.
Once you’ve nailed down who you’re writing for, ask yourself:
2. Why are they your users?
For each group you’ve identified above, you should be also be able to identify a motivation or goal that brings them to your product or service.
Let’s return to the AirBnB example, and jot down some potential motivations for both user categories:
Guests
- Want less expensive accommodation
- Want a different or more authentic experience
- Want accommodations for a large group
Hosts
- Want to make extra income
- Want to meet new people
- Want to make money off of their home while they travel
3. What information are they looking for?
Lastly, identify what questions may come up as each group of users from step 1 tries to achieve the goal you’ve identified in step 2. What information might they need or be looking for to do so?
Turning to AirBnB one last time, we can guess that their users may be looking for or wondering:
Guests
Want less expensive accommodation
- How to travel on a budget?
- Inexpensive travel destinations?
- Best destinations for young travelers or students?
Want a different or more authentic experience
- Recommendations for experiences in different cities around the world?
- How to avoid tourist traps in different cities?
Want accommodations for a group
- Organizing checklist for when traveling in a group?
- Tips for traveling on major holidays?Hosts
Want to make some extra income
- Best practices when hosting through AirBnB?
- Host success stories?
Want to meet new people
- Stories about the AirBnB community?
- Connections people have made through AirBnB?
Want to make money off of their room while they travel
- Best cities to visit this year?
- Roundup of best AirBnB listings available now?
If you’re having trouble thinking of potential questions or want to double check your assumptions (which is a always good idea), figure out how users are finding your business. Are they entering specific questions or key terms in a search engine? Or looking at a specific hashtag on social media? These results can definitively tell you what information your users want and how your business fits into their search.
Now, Turn These Answers Into Content
The answer to each question that you identified in step 3 is a great starting place for content that demonstrates your expertise while remaining relevant and interesting to your audience.
