Skip to content
(314) 849-6969 (314) 849-6969

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

Today we are going to be discussing “7 Tips For Creating A Content Strategy that speaks directly to your ideal customer. If you have any questions contact Matchbox Design Group Today.

Creating content in the age of AI is not much different than before. While you are able to rely on intelligent and informed assistance, to succeed at content marketing, you still need to create a strategy that speaks to your ideal customer and their needs.

Here are seven tips for designing and executing a plan to help you reach new leads, establish trust, and boost your brand authority. 

Understand Your Audience’s Pain Points

Your first step is to understand the problems, however big or small, your audience is trying to solve. 

This means you will need to conduct some common-sense research. What is it that you offer, and how does it help your audience? What are they currently doing to solve the issue? What can you offer that will make it easier for them? 

Put yourself in your customers’ shoes, and approach your content from there. What could you say or do that will make them want to convert?

Investing.io is an excellent example of doing this right. They not only found a hole to fill in the market, they also found the words to shine a light on it. A newsletter designed by entrepreneurs turned investors, their pages speak directly about the pain point: there is no other community like it.

A home for entrepreneurs. 7 Tips For Creating A Content Strategy.

Source: investing.io

They don’t beat about the bush trying to sell themselves to everyone and anyone. They are very clear about who their audience is, what they are missing, and how their solution will help.

Understand Their Knowledge Level

The other thing you need to know about your target audience is how much they know about the pain point itself or the various ways to solve it. Sometimes you’ll find that your leads aren’t as informed as they could be, so you will have to educate them first and convert them second. On the other hand, if they are very familiar with the issue, you will need to tailor your tone of voice and language to accommodate their experience.

Let’s look at another great example. Trustshoring has created three distinct services for three types of clients. They have then gone the extra mile and tailored their content to each of these ideal customer personas.

Understand Their Knowledge Level.

Source: trustshoring.com

Not only are the individual landing pages written so that they speak directly to the customer and demonstrate an understanding of the main issue. Their blog is also filled with content that aims to educate these different lead segments. The posts use different language and jargon, either explaining an issue in-depth or diving straight into the finicky details of software development, depending on the target readership. 

Help Them Find What They Need

An often overlooked aspect of content strategy is website navigation and internal linking. Sure, you have created all of this amazing content. But since you are never going to rank on the first page for all of it, how are your customers supposed to find it? 

By creating a clever navigational scheme, you can make it much easier to find and enjoy interconnected content. Internal linking will also help you not only pass on link equity but also improve time on-site and engagement rates.

Startup Resources is a good example of implementing this tactic effectively. Their categories page is very well thought out and helps readers delve into precisely the subjects they are interested in. The categories themselves have also been cleverly chosen, and they target the specific topics of interest and pain points of the brand’s readers.

Help Them Find What They Need.

Source: startupresources.io

Create Topic Clusters

Speaking of connecting your content, don’t forget to create topic clusters when planning out your strategy. It will help you establish yourself as an authoritative and relevant source on smaller topics, and it will give your readers plenty to read when they visit your website.

Start with a pillar post: the main topic you are writing about. Then consider all the topics that might interest readers, and come up with a list of questions they may naturally ask. Cover all of these topics in separate articles, make sure to interlink them, and include your clusters in your newsletters. 

Surfer SEO does a good job with clustering. Currently, they are covering topics related to hiring and selling SEO services. They’ve written about finding clients, creating reports, and choosing an SEO agency. 

By targeting both sides of the same content coin, so to speak, they are establishing themselves as a go-to resource, as well as naturally giving their readers more to read and more to learn. 

Offer Various Content Formats

When planning your content strategy, make sure not to limit yourself to written content alone. While it can be very challenging to produce video or audio content, diversifying your formats can be incredibly beneficial. 

You will be able to reach new audiences that way, as well as make yourself more present. The various content formats will help you speak about the same topics in different ways, and you can leverage the research you do for your blog posts to create videos or infographics, for example. 

Hubspot is a great example of a brand that has managed to diversify its content without losing quality. They have a blog that is highly regarded in the industry, they run a vibrant YouTube channel, and they also host several interesting podcasts.

Offer Various Content Formats

Source: hubspot.com

Of course, you don’t need to go all out like them, especially if you have a smaller content team. You can adopt one new format, like the short, and slowly build on it as your brand grows. 

Let Your Customers Speak For You

Don’t forget to include user-generated content in your strategy too. It’s a great way to add another layer of credibility to your website. Customers will always trust a recommendation more than they trust anything a brand has to say about their own work, so bolstering up your claims with reviews or testimonials is a great tactic. 

Make sure to carefully choose which client blurbs you want to highlight. You don’t want to sound too good to be true, even if the compliments are coming from a customer. Instead, try to choose the ones that would most directly speak to your audience: coming from someone who they admire, connect with, or respect. 

SellerPlex did a good job with their choice of testimonials. They all come from business owners and entrepreneurs who can show exactly how the brand has helped them succeed. Adding video testimonials is also a great touch, as it helps visitors connect with the speaker even more.

Let Your Customers Speak For You.

Get Them Involved

Finally, you also want to incorporate some form of interactive content that will get your readers involved and engaged. Make sure it is directly tied to your business, though, and not just a random quiz or infographic that you created for the sake of interactivity. 

16Personalities have done a great job with their surveys, for example. They know their readers will want to learn more about their personality type but also actively participate in research about the type’s habits and eccentricities. 

They are then able to use the results from said surveys to create even more content. They routinely publish new findings and send them out to their subscribers via the rare but compelling newsletter. 

Wrapping Up 

Consider these seven tips before you resume planning and creating content for your brand. While they are not flashy or fascinating, they can help you speak directly to your target audience, help them find what they are looking for, and ultimately convert them to paying long-term customers.

You should now have a better understanding of these 7 Tips For Creating A Content Strategy that speaks directly to the appropriate customer.

Contact Matchbox Design Group Today!

If your website could use a refresh or you’re looking to drive more traffic to your site, fill out the form below and we’ll contact you to learn more about your digital needs.