Content Marketing Basics – Know Your Audience

Simone Schuurer

Content Marketing & Social Media Manager

Bing Ads Product Marketing

Microsoft

Agenda

I. Content

II. Audience segmentation

III. Content planning

IV. Create and connect

V. Recap – things to do today

VI. Questions?

Content

How the need for content has changed

Valuable, relevant and consistent content

How the need for content has changed

Marketers used to create content when there was an internal need to and they had fewer ways to share that message with that audience. So far so easy to manage.

Today that model is almost unrecognisable not in the least because of the rise of social, local and mobile technologies (SoLoMo) Social media doesn’t ‘do’ one-way conversations. Customers talk to brands and organisations just as publically as marketers used to talk to their audiences.

This almost naturally changes the nature of how brands and organisations communicate with their audiences – they are always ‘on’ as customers don’t only talk to you when you have a new ‘5-door-le-car’ to sell.

There is an almost constant need for content which has some clear benefits: it helps drive traffic to their website, helps with their SEO rankings and helps nurture existing relations to mention a few.

This need also poses a challenge – how to create constant content for this audience that is engaging?

Valuable, relevant and consistent content

From the Content Marketing Institute:

A key part of content marketing is creating and distributing valuable relevant content to acquire a clearly defined audience. To know if your content is relevant you need to know who your audience is or who your audiences are – and what they need.

Before you start looking at different types of content and formats it is important to know whom you are writing for.

Audience segmentation

Defining your audiences

Classic ways to define audiences

Example: Bing Ads geographical targeting

Example: Bing Ads behavioural targeting

Example of Bing Ads vertical (+geo) targeting

Example: Engaging woodland owners – audience segmentation

Surveys

Example: Bing Ads survey questions

Creating personas

Defining your audiences

Classic ways to define audiences

• Nations, regions, cities

even postcode areas. At

Bing Ads we have different

language blogs that carry

market and audience

relevant information.

Geographic

• Age, gender, the amount

of income, the ethnicity or

religion of the market and

the family life cycle.

Demographic

• Knowledge of, attitude

towards, usage rate or

response to a product

Behavioural

Source:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Market_segmentation

• Activities, interests, and

opinions of customers. It

considers how people

spend their leisure and

which external influences

they are most responsive

to and influenced by.

Lifestyle

• Benefits sought by the

consumer or according to

perceived benefits which a

product/service may

provide.

Benefits

Classic ways to define audiences

• In the widest sense of

the word – think also of

on what devices people

consume information,

how they access

content.

Media

consumption

• Some companies look

at things like spend,

savings (banks) or what

sort of things someone

buys to target with

relevant content.

Customer

profile

• It can make sense to

approach your

audience by vertical

(insights, offers etc.)

By vertical

Example of geographical targeting

Examples of behavioural targeting

Examples of vertical (+ geo) targeting

Surveys

Bing Ads example

Who follows us

on social

media? How often

do people

visit our

blog?

Which % of

visitors is a

customer?

Do they use

the

competitor

too?

Which %

of visitors

shares

content?

What country

do visitors

come from?

Who are our

social

influencers?

Which % of

visitors works

for or owns a

small business?

Which % of

visitors works for

an agency or

large business?

Creating personas

Personas* are fictional representations of people that represent different segments of your audience. Part based on facts such as their demographic characteristics and part based on an educated speculation on their histories, motivations and concerns.

You don’t need personas to create targeted content for segments of your audience but it can help to continue to put yourself in their shoes and it can help to stay on course if there are multiple people or teams creating content.

If you don’t have the resources to do an in-depth segmentation as shown before personas can also be a ‘light’ way of segmenting your audience following roughly a similar logic:

Creating personas

Start looking at the most common buyers / engagers for your most common products /services and give each a detailed description including job title, role, demographic information etc.

IncomeWhere do

they live?

Family set

up

Where do

they

work?

Hobbies?

How do

they

prefer to

shop / do

business?

Creating personas

Based on the criteria that make sense for your organisation you can then outline:

• What problems they are trying to resolve?

• What do they need most?

• What are they information are they searching (in what stage)

Analysing the path that a customer takes to become a potential customer is a way to also think of the challenges he or she may encounter.

Content Planning

Mapping content (need) for your audiences

Content planning

Personalization advice from the experts

Example: Woodland owners segmented messaging

Example: RHS segmented content creation

Example: Audience (message) segmentation Scottish Widows

Mapping content (need) for your audiences

Identify

Personas,

concerns,

drivers, role

etc.

Questions,

what do the

personas ask

at steps in

their

engagement

process?

Answers

Answer the

questions

your

personas ask

Audit

Audit content

to determine

what’s useful

and what’s

not. Be

critical.

Map

Map content

available to

the questions

that the

content can

answer.

Identify

Holes. Ask:

where are we

missing

content?

Create

Content to fill

the holes

Content planning

Personalization advice from the experts

1. Monitor what content is popular

2. Balance your targeting – relevant is good, creepily targeted is not. Make sure you offer a mix of the following at least:

I. Information on how to use your product or service

II. Answer questions

III. Product information

IV. Insights (industry insights, styling insights, background information)

V. Content written by customers, reviews, blog posts, case studies etc.

3. Take it step by step – Start with ‘basic’ segmentation: by discipline, vertical or geography and if that works for you add things such as behavioural targeting.

4. Curate more than create – It’s not always necessary to keep creating endless content: you can also look at what good content you already have and curate in for example emails or tweets specific content to specific audiences.

5. Understand your audience – It’s critical to know whom you are communicating with and what the audience needs.

Example: engaging woodland owners – audience segmentation

RHS – Audience segmentation / content targeting

Audience (message) segmentation Scottish Widows

Create and connect

How to reach your audience?

If you create new content it’s best to think about how you best reach your audiences with that message and via which channel.

From a social media point of view different networks have different strengths and deliver the best results if content is created with those strengths in mind.

For example:

Facebook: Visual: Shareable and likeable relevant pictures and infographics etc.

Twitter: In the moment” and optimized for short form text. Conversational blog; facts, numbers, tips, advice. Give back.

LinkedIn: Highly professional. Bespoke content for example access to experts, ability to network, share professional knowledge, ask questions. Don’t forget LinkedIn Showcase page and Slideshare.

YouTube: Demonstrate! Ideal for personal delivery of a message , to show of products, how to videos etc.

Instagram / Pinterest etc.: Highly visual, lifestyle, association.

Blogs: Sharing of news with some detail, announcements that need some depth.

Where are your audiences?

Creating the right content for the right channels

Creating the right content for the right channels

Creating the right content for the right channels

Paid targeting to reach audiences

Channel Target Objectives

Facebook Geographical location

(country, city, zip code),

industry, job title, language

or if they have a small

business page on Facebook

Page post engagement,

clicks to website, website

conversions, event

responses, offer claims

Twitter Geographical location,

interests, gender, device,

similarity to other users,

keywords in tweets, device

Get tweets in front of the

right audience, in the right

context, promotion of

events, deals, services. To

reach existing as well as

potential followers.

LinkedIn Geographical location, job

title, industry, language

Raise awareness, shape

perception, drive quality

leads, connect with the

world’s professionals.

Start doing today

Start doing today

1. Start thinking in a fresh way about who your audiences are.

2. Put yourself in their shoes.

3. Map out what they need, when and why.

What content do you have to address these needs

What content do you need to create?

4. Wonder what are your objectives are– where do they meet needs – how can you bring messages across?

5. Before you create content – spare a thought of where your audiences are most likely to engage.

Think of whether there is a way to create the needed content specifically for the channels that is most likely to engage your audience.

6. Remember it’s the end of the world as you know it – the best channels vary everywhere in the world.

7. Consider some paid promotions as the targeting options are great and organically content only reaches so far.

8. Keep testing if your segmentation and content provided works.

Questions?

Ask me anything… now, or later.

Simone Schuurer -@SimoneSchuurer