Sep 11th, 2008
WHO DO YOU WANT YOUR AUDIENCE TO BE?
Do you have a firm idea of who you want your audience to be, or are you happy to accept anyone - desperate even? There are many blogs that appear to be in that situation. If your blog is a business blog then you don’t want just any audience, you should be targeting an audience that will act in line with your business goals.
With that in mind, to advise you to provide content for your audience could be poor advice. In reality, you should be producing blog content that will attract the right audience; that is, an audience that will move on and buy, or become a lead, or sign up for a newsletter.
There are times when the blog content published has been written for what the author thinks their audience wants to read. This can lead to attracting the wrong audience. People will come, they will read, then they will move on. For a blog that is trying to attract business, that is the wrong audience.
How do you write to attract the right audience? You write to your product or service. If you are selling ‘green widgets’ then you need to write about ‘green widgets’. The audience you are trying to attract are those interested in buying ‘green widgets’. It should be remembered that your blog content can be directed at different audiences.
If you are trying to attract links from other sites, then your blog content needs to be written to attract that particular audience. This is often referred to as ‘link bait’ - really, it is content written to attract a certain audience.
Do you know who you want your audience to be? Can you define it along set demographics? If you are selling items that are in demand by 18-30 year old males, then your content should be written to that audience. Every now and then you may also want to write to an 18-30 year old female audience - why? Because they may buy your product as a gift for an 18-30 year old male.
Think about your audience. Think about who you want to attract and then ensure your blog content is written to attract them to your blog - attract them, hold them, and have them coming back for more.