How to Use Content Marketing to Talk to Your Target Audience

Recently, I zeroed my marketing business in on the software industry. I'd been preaching the benefits of having a niche, and yet I didn't have one. Once I made that decision, I needed to start attracting software companies to my marketing firm. But how to do that?

I started with my content. I've been blogging about marketing for years, but now I needed to tighten the reins a bit so that my audience — software company owners and CEOs — would find my content and feel I was speaking to them. Imagine how much more engaged your audience — each individual buyer — would feel if your content said, "Hey you! Yes you. I understand exactly what you're going through, and this article/ebook/web copy will tell you what to do to solve your problem."

Here's what I did, and what you can do too.

The Website

I was extremely nervous about turning off any other potential customer that might happen across my site if I made it overtly focused on the software industry, so I made subtle changes. I turned the copy into a conversation I imagined I was having with that software CEO:

• Are your halfhearted attempts at managing your social media pages costing you more than they're making you?
• Did you hire an inexperienced intern to help you with your web presence, only to end up managing it yourself?
• Do you find yourself spending time trying to write blog content that you should be spending on growing your company?

These were problems I imagined he could identify with. If he could relate, he could keep reading. Only once do I use the word "software" on the site. Subtle, right? Yet I've gotten several software leads since making the change.

The Blog

Not wanting to alienate my existing readership of small business owners and marketing managers, I decided against turning all my blog's content into software-related posts. I do, however, from time to time write a post that speaks to that audience. Because my blog is more an example of the kinds of content we can write for clients, I felt it was fine to stick to a lesser-niched audience for the content.

The Ebook

Still, I needed a way to connect with software companies. So I decided to write an ebook: 10 Reasons Your Software Company Should Be Blogging Right Now! It's pretty obvious who the audience for this is. I set it up so that visitors to the site can subscribe to my company newsletter and get the ebook free. That way I know exactly who my subscribers are, and I can craft better-targeted content for them.

Social Media

I'm still sharing general marketing content on social, but I have started following software companies. I set up a stream to monitor posts using "small business" and "software," and I follow relevant people who tweet using those keywords. In fact, as a result, I secured a software client!

The better you focus your content marketing efforts, the more you'll attract the kinds of customers you want. Don't be afraid of alienating everyone else; you'd be surprised how much more business you can attract simply by being more direct in your messaging.