By Rhonda Campbell
Do you read all of these magazines regularly: Outdoorsman, Romantic Times, People, Auto Racing, Essence, Ladies Home Journal, Guitar, Teddy Bear, Vogue Knitting, Track and Field News, Computer Weekly, Ad Busters, Art Doll Quarterly Wax Poetics and Parabola? My guess is that, even if you have a broad range of interests, you don’t read all of these magazines each month. In fact, I’m guessing you’ve never read all of these magazines. . . . Brace yourself. The same way you don’t read every magazine or slick that’s on the market, not every consumer wants the products and services that you develop and sell. The sooner you accept this fact, the sooner you can start developing content that attracts and retains the attention of your company’s target audience.
So, who is your target audience? Is your target audience comprised of college students who knit two or more days a week or is your target audience made up of middle aged men who pay a hundred dollars a month to buy tickets to NHRA drag races?
If you’ve been managing your business for two or more years you have enough information with which to create a composite of your target audience. For example, let’s say you own a restaurant – receipts can show you when your busiest hours are. If your customer traffic picks up significantly Monday through Friday at mid-day, there’s a good chance that a large part of your target audience is comprised of retirees or stay-at-home moms. You could easily verify this by coming to your restaurant during peak hours and observing your customer base.
Keep these people in mind as you create content for your newsletters, flyers, websites and social media accounts. You also want to work with a professional writer to create content of interests to the type of people living within a certain radius (e.g. 12 miles) of your restaurant. For example, if your restaurant was located close to a college, you’d want to hire a writer to create content that peaks the interests of this demographic as well.
The fact is, even without the Internet, as a business owner you benefit greatly when you create content that speaks to and resonates with your target audience. The value of content cannot be overstated. You need content to create radio ads, television ads, press releases, magazine articles, job descriptions, books, etc. Furthermore, the Internet provides additional tools with which to create and distribute your message, which can make this a very rewarding time for you as a business owner if you understand and appreciate the role writing plays in serving as a bridge you can cross to reach buying customers.
Once you understand this you’ll realize how important it is to describe your target audience and your business objectives to the professional writer you hire. An effective writer will also ask you questions about your business in order to get a clear image of your target audience. This, in turn, equips a professional writer to develop and write content that satisfies you and your customers. And you know what’s said about happy customers . . . they come back and give you more business.
Contact me to start fulfilling your writing needs today.