Sick of staring at a blank document whilst trying to think of new and exciting content ideas for your business? 

We suggest you take a break, close the tab and start leveraging other ways to find great stories to tell across your communications channels. 

In this case, we mean your audience. 

Social media users are a great source of content if you know what to look for. But if you try tracking multiple online conversations on different platforms in an attempt to find a brilliant content idea, it can give you a headache worse than what a writer’s block can do. 

The first thing you need to do to avoid this sort of pain is collect data on your customers so you can start categorising (or segmenting) your audience into relevant subgroups. 

Audience segmentation can then be applied to different aspects of your marketing strategy, especially in terms of the content you create. From here, you can tailor your content on different platforms based on the audience segments in your customer base.

By leveraging audience segmentation and analyzing customer data, you can gain valuable insights into the interests and preferences of your audience, which can then be utilized by copywriting services to create highly targeted and engaging content across various platforms.

How audience segmentation works

Audience segmentation allows you to manage the different expectations of the relevant subgroups in your customer base. Each segment may behave or respond differently to the content you provide so identifying the common characteristics within each segment will help you understand them better.

Examples of subgroups (or segments) include:

• Demographic – This includes age, social status, educational background and family circumstances. There’s no point pitching a health product for older people to a young audience who might need a different line of products for their age range.
• Geographic – Knowing the residential or office location of your customers means that you can target (or invite) them if you’re running an event in their area. Geographic segmentation can also help you localise your content depending on the cultural background of your target audience.
• Behavioural – This includes the level of online engagement with your business, purchasing habits and preferred communication channels. LinkedIn polls can start conversations amongst professionals in the comment section, while Instagram reels and stories can get more views. 
• Attitudinal – This includes personal values and lifestyle choices. If your brand values sustainability and environmental change, then it’s best to target attitudinal segments that feel the same.

Segmenting your audience will allow you to rank the most relevant subgroups to your business so you can use this information to your advantage. This will help you identify which subgroups your business can realistically respond to and which ones are out of scope. 

How audience segmentation boosts your content

Gone are the days of publishing one post and hoping it attracted everybody. Now you need to be more targeted and create content based on the different needs of your audience segments. 

If you do, you will remain front of mind and relevant to them because they will feel your content addresses the questions and concerns they have. 

For example, we primarily target small businesses, but the content we create will depend on several factors such as their industry, their brand values, their target audience and their content marketing goals. So even if two customers come from the same industry, the content we create for them will differ from each other. 

Identifying your audience segments also helps you practice active social listening on your official channels. Tracking relevant online conversations about your brand as well as your products and services allows you to identify areas of improvement within your business and enhances your content marketing strategy. Trouble finding the right audience for your brand? Check out copywriting services.

5 ways audience segmentation boosts your business

Audience segmentation can impact different areas of your business, so it’s important to identify the relevant subgroups within your customer base. This can allow you to improve your brand identity and learn how to engage with your audience.

Here are five ways audience segmentation boosts your business. 

1. Audience segmentation improves your messaging

Your energy is better spent improving your operations or developing your product, not worrying about whether or not your content will land. Utilising audience segmentation-led content ensures that it reaches your target customer.

There are three audience segmentation trends that you should consider in your own marketing strategy:

• Granularity – You can create more specific audience segments to improve the quality of your content and increase the likelihood of conversion. Age range can be one starting point before you add other categories such as profession, lifestyle etc.
• Real-time intent – Utilising real-time intent data can allow you to track the content consumption behaviours of your target audience. This can include questions, solutions and topics as people search online and download content.
• Customer privacy – Respecting and guaranteeing user privacy is a priority now that it’s much easier to track apps on different devices. 

Understanding audience segmentation and where it’s headed will allow you to personalise your brand messages in a way that speaks to your target customer’s needs. Having clearly defined audience segments ensures you reach the right people with the most relevant message to them-and that increases your chance of winning a new customer. 

2. Conversion rates are relatively easier to predict

It’s challenging for any business owner to project whether or not the campaign they invest in will reach their customers–especially if business owners are too general and say their target customer base includes everyone. 

With audience segmentation-led content, you can align your marketing campaigns to the needs of a specific group of people within your customer base. You can utilise conversion rate optimisation to identify how many online users have engaged with your website and your content. Generating content ideas that balance SEO can result in powerful stories that your target audience will want to click on. This will help you see which content marketing campaigns can continue to run or if the messaging needs to change.

3. Products or services are streamlined with content

Getting feedback from your audience segments will help you identify how to make your products and services more attractive to each subgroup. The content you deliver to one subgroup might differ from another, since different factors can persuade them into purchasing from your brand.

Taking customer feedback into account will help you streamline your content alongside your products and services. For example, if you’re planning to write an ebook on appliances for families with young children, it’s best to prioritise messaging around child-safe usage. 

You can also track the online engagement around the content you offer such as ebooks, videos or podcasts. This can give you an idea of how your customers perceive your products and help you identify key areas for improvement.

4. Executing and improving a marketing plan is more straightforward 

When you know what content your audience segments positively respond to, you can tweak your marketing plan as you produce more content. 

Customers will engage with your content because they know your story and they trust the messaging that you provide, but it’s also important to understand who is spending more time consuming the content you create. This will allow you to be more granular with your audience segments so that you can create a more effective marketing strategy.

Monitoring your customer segments is more manageable because you already know the subgroups you’re creating content for. 

5. Turning customers into advocates is easier

Consistently creating valuable content for your customers will convert them into brand advocates because you’re telling impactful stories across different mediums. One audience segment may prefer long-form blogs while another might prefer videos. 

Customers are loyal to businesses that consistently provide a great experience and that extends to content. People revisit stories that make a lasting impression and offering high-quality content will ensure that your business is trustworthy as well as memorable.

Stop staring into a blank screen. We can give you the clarity you need to understand your audience segments and create the content they want for you.