Many businesses focus their content marketing efforts solely on customers, yet their industry peers are the audience that can help their brand grow the most.

We can agree that increasing profits is the ultimate goal; why would we choose to focus on an audience other than our customers? I will explain my rational for that in this post.

Disclaimer: I am not saying that your customers are a bad target audience. I am saying that I think industry peers are an underutilized audience. It will be up to each business to determine who their target audience will be.

Engagement

The main question that you need to consider when identifying your target audience for your blog is this: who will engage with my content?

Find the audience that will engage with your blog and you have found your target audience.

Engagement is when people:

  • Share your content on social media
  • Link to your content from their own website
  • Become a subscriber or follower of your brand
  • Leave comments on your blog

The list goes on, but in general, engagement is when people contribute to the conversation that began with your content.

Industry peers make a great target audience because they are the audience that will engage with your content the most. When one of your peers shares your content, it is likely to be seen by other like minded individuals. When your content is linked to, it is likely to be from content that is relevant to yours.

Authority

“A rising tide lifts all boats.”

The quote above comes to mind and can be changed in this case to: “A rising authority lifts all webpages.”

Content that people engage with will raise your brand’s authority and will benefit your entire site.

Your key pages will rank higher in search engines as you become an authority on the subject, because as your content earns links, your domain authority is raised.

You also earn authority from other people in your industry who are likely to share your content and send you referrals.

If you determine that your customers are not your target audience, the good news is that you can still write content for your customers on the rest of your site. You just have to identify and create content for the most important pages or sections on your website.

Questions to ask about your customers

Here are the questions you should ask about your customers in order to determine if they are the right audience.

Are my customers have a passion for my products or services? Or do they only care when they are shopping for my services?

Your customers would make a great audience if they are naturally interested in your services. These people are also more likely to have acquaintances with other people with the same interests that will also be interested in your content.

Examples of customers that would make a great target audience: pet owners and a pet grooming business, car enthusiasts and a custom car shop, gardeners and a landscaping company.

If your customers only care about your content when they are in the market for your services they are unlikely to engage with your content.

Does my content address something that impacts my customer’s daily lives? Does my content address my customer’s concerns?

It has been raining quite a bit here in Minnesota lately. I saw multiple posts on Facebook about sump pump failure and flooded basements during that time. A local plumber could have done well writing content about sump pumps because this would address something that concerns many of their potential customers in the area.

Content that impacts your customer’s daily life or addresses their concerns is more likely to earn engagement.

Writing content for your peers

Writing for your industry peers are not without its own drawbacks.

Writing for your peers is more difficult because it will take extraordinary content to impress people who have experience in the same industry as you do.

You will have to spend more time writing deeper content that draws upon your own unique perspective. I like to think that this unique perspective leads to unique content, and is the core of a great content marketing strategy.

Related Reading

“Other writers reference my posts and perspectives, which helps a great deal in terms of overall branding because potential clients do tend to do their homework. The professional networking has resulted in numerous referrals. It turned out that the best way to send a message to potential customers was to communicate with other writers.“- Falling in Love with the Unintended Audience

“Your most successful posts will reach the largest audience, which hopefully brings in a significant number of links and social mentions. All of these activities combined will increase your domain authority and footprint on the web.” - 9 Lessons Learned from Back to Back 15,000+ Visit Blog Posts

“I had this moment of, ‘Oh my God, this happens all the time.’ People think that the reason you’re putting out content is so that someone will consume that content and be inspired from it to go and make a purchase. “ - The Greatest Misconception in Content Marketing