It’s almost noon, lunchtime. So ask yourself, what is your best customer doing right now? If you don’t have a clear image of who that person is, what they’re doing, what they want, and what is holding them back then you don’t know your customers well enough. If you're like most business owners, you're always looking for ways to improve your content. But what if I told you that the problem isn't your content, it's the context of your content? In this post, we'll discuss how to understand your best customer and how to create content that appeals to them.
When you start seeing low-performing social posts and poor business metrics it's natural to look at things like your design or messaging. It's easy to get caught up trying to find the right CTA or hook for your content. You focus on things you can control, and you end up spending too much time trying to create 'quality' content for yourself instead of your customer. The truth is, if you want to improve your content, you need to take the time to understand your best customer. Only once you have a clear picture of your ideal customer, can you create content that appeals to them.
Your best customers are the ones that buy from you and advocate your brand. They're the ones that are loyal and stick with you through thick and thin. They're the ones that refer new customers to you and brag about you to their friends. On the other hand, the freeloading customers that bring no value are the ones that are always looking for a deal, never buy anything, and never refer new business to you. They're not worth your time and energy. Instead, focus on your best customers and give them the attention they deserve.
To identify your best customer, you need to answer three core questions:
1) Who are they?
2) What do they want?
3) What is holding them back?
The goal is to have a clear image of this person–like bringing a picture into focus.
So, how do you answer these questions?
1) Who are they?
To answer this question, you need to think about who your ideal customer is. Consider their age, gender, location, interests, and income. Paint a clear picture of who they are.
2) What do they want?
What are your customer's goals and pain points? What do they want to achieve? What problems are they trying to solve?
3) What is holding them back?
What is preventing your customer from achieving their goals? This could be a lack of knowledge, money, or time.
Once you have answers to these questions, you can start creating content that appeals to your target customer. Consider their needs and wants, and create content that helps them achieve their goals.
Only then will you be able to improve your content and business metrics.
It's a common saying that "quality is better than quantity." But in most cases, it takes quantity to drive quality. For example, if you're a writer, you're not going to produce your best work if you only write a couple of articles per year. But if you instead wrote several articles per week, you're far more likely to produce better and better work on average. The same can be said about anything you're trying to get better at. From power-lifting to content creation. If you want to produce better results (quality), you need to put in a consistent quantity of work. Only once you've mastered the art of consistency will you be able to improve your skills and produce your best work.
"Context gives content meaning."
Context matters to us because it’s how we assess the things around us. Without the surrounding circumstances, you cannot fully understand something.
You can produce great content and still fail if the context around your content sucks. How and when your content is consumed is just as important if not more important than the content itself. This means you could have the best sales pitch in the world but if your customer isn't ready to buy–they won't buy it. You could write the most valuable blog in the world, but if it's not what your customers want to read–they won't read it. You could have the most beautifully designed content, but it isn't where your customers consume content–they won't consume it.
When your customers consume a piece of content they ask themselves two questions: What is this? Why should I care? If they can’t answer those questions, your content will fall flat no matter how great it may be. If you want to improve the quality of your content, you need to focus on the context as much as the actual content itself.
