How to Align Your Content to Your Audience

You can’t create content and hope people come. You need to create content that educates, lures, and converts. Here's what to consider.

This is the second of three chapters that I contributed to the book The Content Entrepreneur by Joe Pulizzi and Friends. It was an honor to be part of this amazing collection of expert content creators. All the ideas in these three chapters are applicable to content and brand marketers as well as content entrepreneurs.

In this chapter, I walk you through how to create a content strategy that supports a business plan. You can’t just create content and hope they come - you need to create content that educates, lures, and converts. Would love to know your feedback!

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How to Tie Your Content to Your Audience

Developing a viable content business means having a strong content strategy to guide you.

There are four major components of any content strategy:

• Brand promise

• Content purpose

• Audience experience

• Delivery channels

Brand Promise—Your Tilt

The members of your audience have a multitude of options out there to keep them busy for hours. How are you going to break through the literal noise and make your message heard? My father had an adage—“Go where the competition ain’t.” You need to offer something that is fresh and unique to your brand offering. It’s that area where you are the expert—the go-to.

This is, as Joe says, your “tilt.”

“The content tilt is that area of little to no competition on the web that actually gives you a chance to break through the noise and be relevant. It’s what makes you so different that your audience notices you and rewards you with its attention.” - Joe Pullizi

I’ve discussed some tactics to determine what your audience is thinking. But it’s also important to view your competitors’ offerings to identify what they are saying. What are they not doing? What can you do better? Are there additional products or services you can bundle with your content that will ease the friction for your audience?

Once you know your content tilt, it needs to become your North Star. It becomes your brand promise and infuses every piece of content.

The Tilt’s brand promise is to help content entrepreneurs build successful businesses through education and training.

So how do you figure out your brand promise? In my previous chapter, I spoke about mood—the many moods of your audience and the moods you want people to feel. Think about all the content you want to create and have created. Is there a thread that ties it all together? Will you be able to have that wonderful through line?

The brand promise is something that people in your audience can expect every time they interact with you. You are making a promise that every piece of content (no matter the format) will . . . will what?

Here are a few beginning statements that you might use to address your audience (you fill in the blanks!):

• Let you explore . . . so you become the master of . . .

• Satisfy your curiosity by digging deeper into the mysteries of . . .

• Find joy in the day-to-day . . .

• Learn more about . . .

• The Guide to dos and don’ts for successful . . .

Getting the hang of it?

Content Purpose

Whether a content entrepreneur or brand marketer, you have two questions to answer: How are you going to draw an audience in? and, How will that action earn money?

This is the part of your plan where you look at your business model and decide between content that attaches to revenue - versus content that educates people about your offering and luring them in. You may have a free blog that drives to a book, or merchandise, or training lessons. You may have a free video that leads to a newsletter or training.

Once you have created that brand promise, think about the categories of topics that can spawn from them. You might be familiar with a sales funnel. Here you give out information that draws readers in, makes them want to find out more and more, until they reach a specific product that makes them convert and buy.

Understanding the Knowledge Funnel

But before the sales funnel, there is a knowledge funnel. Take the subject of content marketing, for example. People want to know the who, what, when, where, why, and how. At this point in the story, no one is thinking about buying anything; they are informing themselves.

The next step in the funnel is the “near-me” stage—think of looking for a great Italian restaurant “near me.” People are getting intrigued about the subject and are wondering if it applies to them. So you will have content that has lots of prepositions in the title: “in,” “of, “for,” “from,” “within,” “about,” “near,” . . .

It’s at this point that you can direct people into your sales funnel, as they are interested in your content and how it relates to them.

The last phase of the knowledge funnel is the validation phase. This is usually product-specific, and you address comparisons to what others are doing: this versus that.

In your knowledge funnel, you will want a mix of evergreen content, as well as content that is timely and influenced by relevant news cycles.

Overlaying the Sales Funnel

The sales funnel will overlay the knowledge funnel. You can’t begin to sell to someone until they understand the value of what you are offering. Now that you have established curiosity, and people interact with one piece of content, you queue the next one. You lay out the breadcrumbs to take them on the journey.

You will want a mix of different format types as well.

The content offering section of your strategy will look like:

• Purpose

• Content topics

• Format types (and duration)

• Consistency

That last bullet point is essential to any excellent strategy. You are trying to be a reliable source for people and to encourage them to create a new habit by turning to you. It’s imperative that you set a consistent schedule so that people know they can find you.

Channels: Demand and Delivery

Once you have decided on your content creation formats, you need to think about creating demand. How will people find your content?

Likely you will use a mix of the following channels;

• Organic: Leverage keywords within your content so your audience finds your offerings via search engines. I actually prefer the term “earned” versus “organic,” because it is with your discipline and hard work, your audience is finding you.

• Paid offerings: Pay to have ads to promote your content on social channels or on search engines.

• Social: Share riveting content or promotions via social channels. The more catchy your message, the greater the chance your audience amplifies it.

• Email: Create an engaging newsletter that shares tips and techniques and includes promotions for other offerings.

There is no magic wand to building an audience—discipline, consistency of message, and frequency are required. Which one is the best? The only way to tell is to measure.

Metrics include using analytics tools like Google Analytics (GA4) so you can see how many people come to your content, how long they engage, and whether they convert.

Adding It All Up

To achieve your goals, your strategy should consider how content promise and purpose, audience experience, and delivery channels work together. Align these as you build your business, and the sky’s the limit!