How to Attract Your Ideal Customer with Perfectly Positioned Content

How to Attract Your Ideal Customer with Perfectly Positioned Content

Reader Comments (20)

  1. That’s a great post, first of all. It makes a lot of sense where you talk about the need to come up with a detailed description of what’s going on in your ideal customer’s mind. There’s always the need to enter into the prospect’s thoughts, but I like how your list of questions makes the process explicit.

    Because there can be a temptation to let the process of getting to know your prospect and the process of writing run together. This way takes out a lot of the guesswork involved. Probably takes out a lot of the guesswork in the long term, too!

  2. Brian – All great reminders, especially empathy and mapping that experience.

    One question.

    Can you explain why you link to the original content and the Copyblogger home page at the bottom of the post? What does that do that the post URL does not accomplish?

    And now I that I say that I cannot find the link. Hmm…

    Thanks

  3. Sometimes it is easy to forget how to properly start the construction process of great targeted content, your article really provides an actionable guide to stay on track and develop really meaningful and compelling content for your intended audience.

    Thank you for sharing all this valuable insight!

  4. Hey Brian,

    I have read the documentation of Apple how they brought the concept of Mac and how they turned the campaign into something lucrative.

    People should learn to whom they want to attract and to whom they don’t. It’s like filtration.

    I always such questions to myself. What if I am going to be all alone? What if the business isn’t going to get the output as expected?

    I learn new things and target the right audience.

    ~Ravi

  5. When I was reading this, I said “boy, whoever’s writing Copyblogger these days sounds a lot like Brian Clark…used to…”

    “The professional has to throw down a 360 tomahawk jam from time to time, just to let the boys know he’s still in business.’

    -Stephen Pressfield

  6. Great post Brian. I think it was genius that Apple targeted a specific audience for these commercials. The “hardcore” PC group who build their own computers is small – so it wouldn’t have made sense to try and market to them.

  7. Hi Brian,

    Messaging is everything! It drives the entire business and yet the majority of businesses have no core, relevant message other than, as you said, they sell something somebody wants.

    The challenge with that is; so does someone else. Ultimately, this pigeon holes a business to competing strictly on price instead of on message.

    Ben & Jerry’s is a good example. They are not, in my opinion, the best tasting ice cream. But, they have a message for a core audience.

    I’ve been in digital marketing since 2005 and it’s obvious who has a relevant message from those who don’t.

    In one piece of content do their either solve one problem, meet one need, or fulfill one desire; for on person. And, does it share the one, consistent core message that can be found throughout the site and in off-site marketing like social media, etc.

    I like the quadrant, but I think there is a step before that…

    We teach five questions that literally changes a business and how the attract a specific audience:

    1. What problems are you passionate about solving?
    2. What tangible values do your customers experience and how do they feel about those experiences?
    3. What “specific” problems do you solve for each tangible value?
    4. Who are you “specifically” solving each problem for?
    5. What business are you “really” in…

    Thanks for exposing this problem Brian. I believe it’s the greatest barrier to success for any business and yet it’s the most neglected.

    ~ Don

    • Excellent point, Don! Our world would be a better place if companies like Exxon, for example, would realize they’re in the energy business, not the oil business. . .

      I’m asking myself “what business am I really in” currently, as I attempt to pivot my business.

  8. This is great. I enjoy doing the customer avatar exercise. It’s cooler when I think of he or she as a character instead.
    I love the idea of making the prospect the protagonist & me the guide in the Hero’s Journey. Just thinking of it in this way now has given me some great ideas.

  9. Personas throw me off. I like this much, much better. Create a character of the target audience. It combines a little bit of creativity with data.

    Adding to my resources.

    Thanks Brian!

  10. Thanks, Brian. Really helpful content, especially with the forms included for the exercise. I’m working with some colleagues on coming up with an elevator speech for their company and this will be good groundwork for this work.

  11. Thank you for the inspiring and actionable post, Brian!

    You’ve managed to put everything one needs to create a useful character. It’s very useful to see all of this knowledge and tips in one place.

    Many clients I work with are often challenged to decide who they won’t serve but from my own experience this is so liberating! As soon as you know who is NOT a good fit, you can focus all your efforts on the ones who are.

    The notion of choosing who I want to serve sits very well with me. I really liked the idea that it’s not about finding out who wants your product but about choosing your character deliberately. It turns the gameplay around a bit and I really liked this perspective.

    Thanks for coming back to writing for Copyblogger for our enjoyment 😉

  12. Interesting post on how to define the ‘who’ in content marketing. Weeks ago an idea that marketers have to be good at tapping into confirmation biases of their targets came into my mind. I would love to hear what you have to say about that.

    Is knowing how to elicit confirmation bias part of the craft?

  13. This is such a great post, Brian, and something I’ve been thinking about for a long time. I love how clearly you laid out your suggestions to figuring out your audience. Thank you so much for your simplification.

    I do have a bit of a complicated question. I’m an author. I write a variety of books–memoir, nonfiction humor, poetry and fiction for all ages. But the bulk of my time (and the most enjoyable part of my time) is spent writing fiction for kids. So far I have created a different “character” for each of those genres I mentioned. But I’ve struggled with the fiction for kids piece. My biggest core value for writing kid fiction is to help kids–particularly boys–fall in love and stay in love with reading, because I believe that literature can create a better world by educating, inspiring, and equipping kids to change their circumstances. The biggest problem I have is that the audience for whom I’m writing my fiction books–kids–is not the audience to whom I’m marketing–their parents, grandparents, teachers and caretakers. This makes things really complicated, and I’m not sure how exactly to handle it. I’d love to know your thoughts about it.

    (Just so you know, some of the core values I have posted to my desk that inform my writing include helping kids (especially boys) forget they live in a video game world; empowering readers with hope, love, joy, peace, knowledge and the necessary tools to make a better tomorrow; helping readers build a habit of reading; helping families bond around meaningful stories; writing the books that matter; empowering kids to read and fall in love with reading; fostering a love of language in an increasingly technological, diluted, automated world; and becoming a literacy movement. I’m just having a little trouble connecting that to my “character,” but maybe I’m not thinking hard enough.)

  14. This is great. One of the things I always struggle with is figuring out who I am actually catering to. It’s so important, but I always seem to miss the mark. This information definitely has helped give me a new perspective. Cheers

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