When it comes to blogging for business, and if your overall aim is to monetise your site, then you need to focus on creating content that your target audience is looking for. Your blog is no longer about you – it’s about your readers.
You want to be focusing on content that solves their problems and gives them the answers they’re looking for. Once you can do that with everything you write, you’re onto a winner!
A blog without purpose will struggle to make it as a business. It’s the same with any real-life business – it needs to solve a problem or provide a solution to a pain point, be it clothes that people need or books that people want to buy. The business is giving the answer, and your blog needs to do the same.
People will want to come back to your blog because they will be getting value from it. They will want to share that content with their friends, and join your mailing list – because they’re benefiting from doing so! It’s all about providing information and insight, and serving your clients first; that is the foundation to any successful business. You need to be able to serve your readers and give them what they are looking for.
But where do you start? You need to figure out exactly who it is that you’re aiming to help. This is who your target audience is. It’s something you need to get crystal clear on if you want to make an income from your blog. I’m going to walk you through finding out who your target audience is, how to find out what they want and are looking for, and then how to create content around that.
Who is your target audience?
As I said, your target audience is the people that you are hoping to reach with your content. You need to dig deep within the purpose of your business. When you first start blogging for business, it’s a good idea to write a mission statement. What is it you’re trying to get across with your content? Are you wanting to show people how to attain a certain lifestyle? Are you giving the knowledge to achieve a certain dream?
You need to think about the overall purpose of your blog, as this sets the foundation for the kind of people you are hoping to reach.
For example, if you’re looking to teach beginners how to cook healthy meals on a budget, then you might narrow this to students, or young families. Choose exactly the type of person you are aiming to help. It can help to think of your target audience as just one person. This way you can write just for them.
To do this, you need to figure out more about the kind of person they are. Take a sheet of paper and write down all the details you already know about who you are writing for. How old are they? What kind of things do they like and dislike? What kind of life do they lead at the moment? What kind of lifestyle do they want to have?
Use the answers to these questions – they define your target audience. It’s important to have your target audience in mind when you’re creating content. If all of your content is aimed towards them, you will be serving them what they need. They will return to your blog again and again because you give them what they are looking for. That’s what creates the basis of a successful blog.
Your readers will begin to trust you and you will become a go-to expert for them – this is what creates the trust that eventually leads to sales.
How to find out what your target audience is looking for + use it to create the right content
This is so much easier when you know who they are. You need to solve their problems and give them the information they need to reach the lifestyle you are advertising. It can take some time to work out exactly what that means, but using your analytics will help to see which posts are performing particularly well.
I like to use Google Analytics, as it’s the most in-depth out there. It’s also free, which makes it even better! You get a lot of additional features too – it’s definitely worth checking out if you haven’t already. It can take some time to get familiar with, but there are plenty of guides and tutorials out there that are good to get your head around.
Take a look at the top-read posts over the last three months. What are they about? What’s the main topic? You can use this information because it shows what your readers are enjoying. These people are the ones that you are reaching. Use the Demographics function on Google Analytics to see whether they fit in with the target audience you had in mind. Do they align or are they completely different?
It doesn’t matter if they are completely different – it just means that you need to take another look at your plans. Do you want to focus on providing more content that relates to the readers you’re already enticing? Or do you want to try new methods to create an audience for the content you originally set out to write?
It’s entirely up to you what you do if your mission statement + the reality don’t exactly match. It’s your business, and it’s your life – you can decide to do whatever you want! It can mean a lot more work if you decide to chase after your original target audience, but it’s not impossible.
Take some time and have a think about what you want to do. You can change the direction of your blog anytime – it’s your personal corner of the internet!
What do you focus on if you haven’t got any posts yet?
If you’ve just started your blog and you haven’t written any posts yet, you need to look at your target audience in more detail. What are their problems, their pain points? What are they struggling with? Do they need help and support? You need to figure out their struggles, and then provide the answers to them within your content.
Taking the same example as before; if your target audience is students who want to learn how to cook healthy meals on a budget, then you know you need to provide them with recipes, shopping lists, and budget planners.
If your target audience is mature ladies who want to learn more about appropriate skincare, then you need to look into products that provide anti-aging, lifestyle tips, and so on.
Focus on producing content that your target audience will be searching for. You can use Pinterest and social media to find inspiration for the kinds of things that people are looking for. A lot of the platforms have a trending area. You can use these to find out the ‘hot’ topics, and create content around them them that lots of people are searching for, as long as it relates to your mission.
You can do this whether you’ve already got content or not. You might even find that one your posts goes viral! This will bring lots of readers to your content – and help get new fans of your blog. People are likely to subscribe during this time, because it creates that excitement around you and your business – so make sure you’re optimising the content to convert readers too.
Always include a subscription box within your content, and offer your readers an incentive to sign up. Maximise your opportunities when they are there!
How does this benefit your blog?
Once you’re writing content that your target audience is looking for, you will see an increase in traffic. You need to work on growing that traffic, to get lots of new eyes on your content.
The more people reading your posts the better. And it’s even more positive if they are engaging with it – make it easy for people to share it, encourage comments with a call to action asking them to get involved, and share it on social media.
Blogging isn’t a ‘build it and they will come’ kind of thing – it takes a lot of hard work to get your content out there and be seen by the people that matter. It is best if your blog post is optimised for SEO to reach more people.
Author Bio
Hi, I’m Laura! Over on my blog All In My Head, I talk about various ways to grow your blog, build on your traffic, and manage your business. All In My Head was created to help you grow your blog + become a successful entrepreneur. Grab your secrets to affiliate marketing and grow your income starting today!
