Why do so many businesses miss the mark? They create tons of content—posts, videos, articles. Yet, their audience doesn’t engage. Sales stay low.
Take Miss Jojo, a skincare shop owner. Her blog gets clicks, but no purchases. Her Instagram posts get likes, but no sales. She’s frustrated. She knows her customers are out there, but she can’t connect.
This scenario repeats everywhere. Businesses hustle to share cool stuff but miss the mark. They target the wrong crowd or pick uninteresting topics. The content looks great but doesn’t resonate.
If this sounds like you, stick around.
The importance of audience targeting
Audience targeting means knowing your ideal customers. It’s about understanding their age, habits, and interests.
Kate Gibson, a copywriter for Harvard Business School Online, says businesses using targeted content see 75% more engagement. Her research also shows 68% of consumers want personalized content.Start with data. Use tools like Google Analytics to see who visits your site. Next, create buyer personas—fake profiles of your ideal customers. Include details like age, location, and goals.
Tabitha Naylor, in Business, offers a step-by-step guide for creating personas. Use her tips to sharpen your targeting skills.
Building a content marketing strategy for publishers
A solid strategy is like a map. It tells you what to create, for whom, and why. Research shows strategies improve efficiency by 32%.
A 2022 Statista survey found 80% of marketers saw success with a strategy. But 52% felt theirs flopped. The lesson? A strong strategy leads to results. Without it, businesses struggle.
Start with your goals. Do you want awareness, engagement, or sales? Link your content to your sales journey. Use blog posts for awareness and case studies for decision-making.
Measure results with tools like SEMrush. Tweak your plan based on data. These steps keep your strategy on track.
Creating effective content
Effective content tackles problems or answers questions. Koning et al. (2025) interviewed editors and managers from local newsrooms. They found clicks and views heavily influence what gets published. Editors balance high scores with informing readers.
Blogs, videos, and infographics work well. Use formats your audience prefers.
Flori Needle highlights the rise of short videos on TikTok and Instagram Reels. She notes 92% of video marketers see a strong return. Videos simplify tough topics and grab attention.Personalization: Making content relevant
Personalization customizes messages for each person. It creates a more engaging experience.
Mark Abraham and David C. Edelman, in Harvard Business Review, explained how platforms like Spotify use AI to analyze listening habits. This content marketing strategy helped Spotify grow its user base and revenue by 1,000% over ten years.But personalization can backfire. Abraham and Edelman warn against being invasive. They introduce the Personalization Index, which checks how well companies keep five promises: relevance, consistency, transparency, respect, and timeliness:
Use tools like Mailchimp or Optimizely to personalize emails and web pages.
Measuring engagement
Engagement shows how well your audience connects with your content. High engagement means you’re on track, while low engagement highlights a problem. Rucker and Calkins, in their HBR article, describe the ADPLAN framework: Attention, Distinction, Positioning, Linkage, Amplification, and Net Equity. Engagement thrives when content grabs attention and communicates clearly.Track metrics like time spent on pages, bounce rates, and shares. Tools like Google Analytics or Hootsuite make this easy.
Putting it all together.
Success needs aligning targeting, strategy, creation, personalization, and engagement. Each part supports the others.
Start small. Focus on one area, like targeting. Once you nail it, move to the next. Small improvements lead to lasting results.
With the right approach, your content will resonate, engage, and drive results.
