“It’s Not About You”: How to Create User-Centered Content

by Jaydeep P. Digital Marketing | SEO

We’ve all probably created a good design, idea or content generally; looked back it and it resonates with us. It’s a great feeling that makes us feel like we know what we’re doing. Great right? Not really. I would tell you why.

You are not your audience, so you can’t be the benchmark for measurement. Another big mistake being made is thinking everyone is your audience/customer. Everyone isn’t.
You need to talk about what your audience wants to hear, what they care about, how they like to be talked to, etc and NOT what you do. I call this walking backward. I would illustrate with myself.
“I help brands and/or small businesses achieve digital growth & performance in the most effective way to match their business goal ranging from increase in sales, lead generation, brand perception, and more. This would involve the use of one or combination digital channels from social media, Search engines, email marketing and other technical jargons.”

I could have easily said what I do or given my job title but I decided to talk about what I can solve, who I’m targeting, what pain points I solve and how I solve them. It is not about me but all about my audience.
So let’s dive into how this can be achieved. You need to create something called personas. This is creating a fictional character that uses or buys your product/service. Your business might have one or two relevant personas. You should answer the following questions when creating persona(s) to define your target audience.
1. Where does my typical customer spend their time?
Are they on social media, if yes, which one of them? Are they more inclined to going for workshops, conferences, and all, if yes what type of workshops, conferences, etc. Do they read more articles and blog posts instead? If yes, where? You get the illustration.
2. What is the monthly income of someone that can afford what I do or sell?
100k -150k? 30k -50k? 250- 500k? This would help you know what to create, your tone of writing. The way you write for a student is not the same way you will write for a middle-class income earner. You can try to lure a student or recent graduate with cheap offers and more, but a working-class individual probably cares more about the quality you have to offer, rather than the price game. You get my drift.
3. What excites, motivate or interest them? What are their aspirations?
There are different types of personalities just like temperaments. We have very serious people. “No time to check time”, they are always on the move, goal-oriented and almost always conscious of the content they consume. They follow content like Foundr, Forbes, Gary Vee, etc.
We also have the less serious ones, they’re still goal-oriented but would rather have fun doing this. They enjoy entertainment and probably have a low attention span.
How can we neglect the very detailed set of people, they almost always want to attain perfection in all they do. Imagine trying to talk to the serious person as an entertainer? You probably won’t be taken seriously.
4. What age bracket do they belong to and what gender?
What age bracket am I looking at? 20–35? 30–45? Etc. This would allow you understand the thinking process of your audience. You understand their pressing needs, and how they react. This has to be put into consideration when creating content.
5. Who is the “purchase decision maker”?
Some products or services don’t have the customers as the decision makers. I would illustrate with a school. The pupils are your customers, how you treat them, their performance and all is important, but the parents are the decision makers. In this situation, you want to make sure you put both parties into consideration. One cannot be dissatisfied, they both must be satisfied. Knowing this helps you channel your content creation for optimum relevance. Other examples that fall within this are Cereal, Indomie, etc.
6. What are their buying motivation and concerns?
Understanding the buying motives of your audience reduces your guesswork.
Asking questions like; do they cherish quality over quantity?

Are they trying to save money, maybe a discount would appeal.

Are they more concerned about the prestige and pride my product/service does for them?
This can be applied in the area of fashion, luxury goods, and more. Imagine creating content that speaks “cheap” and easily available to someone who is concerned about the pride and prestige that comes with scarcity. That’s why you see these high-end car manufacturers creating limited editions.
Another way to achieve this is to profile your existing customers who buy from you. Studying this would give you a better understanding; you can see what they have in common and you go on to ask them some questions through a survey.
You can also go on to study the analytics of your website, Facebook or Instagram account as well for audience insight to allow you make data-driven decisions.This would help you better understand the profiling of your current audience. If you’re new and don’t have access to all these, study your competitors. Look at what they are doing, how they’re doing it and where they are doing it.
Using a Restaurant targeted at the middle-class as a case study, let’s build a persona.
Seun

Seun is a confident 26-year-old software engineer earning N300k monthly. He is single and lives alone. He’s working towards starting an academy that trains young people to code. He is reserved, doesn’t talk a lot, enjoys reading books and a factual individual. When he goes out, his primary concern isn’t the price of commodities but the quality in terms of reliability. When he wants to relax, he’s either playing games, watching YouTube or on Netflix. He is scared of being poor and works extra hours because of this.
I’m sure the picture is getting a lot clearer now. Remember, we’re in a User-centric era. It’s about the user/customer, not about you.
In my next post, I would talk about content strategy. Questions like what content works? What format is best? How can I repurpose my existing content? How to build content pillars, the importance of copies and more.
Thank you for reading up to this point and if you liked this article, please hit the clap and follow me.
Originally posted on: Medium.com