This is a question I've been asked since day one of starting Joyce Tsang Content Marketing and offering content strategies to entrepreneurs for their startups, side businesses, and SMEs:
"Can a single strategy really help me target all of these audiences I want to reach?"
Before I provide the answer, I want to write this blog to challenge the question in its entirety because a successful business is not truly about talking to everyone.
Target audiences
I believe many first-time or even experienced business owners fall into the following traps: they either:
do not have a defined target audience, or
they become obsessed with identifying multiple target audience pools they think their brand can serve.
While I have produced a lot of material about how to identify target audiences and build comprehensive target audience personas, the key point of this blog is to understand that your brand is very much like a person.
You can ultimately dictate your life by setting strict rules on who to talk to, meet, and have as friends. However, people who are attracted to you are not controlled in that way. Positioning yourself in a certain circle can help filter out those who are different or don't feel like they belong, but the truth is that you attract people based on how you express yourself, not by setting rigid ground rules about who you want to speak to.
This principle applies to brands as well. If you're fixated on only speaking to your target audiences, you'll end up pushing away potential clients who don't fit that specific mold. On the other hand, if you try to speak to the masses, you'll become too generic. The real balance lies in focusing on building the true identity of your brand.
I was absolutely inspired by this article, "Is the secret of arts marketing really to ‘know thyself’?" written by Jo Pickup, and this passage encapsulates the aforementioned idea:
“For example, if an audience member in seat E7 bought their ticket after seeing your show advertised in their local newspaper, while an audience member in seat G10 bought theirs after seeing people singing and dancing about it on TikTok, how can your marketing strategy strengthen your connection with both of these fans at once and in equal measure? (Answer = it can’t.)”
In such cases, wondering which people you should talk to is already the wrong question to ask. The better strategic mindset is to think about how you can position yourself in a way that attracts both the E7 and G10 audiences.
Storytelling
That brings us to the buzzword of storytelling. However, many are still conflicted or confused about what this truly means for a brand. In the context of content marketing, storytelling essentially involves identifying your content pillars, which are the open-ended topics that you can confidently discuss at length.
If we continue personifying a brand, these open-ended topics are like your hobbies. What are the things you enjoy doing and can consistently provide valuable insights, personal experiences, and value on?
Indeed, most companies naturally focus on topics directly related to their industry. For example, a skateboard shop would talk about skateboards, skaters, and tricks. This naturally attracts skateboarders. Depending on the level of detail and expertise provided in the content, it will attract skateboarders with different levels of experience.
However, many companies stop there, only attracting the direct pool of potential clients that every other competitor is also trying to reach. This pushes them into the highly competitive "red ocean" and ultimately, without better marketing or sales tactics, forces the company into price wars to try to convert the limited pool of audiences.
In my opinion, this situation is what gave birth to content marketing in the first place. Content marketing focuses not only on potential clients but also on the 90% of people outside that pool who are potential audiences. Attracting those people requires more "hobbies," which means stepping beyond talking to just one group of people about one thing and giving dimension to your stories by:
Providing more context,
Sharing your personal story that extends beyond the selected subject matter and connects on a human level, and
Taking a step back from the selected subject matter and discussing something that could spark interest in your specific topic.
Using the skateboard shop as an example again, an easy way to do this is by talking about the owner and sharing their story of why they started the shop in the first place. Perhaps it was a result of failing at another sport, a lifestyle choice, or simply luck. All of these surrounding ideas elevate the immediate skateboard story to a different level, exposing it to a larger audience and steering the brand away from being trapped in serving only a small group of people.
The Idea of an Overarching Institutional Brand
As discussed in Pickup's article, the overarching institutional brand represents the core story that demonstrates the brand's commitment to "walking the talk," allowing audiences to emotionally connect with the brand.
The company's team then builds upon these stories to create the brand's activities and promotional content, rather than simply focusing on who they want to talk to. The brand no longer markets to people; instead, it markets its core values to attract the right people. This objective aligns with the essence of content marketing.
People desire engagement, but they can easily detect a brand that is solely focused on hard-selling from a distance. Thus, concentrating on creating content about an overarching institutional brand involves constructing an identity that consistently manifests itself and is so compelling that it remains at the forefront of people's minds.
This is where content execution and distribution come into play.
What I particularly appreciated about Pickup's article is how she emphasizes that it's not a question of funds but rather a question of time. How much time are you willing to dedicate to building this overarching institutional brand? While it is the key to moving your brand away from the highly competitive "red ocean" and discovering a whole group of potential leads and audiences, it's not a matter of money, but rather a matter of time. You must be committed to consistently discussing your core values, collaborating with those who align with your values, and delivering your mission across the board.
Going back to the Content Strategy
So, let's address the first question posed at the beginning of this article: "Can a single strategy really help me target all of these audiences I want to reach?"
In my opinion, the answer is yes, but it requires dedication of time and effort to execute a content strategy that builds an overarching institutional brand.
If you're only seeking a strategy that tells you what content to post based on the behavior and needs of a single target audience group, then you'll only be reaching that specific audience.
The crucial thing that most companies, including those utilizing the services I provide, need to understand is that I'm here to give you a blueprint for tackling the world by starting with a small town. You need to establish a presence in that town (a defined target audience) first and conquer it with consistent content. As you grow and expand to a city, you'll have the support of the entire town behind you to continue communicating the same overarching institutional brand story through different hooks, executions, and distribution channels to attract diverse audiences. However, the brand story remains consistent. For example, Patagonia's brand doesn't change in the eyes of a European versus an American, but the campaigns and activations they experience in their respective cities may differ.
That's why it's always better to have a content strategy in place before even considering creating content.
If you're struggling with generating content ideas, justifying your content efforts, achieving consistent growth, and attracting leads through your content, download our free comprehensive content strategy ppt designed specifically for solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, and small business owners like you.
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