How to create and manage the best content to target your audience

Content is the oil in the machine we call social media. Whether it's Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, or any other platform, content will always be the first and most consumed commodity for all users. But there is much more to content than its production and publication. 

The fact that social media lives through content means there's a surplus of it everywhere, which indicates it's tough for anything you produce to gain any traction. Plus, consumers are so overwhelmed and overstimulated by this excess that it leads to mindless scrolling, making it even more challenging for your audience to see what you're putting out. 

So, how do you get their attention? And how do you get your audience to act with what you offer? 

With a well-configured content strategy and razor-sharp targeting, of course. While giving this answer might be simple, its execution can be tricky. That's why we sat down with Shondell Varcianna, content expert and founder of Varci Media, for a great Straight to Business Podcast episode. 

Shondell Varcianna has turned her 16 years of experience in the financial service industry and her passion for writing into her own successful business that helps financial institutions make an impact with their content. She started working in banking right out of high school. Over the next eight years, she worked in several positions, including being a mortgage loan originator. 

In 2006, she joined Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, an insurance company insuring bank mortgages. Today, Shondell owns and operates Varci Media, a content writing company that helps financial institutions save time by writing content that speaks to their target customers. Originally from Toronto, Canada, she now lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with her husband and two children. 

Check out the highlights from our interview with her, in which we discussed the factors and strategies to make an ambitious content strategy.

Can you have more than one niche? 

What matters most when creating content is figuring out exactly who you're targeting. "You need something that can bridge the gap between what they want and where they're going," Shondell advises. Finding out the questions, complaints, and misconceptions of your audience and then delivering a solution to their social media feeds helps you meet your audience wherever they are in their buyer's journey, which in turn can lead to more conversion. Mastering this targeting of content is called "finding one's niche." 

Finding one's niche doesn't mean that you must stay in that field and that field only. It's possible to develop more than one niche. In fact, if you want to reach a broader target audience, having an interest in vastly different fields would be advantageous. The key is to provide more than one piece of content that covers all your niches. "You have to have separate pieces of content for each of your niches, or else you'll lose them," Shondell states. You need to separate your content by niche. Otherwise, you risk losing your audience entirely. 

Let's look at an example. Suppose your target is first-time homebuyers between 25 and 35. In that case, you'll want to look into questions for that niche, as questions from that target audience would differ from those of another subset of homebuyers (i.e., somebody buying a property to rent out to a tenant). If you produce one piece of content for both audiences, you'll lose the attention of one of them in the process.  

In addition, it's also essential to figure out where your target audience is. Where do they hang out—in Facebook groups? In forums? At conferences? On a particular social media site? You can forge relationships and create a culture of mutual loyalty by showing up where you are and making connections. One of the easiest places to start is Facebook groups because you can be a fly on the wall and listen to what your ideal customer is talking about, Shondell explains. From listening and looking at common questions and complaints, you can create content that can benefit both yourself and your audience. 

Regarding the content, you must address each audience's pain points. On top of that, it's important to post frequently; there's no telling when your ideal audience will be on social media. You don't know how long they'll spend on social media or if they'll even see what you post; so many things are out of your control. So, it must be consistent and address a pain point. Because if it doesn't, they'll just keep scrolling. 

What do your best post practices look like?

The first type of posts Shondell recommends are "list type posts," which display the top tips of a program in their niche. For example, let's say that you want to push a mortgage product and their customer only needs a credit score of 600, but they know many people think their credit score must be 650. You could create a post titled, "Top seven tips to buying a house with a credit score of 600." Everybody who has a credit score of more than that and is looking to buy a home will click that because this solves their problem of their credit score being too low to buy a house. People like getting a lot of information in a quick format, so addressing it in the headline makes your post more likely to be engaged with, because if you don't catch them in the headline, they'll keep scrolling.  

List posts aren't limited to just text and infographics. Lists posts can also be made in video form, adding diversity to the short-form content being produced. "I advocate for all kinds of content because you never know how your audience wants to consume it," Shondell explains. You should always ensure your content is easy and digestible for your audience. Keeping your content the same can create a disinterest in it. They'll go to somebody else if you make it difficult or monotonous. 

So, what about longer-form content? If you want to put out blog posts, post them weekly. You can take one blog post and create two weeks' worth of social media posts. Posting daily can feel daunting, especially if you are just starting to put out content. Instead, allot an hour or two a week to create content and then schedule it to post daily.  

How do you create the ideal content strategy for your business?

When creating a strategy around posting schedules, frequency, and goals, there's not one road to get there. It all depends on your audience, what they want, and what resonates with them. You've got to try different things and see what works. Are they clicking through to your call to action? If they're not, then you've got to try something different. It's all through trial and error; you won't know how they want to consume it until you try different types of content. "And if your target audience is on LinkedIn, people spend the least amount of time on LinkedIn," Shondell warns, "so it takes longer." You must post often to increase your chances of being seen.

A Facebook strategy could start with you searching for the top two Facebook groups in your industry. Then, spend 10 to 20 minutes per day in those groups just being a fly on the wall, listening to what people are talking about. This is part of getting to know your audience. You're looking for similar questions, complaints, and misconceptions—these are people's pain points. "I would also suggest starting to answer some of those questions if you can because that's providing value," Shondell says. "People will see you in the comment section and then go to your Facebook page." Over time, this is how you build relationships, and people will start to contact you if/when they're ready to use your product or service. This process should be ongoing because people's questions and interests change.  

A content strategy can be very different depending on the platform that you're on. On LinkedIn, you can boost your strategy using Sales Navigator, which allows you to be more targeted. It also enables you to create lists and get notifications when your ideal customer posts on LinkedIn. In addition, you should take 10 minutes a day to comment on ideal customers' posts. When you comment on people's posts, people see you. "The whole purpose of social media is to build relationships to bring them to your party, Shondell states, "you never want to just keep people on social media. You want to bring them to your party, which is your website or even offline." You want to use social media to build relationships and get your audience's contact information for a lead funnel. Then, you can get them on your email list to better control that. 

What should your cold outreach look like?

Cold outreach is a method that can be used on LinkedIn with potential customers. It starts by sending a reasonable number of messages. If they respond to any of these messages, you or a salesperson can engage with them. The first message is just wanting to connect based on their role. After they connect, another automated message can go out saying thanks for your connection and introducing your team and service. If they don't respond, send an article, ask them to check it out, and let you know their thoughts. You can schedule these to be sent out frequently automatically. A reasonable time frame is every three days. Later, send a blog post that's a lead magnet, meaning you'll get their email address if they click it. From there, you can continue to send them emails. Drop off after a reasonable number of messages if they don't respond.  

Remember that this aims to forge a connection instead of just making a sale. Instead of going straight to the sales pitch, send them educational content. If people don't want to do it on their own, they can hire you to do it. While it may seem like you're giving away exactly what you do, feeding them information and then giving them a choice to engage or not allows you to convey a polite and friendly tone while reaching out instead of a pushy one. You mainly are trying to make them away for you, so if they get to a point where they are ready to buy the service, you're at the top of mind. You provide value by educating them and answering their questions, and then they come to you and are long-lasting customers.

When you do it the other way, what ends up happening is you have to convince people to buy your product. But when you educate, you don't have to convince them. They can educate themselves and come to you pre-qualified because they've already tapped into your information. They already like you. After all, now they're contacting you. They see the credibility first. And that's why your website and social media pages like LinkedIn should have as much information as possible to make it easy for prospects to digest who you are and see what you're about. And you show that best through your content.

Remember that it's essential to know your niche and focus on your audience's concerns and misconceptions when creating targeted content. Automating content and cold outreach can make a manageable way to check on connections and forge relationships. 

Have another tried and true method that we haven't talked about? Or did you learn a new way to go about content creation? We'd love to hear from you on LinkedIn!

Photos by Andriyko Podilnyk, Sergey Zolkin, Laura Chouette, and Rayi Christian Wicaksono on Unsplash