Who are you attracting?

Searching for information on digital marketing might leave you with the impression that the point is to generate as much traffic as possible. That may be true if you’re marketing a consumer product with a target market of, well, everyone. What if you’re a business marketing to other businesses in a narrow category of products or services? The answer is widely shared but, oddly, rarely stated in the negative. Many inbound marketing and content marketing experts and vendors promote knowing your audience and targeting them precisely with both your marketing selections (pyscho-demo-geo graphics, placements, etc.) and your content (writing for someone is more powerful than writing for everyone).

Should your content purposely drive away visitors that are not your target market though? Some say no because you never know who may become a prospect. If your offering has sufficiently broad potential uses, then you may well want to be inclusive. If your product or service is for very specific buyers for very specific uses it is worth considering how you can use content to qualify prospects in and others out. For one thing, you don’t want to pay for paid search or digital advertising clicks from non-buyers. Equally important, you want to develop a relationship with target buyers through conversation in their language, with examples of customers like them, for uses like theirs. Content that specific will inevitably leave others out as they fail to find themselves and their needs in your content. The alternative of making your content so broad that it invites more visitors in but leaves them unsatisfied when they get there is not a great way to win conversions and sales.

When you evaluate your traffic through analytic data, are there signs that your content strategy may need adjustment? Analytics can’t tell you in quantifiable terms. You need to compare different content with your knowledge of meaning. Experiment, measure, adjust, repeat. Does more specific content consistently have greater engagement than broader content with your audience all else being equal? Do two ads that lead to the same landing page draw equal traffic but very different bounce rates and conversions? What’s different about the ads?