The Content Strategy Framework | The Second Pillar: Identify Your Audience

Last week, we established the foundation of your content strategy by discovering your ‘why’—that golden thread giving your efforts purpose and direction. If you missed it, you’re building without blueprints, so catch up before we continue.

This week, we’re diving into the cornerstone of any successful content strategy: understanding your audience. Identify your audience. They are the protagonists of your brand narrative, not you. This step goes far beyond basic demographics, where you’re getting inside the minds of your ideal customers to uncover their preferences, habits, and digital hangouts.

When You Identify Your Audience, Choose Research Over Assumptions

The biggest mistake I see brands make is basing their entire strategy on assumptions instead of actual data. “I think my customers love Instagram” or “My audience probably prefers short videos” will never be the way.

Data-driven organizations are 23 times more likely to acquire customers, according to McKinsey & Company. That’s the difference between guessing and knowing exactly how to identify your audience and where to find your ideal customers.

Creating Personas to Help Identify Your Audience

Developing detailed personas is strategic work. These are fictional representations of your ideal customers based on real data and educated speculation, not wishful thinking about who you’d like your customers to be.

Using personas can make websites 2-5 times more effective for targeted users, but personas must go beyond basic demographics. Include psychographics like interests, challenges, pain points, and behavior patterns.

Your persona isn’t just “Sarah, 35, makes $100K.” It’s “Sarah, 35, works in finance, values quality over trends, shops during lunch breaks, follows sustainability influencers, and considers jewelry an investment in her professional image.”

Analytics Tools: Your Crystal Ball

Tools like Google Analytics and social media analytics platforms provide invaluable insights into actual audience behavior. Google Analytics reveals which content people are gravitating towards, how long visitors stay engaged, and what drives them to take action.

You can use this data helps you tailor content to meet specific needs and interests. Stop guessing. Start measuring.

Social Listening: Eavesdropping with Purpose

Social listening tools track mentions of your brand, competitors, and industry across platforms, giving you direct insight into what your audience discusses and values.

According to Sprout Social, 71% of consumers who have positive social media experiences with brands recommend them to others. Social listening helps you understand not just what they buy, but why they buy and what influences their decisions. These are the keys in helping you identify your audience. 

Direct Feedback: The Unfiltered Truth

Nothing beats asking your audience directly what they want. Surveys, feedback forms, and conversations reveal insights analytics alone can’t provide.

Consumers expect companies to understand their needs and expectations. The most efficient way to gather this understanding? Ask them directly through strategic feedback collection.

Building Your Mosaic Once You Identify Your Audience

Identifying your audience creates a mosaic of insights where each piece—from analytics to direct feedback—contributes to comprehensive understanding. As we discussed last week, you’re not just doing this once – this is an ongoing process of refinement and discovery. It’s the only way you’ll get to creating content that resonates, engages, and converts instead of content that looks pretty but generates no results.

Need help identify your audience? My free The Customer Journey course goes into this at length. Register to take it – absolutely free, no catches and no attempts to upsell.

Next week, we’ll explore Pillar Three: Choosing Your Palette. We’ll dive into how the right content types and formats can make your brand irresistible to your newly understood audience.