How to Identify Your Target Audience for Content Marketing
Understanding your target audience is the foundation of effective content marketing, yet many businesses struggle to move beyond surface-level demographics. This article brings together insights from industry experts who share proven strategies for uncovering who your audience really is and what they actually need. These approaches go beyond guesswork and generic personas to help you create content that resonates with the right people at the right time.
Work With Experts to Address Pain Points
Our process centers on working with our subject matter experts to understand and speak to the specific challenges facing each industry segment we serve. For the financial services sector, we identified that addressing concrete pain points like legacy system migration, compliance requirements, and technology modernization was critical. This insight shaped our strategy to develop highly specialized content rather than generic messaging. By focusing on sector-specific challenges, we were able to drive meaningful engagement through both outbound and inbound marketing channels.
Reverse Engineer Wins to Find Your Niche
When I first launched my content strategy for franchise video production, I didn't start by guessing who my audience was. I reverse engineered it.
I looked at every deal we'd won and every deal we'd lost, then studied what the most successful franchisors had in common. I noticed something important. The strongest relationships came from brands that valued storytelling and didn't want stock footage or cookie cutter talking heads. They needed real validation content and real franchisee stories to shorten their sales cycle. That pattern led me straight to CMOs and CDOs at brands with 50 or more units, since they felt the most pressure to grow and needed a partner who could deliver consistent, high quality stories at scale.
From there, my audience got even clearer. I realized that emerging brands under 30 units also had a huge gap. No video, no validation, no real story. And because no one else in the industry was offering long term storytelling, on location, and a dedicated VIP model, I leaned into that gap. That became the niche I took over.
To understand this audience, I did something simple. I actually showed up. Expos, events, consultant meetings, webinars. I listened to what franchisors complained about. Overwhelmed marketing teams. Franchisees who won't film anything themselves. Development teams tired of Zoom interviews. And most of all, the pain of looking like everyone else.
Key insight that shaped my strategy
The biggest insight was this. In franchising, storytelling outsells information. Franchisees trust other franchisees talking about their journey far more than anything corporate puts out. Once I understood that, my entire content strategy shifted to filming real moments on location. Real homes. Real families. Real stores. Real tears.
That single insight is why our content works, why franchisors choose us, and why we've been able to carve out a clear niche in a crowded space.
Optimize for User Intent and Search Behavior
Our process for understanding target audiences in content marketing begins with analyzing real user needs rather than simply producing generic content. Through working with clients, we've seen significant budget waste when content fails to address specific user intents and search behaviors. The key insight that shaped our strategy is that strategic snippet optimization and long-tail keyword rankings drive substantially more business impact than broad, general content. We now prioritize creating insight-rich content that serves actual user needs and is optimized for how modern search systems, including AI, interpret and surface information. This approach ensures our content marketing efforts deliver measurable results rather than just filling space.
Focus on Empowerment Over Product Features
As a digital marketer in the chronic-pain relief space, my process always starts with digging into real customer data: reviews, support tickets, and buyer behavior, to understand what pain points people are actually trying to solve. I also run short surveys inside our email list and social channels to uncover deeper emotional drivers, like frustration with mobility or fear of relying on medication. From there, I segment audiences based on lifestyle and pain patterns, because someone with desk-related back pain needs different content than someone recovering from an injury.
I constantly validate these segments by analyzing which content earns the strongest engagement and conversions. The biggest insight that shaped my strategy is realizing that people don't just want pain relief. They want their independence back, so our content now focuses heavily on empowerment instead of just product features.
Answer the Questions They Secretly Google
I keep it simple and practical. First, I figure out who the business actually wants as customers, not who they think they want. I look at real data from search behavior, customer feedback, sales calls, and on-site analytics. Then I talk to the people on the front lines, like sales and support, because they hear the raw questions and frustrations buyers actually have. Once I know what people want, what they fear, and what they're trying to solve, the content practically writes itself.
The biggest insight that shaped my strategy is this: your audience does not care about your brand. They care about their problem. When you stop trying to sound clever and start answering the exact questions they are silently Googling at 10 PM, your content immediately works harder for you.
Help Influencers Do Their Jobs Better Today
Our approach to understanding our target audience goes beyond traditional buyer personas. While it's important to know who signs the contract, it's just as critical to understand the influencers who are hands-on with the technology every day. In B2B IT, the people researching solutions and solving real operational challenges may not have 'decision-maker' in their title, but they have significant influence on which vendors get serious consideration.
One key insight that's shaped our content strategy is this: the content that performs best isn't just focused on the business case; it helps someone do their job better today. That means creating content that speaks to their frustrations, provides clarity, and earns trust before the RFP even hits the inbox.
Start With People, Not Data Dashboards
I don't start with data dashboards, but rather with people. Algorithms don't buy products! Humans do.
(I'm Lars Nyman, fractional CMO and founder of Nyman Media. I've led growth strategy for 17+ years across AI, SaaS, and blockchain; scaling startups to $100M+ and advising Fortune 500s. My north star is knowing your audience better than they know themselves).
You ideally want to begin with direct user interviews. It can be as few as ten well-conducted conversations. They often tell me more than ten thousand analytics events. Then, you can of course layer in behavioral data from tools like SparkToro, SimilarWeb, and others, to uncover what the market actually reads, watches, and debates online. Tracking keyword intent shifts through Semrush and content engagement with BuzzSumo are also still valid tactics.
I'd add this to your piece: people don't merely consume content; they also consume identity. If your message doesn't affirm who they believe they are (or who they want to become), it just won't resonate, no matter how optimized it is.
Feel free to edit this to fit your piece. Happy to elaborate if you'd like examples from specific campaigns.
Offer Interpretation and Relief, Not More Information
My process is a mix of data and lived experience. I start by getting uncomfortably specific about who I'm speaking to: usually an ambitious woman founder who's smart, a little exhausted, and allergic to cliche advice. I'll pull real language from client calls, emails, DMs, and intake forms, then layer that with what I see in the wild—Reddit threads, Facebook groups, podcast reviews, search trends, and questions people keep asking me over and over. I'm always looking for patterns: What are they secretly worried about? What are they rolling their eyes at? Where are they stuck between "I know better" and "I'm still doing it anyway"? From there, I map content to stages: the woman who's just trying to get one piece of press vs. the one who's juggling visibility, a team, a family, and the emotional weight of being the face of everything.
The key insight that's shaped my content strategy is this: my audience doesn't want more information; they want interpretation and relief. Most of the women I serve are drowning in tips, templates, and advice. They don't need me to shout "do more" at them—they need me to help them decide what actually matters, give them language for what they're feeling but can't quite articulate, and offer one doable next move instead of a 47-point plan. Once I really owned that, my content shifted from "here are 10 hacks" to "here's what this actually means for you, here's why you feel the way you do, and here's the one small action that will change the way you show up." That lens—interpretation + emotional validation + one micro-step—now anchors almost everything I create.
Create Tailored Content for Specific Segments
I start by digging into the data I already have. I look at who's engaging with our content, check analytics to see demographics and behavior patterns, and talk directly to customers through surveys or interviews. Then I segment that audience into groups based on what they actually care about, not just basic demographics. Building detailed buyer personas helps me visualize who I'm writing for and what problems they're trying to solve.
The key insight that changed everything for me? Generic content performs terribly. When I started creating tailored content for specific audience segments instead of trying to appeal to everyone at once, engagement shot up. For example, a startup founder and an enterprise manager might both need my product, but they have completely different pain points and questions. It takes more effort upfront, but the results are way better than one-size-fits-all content that no one really connects with.
Intent Crushes Identity in Content Strategy
I learn about and empathize with our customers by seeing what they do in our data myself (bookings, site searches, emails, post-tour surveys) and doing 30-45 min customer interviews to hear their exact words about what they want/worry about. Rather than by age or location, I organize people by what they're trying to accomplish (think: a honeymoon splurge, a month of remote work or a quick nature escape) and map their journey from researching and planning to booking and getting ready so our content answers the right questions at the right time. We maintain a handful of living personas, write to their jobs-to-be-done and test headlines, formats and calls to action. We don't look at clicks as much, we judge success by quality leads and assisted revenue." We always taking the time to do a quarterly review and trim things that aren't working. The highest-order insight that changed our approach was intent crushes identity: we realized that when we focused on helping travelers get a specific job done, engagement and conversion would improve.
Ask People Directly Rather Than Guess
Key insight: Ask people directly, rather than guessing. Content marketing always begins with the target audience research. I define buyer personas by learning their responsibilities, challenges, and their stage in the buying journey. For this purpose, I conduct surveys and polls with existing and potential clients, as well as review competitor websites, social media, and forums.
Thus, I've recently organized a focus group study with 20 participants from our core audience—event planners, HR specialists, and marketing pros. They explained how they search for merchandise, place orders, and what problems they typically encounter.
In parallel, I gathered input from existing customers to learn more about their experience with us, spot areas where we can improve, and uncover what they're most interested in. From all this data, clear patterns emerged—their challenges and motivations naturally evolved into a roadmap for compelling blog content.
Listen to What People Already Complain About
Our process for identifying a target audience usually starts with listening to what people already complain about, ask about, or repeat over and over. Instead of jumping into huge data or charts, we look at actual behaviors, the questions people send in emails or the comments or DMs they leave on social posts.
One insight that completely changed our content strategy is realizing that your audience won't always tell you what they want directly, but they'll show you through the patterns in their questions. For example, we kept creating long educational posts, but every time we shared something that broke down a confusing topic in plain language, engagement shot up. It told us our audience didn't need more content, they needed clearer content.
So now, we always start our content with "What are people already trying to understand?" That small shift has made our content feel way more useful and way more aligned with what our audience actually needs.
Build Aspirations and Eliminate Fears Strategically
I start my process with actual buyers, not hypothetical ones.
I speak to people who have purchased from us before; I send out simple surveys; and I review CRM history and support tickets to find out what is really happening in terms of customer behavior.
Psychographics are far more important than demographics.
The fears, motivations, and self-perceptions of an individual greatly influence what type of content should be produced as opposed to their age or job function. Most teams seem to bypass this step and go straight into creating personas based on guesses. When you create segments based on pain points and the stage at which someone is purchasing rather than some superficial trait, then your content becomes specific and no longer generic.
One major insight that has helped me understand this better than anything else: People respond to content if that content helps them become the person they aspire to be; not because it is describing your product. If you can help build aspirations; and/or help eliminate a fear; you have done about half the work needed to produce good content.
Identify Your Growth Audience, Not Current One
In the AI world, knowing who your audience is is absolutely key. For us, the main target is not just about identifying your current audience - which we do using analytical data, tools like Sparktoro and internal data - but identifying your growth audience. Find out who you want to sell to, not just who you are selling to, is how you grow.
Blend SEO and Ad Data for Sharper Messaging
I've found the best results come from starting with search intent data, not broad audience profiles. I look at what people type into Google before they buy, because those keywords and questions show when they're close to making a decision. It's a clearer picture of what drives them, not what brands assume they want.
Then I layer in insights from ad campaigns that already convert well. When a headline or creative gets stronger clicks at a lower CPC, it shows which emotions or needs connect most. So blending data from SEO and ads makes the content sharper and more relevant.
One insight that changed how I plan content is that people rarely convert on the first touchpoint. They usually come back after seeing the same message in different places. So keeping consistent language and tone across SEO, ads, and emails builds familiarity and trust faster, which makes conversions smoother and easier to track.
-- Josiah Roche
Fractional CMO, JRR Marketing
https://josiahroche.co/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/josiahroche
Build an Interconnected Content Ecosystem
Our process starts with identifying a client's unique insights and building an interconnected content ecosystem around them. We create both long-form pieces and supplementary content that is specifically tailored to different audience segments. A key insight that has shaped our strategy is the importance of data-driven storytelling that moves beyond traditional corporate communication. This approach allows us to create more engaging and relevant content that truly resonates with each target audience.
Make Yourself Findable to Silent Buyers
The cornerstone of my strategy is understanding that your target audience isn't the people you're looking for, it's the people who are already looking for you. That shift is everything. The moment you stop hunting for people to sell to and start making yourself more findable, your entire content strategy changes. You move from chasing attention to earning preference.
That key insight highlighted silent buyers. Certain healthcare entrepreneurs prefer to research privately and self-validate before ever raising their hand. When I understood that, I stopped creating content to "capture" attention and started creating content that teaches without trapping; searchable, short, self-validating content that makes the viewer think, "Oh, he gets it."
That alignment builds trust long before the first conversation and it's why our best clients find us, not the other way around.
Listen to Customers During Their Worst Days
At Ready Nation Contractors, the answers to the question of who we are talking to would not be on spreadsheets. It was the result of listening to the individuals who call us during the most horrible days. Storm nights. Leak mornings. The incidents of the ceiling stains or the shingles in the yard. The conversations became the basis of our content. I would also write down the phrases that the homeowners had. "I don't know where to start." But I can never get any one to call me back. I am afraid I think the damage is bigger than it seems. Such uncivilized lingo reveals more of your audience than any persona document ever can. I would go through old job notes, old email, old texts of people in Tampa or Odessa or St. Pete and you begin to see trends. People want clarity first. Comfort second. Proof third. The reverse is also not true as the majority of marketers suppose.
It was the revelation that it is not the audience that wants to be impressed. They want to feel steadier. When a post eases them in breathing, that is well. That drove our plan to straightforward walkthroughs, cursory checklists, and actual videos of working job sites rather than slick highlight films. A house owner who sees a work crew scrabbling to replace planking that appeared sound to the naked eye on the sidewalk acquires knowledge in fifteen seconds not justifies the glossy advertisement. By attention to the questions that people really want to ask during the middle of the mess, the content hits the nail on the head as it addresses the moment they are experiencing, and not the moment the marketers would want them to experience.
Uncover Myths Your Customers Believe
I taught to create ICPs starting with demographics - age, gender, location etc. - but for so many businesses that information is irrelevant. So instead I always start with their attitude to the category or industry of the product or service we're offering. For example, are we selling a "necessary evil" or a "treat"? What problem does the customer have that we're solving? And how do they feel about it? Getting under the skin of your customer's attitudes, beliefs and values is central to a useful ICP for content marketing.
The key insight that makes the biggest difference in content marketing is about the myths that your customers believe about your category or industry that aren't true. Myths are content gold - they build trust and credibility, overcome objections and position the content creator as a safe source of information. After myths, the next most valuable pieces of content are around the concerns and frequently asked questions customers have. Content that answers people questions speeds up sales because customers don't get "stuck" in their decision-making because of an unanswered question.
Map Emotions, Not Age Groups
The Secret Behind Content That Feels Personal, Not Promotional
I used to rely on analytics to understand my audience.
Charts, numbers, and graphs.
All useful, but none of them told me who my audience truly was.
As a content marketer, everything shifted the moment I stopped guessing, and started observing my audience like a scientist.
Now, I don't begin with demographics, I begin with discomfort.
What frustrates them?
What slows them?
What are they secretly Googling at 2 AM?
I map their emotions, not their age group.
Before creating a single piece of content, I run a Micro-Conversation Audit, 20-30 comment sections, reviews, DMs, and voice notes.
Why?
Because this is where people speak honestly, without filters, without performance. By doing this, I understand what they want.
The Pro Tip: Once you speak the way they think, content stops looking like marketing and starts feeling like understanding.
Extract Pain Points From Live Conversations
Segments, avatars, and demographic spreadsheets are all just self-deception. An audience is not data - it is pain, triggers, and behaviors. Until you have interacted, in-person, with dozens of your customers, you are simply living in fantasies.
I start with live conversations, because without that, no marketing actually works. We take the database: customers, churned leads, even those who hated us, and we sit down to talk with them. Manually. Without scripts. We're literally just trying to get a better understanding: what came before us, what pushed them toward choosing us, why they trusted us with their money, and sometimes, why they didn't. People start opening up when they feel they're actually being heard, not just being funneled into another spreadsheet.
When there are enough conversations, the answers start repeating. We capture these patterns, and we don't just collect opinions, we extract specific pain points, triggers, decision-making contexts. Someone says "I urgently needed this", someone else says "I don't trust anyone", another says "I don't understand how this works at all". This is the foundation for content. Not empty abstractions, but concrete experiences. Then we turn this into thematic blocks: fear, distrust, urgency, FOMO, external pressure, lack of information. And all content begins exactly from this, from trying to articulate out loud what the customer doesn't yet know how to express themselves.
At the same time we are doing reverse engineering of the best deals. We take our biggest clients and reconstruct the path: where they first saw us, what content became their entry point, what they forwarded to their director when they wanted to buy from us. And now you're not inventing content, you're reconstructing it from a concrete decision-making chain.
We do all this not for subscribers, but for buyers. A million views doesn't matter if there's no money behind them. Content isn't entertainment, it's a sales tool. We're not aiming for likes. We're aiming for our text to be quoted in internal meetings. For us to be bought not because they liked us, but because there was nothing to criticize.
And the key takeaway that changed my approach goes like this: content isn't about sharing your own experience. It's about giving the client words and arguments so they can defend their choice inside their own company.
Study Friction Points They Bring to You
At Beacon Administrative Consulting, understanding our target audience starts with studying the friction points they bring to us before we ever write a sentence. We look at intake notes, meeting summaries, and the patterns inside support emails because those moments show us exactly where leaders feel stuck. When several organizations struggle with messy approval chains or inconsistent financial reporting, that tells us the audience is looking for clarity more than inspiration. We map those themes into clusters and match them with the roles most affected, such as HR directors, operations managers, or finance leads. That keeps our content grounded in the daily realities they face rather than assumptions about what they should care about.
We also pay attention to the language our clients use, because tone signals who we are actually speaking to. When we hear phrases like "I just need this process to stop breaking" or "we cannot keep tracking this manually," those lines become anchors for upcoming pieces. They tell us the emotional temperature of the work and help us shape content that feels recognizable rather than abstract. The audience reveals itself through repetition. When we listen closely enough, the content becomes more accurate, more helpful, and far more likely to resonate with the people who need it most.
Follow the Data, Not Your Story
We always start with data. Data doesn't lie, nor is it based on assumptions. Your audience won't be who you think they are, so don't assume. Never assume.
We're always refining who our target audience is and what they respond to by watching what people are actually doing: how they're reacting to our campaigns, what their behaviour is actually saying ie which of our creatives they're watching the longest, which headlines made them click, which messages got a stiff ignoring, and we build out our audience profiles based on this information.
That's the beauty of our industry, paid media, you get real, tangible signals, fast. You can see, as soon as a campaign goes live, what is working and what isn't, and we use that feedback to shape the next piece of content. Always follow the data, not the story you tell yourself.
Pay Attention to Their Exact Language
My process for identifying a target audience starts with extreme clarity, and I begin with two stages: self-reflection and data.
First, I use journaling prompts to understand who I'm here to help, their goals, frustrations, values, and the transformation they want. This helps me get specific instead of trying to speak to "everyone," which is really just speaking to no one.
Then I combine that with AI-assisted research to figure out the exact language my audience uses: the phrases, keywords, and everyday expressions that reveal how they think. This becomes the foundation for all messaging.
The second stage is profiling. I look at both demographics (who they are) and psychographics (how they think). What are they Googling at midnight? What problems are repeating in their life? What outcome are they chasing?
And equally important, who is not my audience? That clarity alone can sharpen a content strategy and positioning overnight.
The biggest insight that shaped my approach is this:
Your audience will tell you everything you need, if you pay attention to their language.
I've built a habit of noting down the words, complaints, and phrases clients use in conversations. Over time, this becomes a "language bank" that helps me create content that feels personal, relevant, and deeply understood.
When you know your audience's world that well, content stops feeling like a guessing game and starts feeling like a direct conversation with the people you're meant to serve.
Match Products to Niche-Specific Priorities
I run a product and software comparison site, so most of my work is understanding who the end user actually is and what matters to them. We break down the pros and cons of each product, but the real value comes from looking at how people in a specific niche evaluate their options. Every niche has its own priorities, so we build comparison charts and category breakdowns around the things that matter most to that group.
A big part of the process is thinking about who will use the tool and what their day-to-day looks like. For example, a CRM for plumbers has very different requirements than a CRM for a real estate team, so we build separate lists and highlight the features that are most relevant to each group. That helps us match the right products to the right audience instead of treating everything as one size fits all.
We also assign niche-specific awards based on what users in that category care about most. It gives people a quick way to see why a product stands out and why we think it's a good fit for their situation. Over time, this approach has made our content much more helpful because it follows the way real buyers think instead of forcing everyone into the same framework.
Albert Richer
Founder & Editor, WhatAreTheBest.com
