Copy that resonates requires knowing your audience—intimately. How are you doing with that?
By Linda Pophal, MA, SPHR – Strategic Communications, LLC
Audience understanding in content marketing is the practice of developing specific, research-grounded knowledge of who your target readers or customers are—their challenges, motivations, behaviors, and preferences—and using that knowledge to create content that resonates precisely rather than broadly. It is widely considered the foundational competency of effective content strategy: content that doesn’t know who it’s for cannot connect with anyone in particular.
Every day, without fail, two very different kinds of content appears in my inbox and on the various social media channels I follow.
One kind captures my attention and gets me to start reading, sometimes dragging me down a rabbit hole that I really wish I hadn’t been dragged down…
The other kind: meh. Generic, boilerplate, trite. Copy that literally any brand could have created. It’s not personal. It’s not specific. It doesn’t speak to me.
The difference between those two experiences has nothing to do with budget, production value, or even writing skill. It comes down to one thing: how well the brand actually knows its audience.
This is not a new principle.
Continue reading “The 2026 Content Marketing Imperative: Know Your Audience”
In a digital world, traditional communication skills are in high demand
If you’re not on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, or other social media sites —and believe it or not, many people are not!—you may be missing out on some very important conversations. Some of these conversations may be about you!
In today’s digital ecosystem, content remains king—but only when it wears the right crown.
LinkedIn is, arguably, the most important social media channel for B2B professionals. Originally started as a job search network, LinkedIn has evolved into a gathering place for a wide range of business professionals. Unlike other social media, LinkedIn content is heavily skewed toward the sharing of professional information, although more personal posts have been creeping in recently.
I’ve been a rabid marketing practitioner for decades. I understand and believe in the power of marketing for companies of all types and sizes, across all industries.
One of the key lessons I remember from a time when I did a lot of writing about consulting and had the opportunity to interact with dozens, maybe hundreds, of consultants, was the importance of focusing on prospecting even when you’re very, very busy.
Moving forward with communication tactics without a good understanding of the target audience, their current attitudes and beliefs, and the drivers that might lead them to positive action relative to your product or service is never a good idea.