The golden rule of marketing: Audience First

One of the simplest concepts in marketing can often be the hardest: put yourself in your audience’s shoes.

 Let’s jump right into an example. Your website.

 When someone comes to your website for the first time, put yourself in their shoes. Why are they there? Are they looking for a financial advisor, and you came up via search? Are they an existing client looking for information or hoping to log in to your client portal?

 Knowing why someone is coming to your website can help you ensure that the home page is functional. You can design it so that it easily and immediately meets the needs of the people using it.

 That sounds really simple, but most people build their website from a place of “what do I want to say to people.” Making a simple change in mindset — from what do I want to say, to what are people looking for ­— can make a big difference in terms of how people engage with your website.

Audience and content

Many of the most common mistakes in financial content come from not knowing who the audience is.

For instance, say you’re explaining why investing in dividend stocks right now is more complex than usual. If your audience doesn’t know a lot about dividend stocks, then you need to take some time to explain the terminology — like the difference between a dividend payment and a dividend yield.

Otherwise, talking about how yields are being influenced by underperforming stock prices isn’t going to make much sense. And when that happens, content often ends up confusing the reader further, instead of educating them. This is the opposite of what you want to happen. Instead of clarifying a complicated but easy enough to understand topic, you risk causing frustration, which could ultimately hurt the client relationship.

Situations and use

Let’s consider another example. Estate planning can be a sensitive topic. You’re talking about death and legacy and other heavy issues. So if you have content on writing a will, and you’re using it as part of a session with a client, your audience may not be super prepared to talk about something that emotional. 

In this kind of scenario, you’ll want to use language that acknowledges that sensitivity. You might say things like, “While it can be challenging to think about death, what you’re really doing when writing a will is giving your loved ones a roadmap through what’s sure to be a challenging time.”

However, if you’re using the content on your website, it’s likely that the person reading it is seeking out the content. They’re looking for information on how to write a will and plan ahead. They’re coming from a more transactional mindset: They want information, and they want you to provide it. In this scenario, reading the language described above might be frustrating — it could feel like a waste of time when they’re trying to get to the meatier information in the article.

Audience and customization

This need to put audience first is one of the main reasons I’m passionate about customization with Content 151.

I can write the best, most informative educational financial content in the world, but the secret to making it impactful for your clients (and prospective clients) is by tailoring it to them. And no one knows your clients better than you. 

So as I guide you through customizing content, there are always prompts for you to emphasize your value add, but also to include the information most relevant to your clients. And of course, we always want to highlight where these two things — audience needs and your value — intersect.

Because that is where the magic happens.