‍

Learning and understanding how to tap into who and where your audience is may seem like a topic directed at marketers and only involving those in the marketing space, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. If you are someone who is putting out content on a regular basis or wanting to create a channel or be featured on a platform, it’s critical for you to know how to build and attract your audience. But before we focus on your target market, it’s important to think about who you are as a content creator and what type of content you want to produce. For example, if you are passionate about cooking and want to create content across youtube, a blog, and an email newsletter, you need to decide what type of content you would like to use for which channel, and how you want to portray the personality of your brand. This can be done through brand colours, messaging, etc. By keeping your branding consistent and your content organized (with the help of a content calendar), you can spend more time focusing on finding, keeping, and engaging your target audience. Possibly the most important part of finding your audience is solidifying your purpose as a content creator. Think about how you are using your voice and which style of delivery you want to utilize, such as long or short-form content. Having a clear purpose, will help guide the production of your content, inspire new material, and ensure you don’t stray too far from your core concepts.

‍

‍

When discussing your target market, we first need to know who the audience is and how they will be absorbing your content. This is relevant because if we don’t understand who specifically we are talking to, we will attempt to speak to everyone which typically results in speaking to no one. By creating a detailed customer profile that outlines the demographic, psychographic, purchasing habits, and personalities of the target market you want to reach, this narrows in on things like what type of content this group wants to consume. For a more detailed perspective, this customer profile should include information such as age, gender, marital status, occupation, education, hobbies, interests, geographic location, brands they like, influencers they follow, what problems do they need to be solved And the list goes on. Once you have a better understanding of this group, you can start to research them and begin crafting content based on what you know about them, because the best thing you can do is give your audience exactly what they’re asking for. As you are continuously evolving, so is your audience (& hopefully so is your content). Finding new and innovative ways to become inspired and therefore inspire your viewers will keep you growing together. Remember, inspiration takes work, but once you recognize that your audience is an irreplaceable asset, you’ll be mindful of how crucial it is to keep your viewers excited and eager to tune into your platform.  There is A LOT of content out there in almost every industry, but don’t let this deter you from getting started. One way to stand out and attract your audience is to continue to develop interesting and thought-provoking engagement strategies. Engagement alone may not have brought people to the party, but it’s without a doubt what’s going to make them stay. Engagement within your online community can include tactics such as contests, Q&As, live tutorials, sharing your resources, asking for feedback, having guest contributors, events, and simply, communicating directly with your audience as often as possible. Remember, consumer engagement shows how your audience feels about your brand, as it's inclusive and it encourages them to participate, which is the golden ticket as people are eager to feel heard and seen. Engagement also often highlights your genuine passion for whatever it is you do, and can allow your viewers to get to know you on a deeper level which ultimately increases their relationship with you, which then equals customer retention.

‍

‍

‍

Being aware of what other content creators in the same space and industry are creating is going to be significant when building and nurturing your audience. Some might call this ‘keeping an eye on the competition’, but that’s an extremely outdated perspective. Today many content creators who have similar audiences collaborate and help each other to develop fresh and engaging content which allows each person to tap into the viewership of the other, resulting in more eyes on your content. Building relationships with other people who are also passionate about developing and creating valuable material generates community which has proven to extend the lifespan of content creators. As your audience and target market grow over time, naturally new people will be introduced to you and start following your content as your progress and gain traction. Although it might seem counterintuitive, recycling your content puts a fresh perspective on an old idea while allowing your newer viewers to be introduced to it for the first time. This doesn’t mean to simply post old videos/tutorials, etc. Instead, try discussing or re-creating your old content in a new light, which intrigues both your seasoned audience and new consumers. Re-visiting and re-formulating our previous content also provides us with the added bonus of seeing what areas we can improve on within both our production value and the content itself.

‍

A commonly asked question amongst content creators is “how much content should I be producing in order to grow and/or find my target audience?”. There is no magic amount as it’s different depending on which industry you’re speaking to, however, it’s about finding a harmonious balance between frequency and reach. Reach in this case would be your entire viewership (your whole audience) or segmenting your audience into groups and deciding what you want to say to each group, and frequency would be how many times the audience is exposed to the message with the main objective being generating a response from a call to action. Reach and frequency are an important part of growing and sustaining your audience as you quickly learn the type of exposure they are responsive to. 

One of the most important ingredients to attracting your perfect audience is learning to love your data. Keeping a close eye on your analytics prevents you from making assumptions about your content and how it is being received. There are hundreds of different methods of retrieving data but some examples include 

- Which channels are attracting the most traffic (SEO/PPC/Social media, etc.)
- Which pieces of content did were the most popular and shared amongst your target audience
- How long are your viewer's spending on your pages/pieces of content, etc.
By taking advantage of all of your, data you are listening to your audience and optimizing your channels to the needs and demands of your target market, which eventually leads to increased engagement. Finding and keeping your target market is not an easy feat. Creating useful and relevant content takes a lot of work, research, and patience, but by leveraging these effective techniques you will continue to build the skills needed to become an expert in your niche.