How do I find my target audience online?

If you’re pouring time and money into content but not seeing real business results, the issue might not be the content — it might be the channel.

We recently spoke to a cloud company that’s putting 100% of their spend into 40 live events. This is a deliberate strategy: They believe this is the highest conversion vehicle for their product.

But this is rare. Most brands sprinkle budgets around, and that can cause a real drain on your cash. If you know where your prospects are to begin with, it saves a lot of time and money.

Here’s how we help our clients map where their audiences are online — and how you can too:

• ​Interview customers about their media habits. Ask what they consume and subscribe to. See if they can recall memorable content that helped them do their job better — and where they found it. Channel insight hides in these routines, and it can give you a good starting place.
• Ask your sales team. They know what prospects reference, which webinars get mentioned, what events matter, and whether anyone is using the newsletter.
• Track specific referral sources. Where do your converting users come from? What’s sending them your way? UTM links and basic analytics can go a long way.
• Research in places where audiences aren’t anonymous. Research LinkedIn prospect activity to understand what’s being liked and shared on the platform.
• Watch your industry’s influencers closely. Where are the most influential people in the space posting and sharing? What events are they attending?
• Audit your competitors. What platforms are they investing in? What’s working for them? You don’t need to copy them, but you should be aware.
• Look at long-tail search behavior. Watch for search terms that are higher in the funnel (how to solve a problem related to the solution you’re selling) vs. lower (product or vendor comparisons) to understand how your prospects are using search to research and assess.

Your distribution strategy is only as good as your audience insight. Want help figuring out where your people are spending time? Let’s talk.

KRYSTLE KOPACZ CEO, Revmade krystle@revmade.com

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P.S. This email is part of a 9-part series on solving the most common problems in content marketing. Next week: Our strategy changes every 5 minutes.