Aaroe Writing Clarify Your Audience
Make Your B2B Prospects Feel Seen In Your Content Marketing
I’ve recently been working on a project for a prolific millionaire client with a fast expanding personal brand. He runs two weekly podcasts, a 365-day-a-year conference call for entrepreneurs, is the president of his company, chairman of two separate investment firms, and a sought after key-note speaker. He’s grown and exited 5 different fortune 500 companies and loves to share with others his tips and strategies for success.
I spent about 4 hours researching him, listening to his podcasts and reading what he’s written. I learned a ton about his outlook, his work ethic, his out-of-the box strategies for making money and a lot of his life story. But what I didn’t learn in all those hours, was who his clients are. I had no idea who he was speaking to, or who he intended to benefit from all this incredible advice. Which was fine for me as a listener, because I could find gems of wisdom and actionable advice to infuse into my own life and business. But for him, a B2B personal brand looking to gather a customer/client following, this approach isn’t giving him the traction he needs.
Before he was passed on to me as a client by my boss, I’d been given an overview of his account and read about his ICP and general details about his current clients. Now my task was to create marketing copy by taking his existing content and repurposing the words to target his intended audience. It turned out his ICP very closely matched his own background, and so I was able to pull out stories from his past that both demonstrated his strategic principles and creative ideas, while also relating directly to the concerns and day-to-day life of his preferred audience.
But a fraction of his audience will see the content I created for him. Whereas the audience for his other efforts online and his impact on the daily lives of his listeners, is much larger. He is making the mistake of focusing his own content on himself, what he’d done well, what he’d learned, and how he had succeeded, and is failing to bridge the gap between his success, and the particular experience of those he is hoping to reach and inspire. That’s a mistake B2B marketers can’t afford to make.
Instead of casting a wide net with his wealth (pun intended) of experience and expertise, he would be better suited to cast a narrow net, directly calling out his ideal audience and speaking directly to their lives, and their struggles. Then, once he’s gotten those people to self identify and connect with his message, he can afford to zoom out and share broadly about his own views and ideas.
Conclusion
Whether you are a personal brand, a SaaS company, or anyone in the b2b space, it’s important to target your intended vertical in your content marketing by relating stories, advice, and calling out pain points that your ideal customers can relate to. Be explicit in who you are speaking to so that your intended audience can identify you as their go to person or brand. Rather than limiting your market, you are simply refining your market and making sure your message gets delivered to the right people.
And the best part is, if someone else comes into contact with your content, your specificity won’t alienate them, it will give your brand context which in turn allows anyone who is interested, a clear path to enter into your world.
Hi! I’m Annie Aaroe, a b2b marketing strategist. To find out more about story-driven, conversion copy and strategy that’s tailored for tech and SaaS brands, visit my website, aaroewriting.com, or shoot me an email at annie@aaroewriting.com.