Know what's going on: how to turn your target group into a true brand ambassador

Relevance, such a nice term to add to the marketing dictionary. At the same time, for me as a content strategist, relevance is the basis for everything I do. You don't want a content strategy without relevant objectives or formats. A content strategy that matters, that's what you want! Do you want to unleash something from your target group? Then it's important to know what's going on.

You can learn to analyze

By analyzing your target group, you'll discover what their content needs are. Expensive studies are one way to discover this. But for many smaller organizations with limited marketing budgets, this is unaffordable. With the right insights, you can go a long way yourself. Just put those antennae to work!

A different view of your own channels

Comments on your social media posts are a helpful source of inspiration when you want to create new content. This curiosity of the crowd not only provides insight into the sentiment surrounding your brand, it also shows what questions or themes are facing your target group. Are there topics, questions, or responses that recur more often? You can do something with that. For example, on your Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page.

From account manager to receptionist

What applies to online comments also applies to offline comments. There are account managers, receptionists or customer service representatives at many companies. They interact with customers on a daily basis, and are therefore a wealth of information that you can use in your content. Have a cup of coffee and take stock of what the FAQs are. Or go big and centralize all the questions your customers ask. Just real time. This is how you build a database full of content inspiration. An additional advantage: by tackling questions from your target group during their content customer journey, your colleagues create space for other activities.

A great example of translating these insights into useful content is the hotel locator of our customer Swiss Sense Business. Account managers noted that they were often asked where to view the Hotel Collection. In the absence of a physical showroom, they developed the hotel locator; a digital overview of all hotels, holiday parks, glamping sites, campsites and B&Bs that own a product from the Hotel Collection. Includes an invitation to test the box springs live.

Online gold mines full of content ideas

In addition to the direct information you get from your target group, the global web is full of many more sources of inspiration. Think of catch-up calendars or analysis platforms. Here are a few of my favorites:

◦ Google trends shows you how many times a topic you entered was searched for over a period of time and in which geographic regions it was searched for.
◦ Answerthepublic makes visible questions that people ask about a specific topic.
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Hook-up calendars, such as FrankWatching's, allow you to see what holidays are happening within your target group. Choose accurate dates to connect with your target group.

Ask: tap into your own channels

In addition to automated sources, you can also actively ask about what is going on within your target group. The advantage is that it allows you to ask more specific questions. Your own channels are perfect for that. Think of posting polls via LinkedIn. A functionality that The Drum often makes grateful use of. Or think of asking questions via Instagram or Facebook stories like Goodiebox is so good at. For Goodiebox, it's a way to find out which products they can add to their next box. That's what people call listening to the target group again!

You can also build in mini-surveys elsewhere in your customer journey. Think of an open field for topic suggestions at the bottom of a blog article, a rating button that pops up after completing an online order, or a mini-survey at various locations in your marketing automation flow. Let's face it, who has never received an email after ordering a package via bol.com or Coolblue?

Target group and best friend

My most important message? Don't just send messages that come from your organization. Also listen to your target group and use their wishes and needs to create new content. Because only by being relevant can you turn your target group into a true brand ambassador. ❤️

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