It’s no great secret that marketers should write for a target audience. It’s the key to creating relatable content that builds connections with your customers instead of just pushing products. Not only that, but targeting your content is a surefire way to improve your results overall. But figuring out what your audience cares about can make you feel like a wannabe mind reader who just flunked out of ESP school — directionless and coming up blank.
So, what is your audience looking at? You might assume that you can answer this question with web analytics or Instagram likes, but that’s only part of the story. If you want to really capture their attention, you need to understand all their behavior — beyond how they interact with your brand.
Understanding your audience: The basics
Before you start churning out content, you need to figure out your audience and get specific about who they are so you can create content that will catch their attention and engage them. Otherwise, you’re just shouting into — well, not a void, exactly. More like a very, very crowded building filled with millions of other voices, all competing for attention.
Start by defining your ideal customers’ traits. No, “all pet owners” or “any women over 40” won’t cut it. Go deeper by considering these factors:
- Demographics – Population data like age, income, and race
- Lifestyle – Hobbies and spending habits
- Psychographics – The beliefs and goals that motivate them
Establishing a specific audience will help you create more meaningful, targeted content. For example, well-to-do dog owners might love reading about dog-friendly vacation spots and high-tech enrichment toys. But people with more limited budgets may skip right over this content — or worse, feel alienated.
You may feel tempted to skip this step, especially if you’ve been marketing for a while. But assuming you know everything about your audience is a dangerous game. Customers’ interests and needs are always shifting. For instance, the rise of remote work after 2020 has given some people more spare time for hobbies.
The economy also affects behavior. Those middle-class clients, for instance, might start prioritizing needs over luxuries — yes to leashes and treats, no to expensive dog toys. If you don’t recognize and adapt to that change, you could lose customers. Assuming your audience likes or needs certain things is a gamble in today’s world and can turn people off about your business.
Creating effective user personas
Even a relatively narrow target audience like “female dog owners over 30 in the Midwest” isn’t a monolith. You’ll always have smaller subgroups with similar interests and needs.
You can represent each of these groups with characters called user personas. They help you picture your sub-audiences more clearly and develop more tailored content. Basically, you’re putting a (fictional) face and name to your customers so you can address their needs better.
Start by gathering demographic and psychographic data about your existing customers (more on this in the next section). Look for trends in this data, and use it to identify a few subgroups with similar traits. With a little creative writing, based on fact, these groups will become your user personas.
These characters can help you predict your audience’s interests. To build on the above example, let’s say one of your personas is Dog Sport Debbie. She’s a forty-something realtor who spends most of her spare time (and money) training her two Australian Shepherds. On the weekends, you’ll find her at dog shows or hiking. She’s passionate about keeping her pets in top shape, so you can engage her with content related to supplements and doggy fitness.
User personas work best when they’re grounded firmly in data. If your audience’s average income is less than $50,000, don’t pretend Debbie is a neurosurgeon — that will just skew your marketing. There’s also no need to invent an elaborate backstory about Debbie’s tragic divorce from her high school sweetheart. Keep it relevant to your business.
Discovering what your audience cares about
Surveying your audience to ask about their interests is one way to go about this, but you can’t rely on that method alone. People don’t always tell the truth or even understand their own behavior and motivations.
Luckily, there are plenty of indirect ways to learn about your customers. All these techniques are perfectly ethical and effective.
Analyze user feedback and questions
Your customers already give you data every time they interact with your company. Comb through your emails and other communications for audience insights. For example, if dozens of customers ask how to clean your product, you could engage them with a how-to video.
Pay attention to reviews, too. Many clients are quick to point out what they dislike about your business or what they think is missing. These negative reviews might sting, but they’re actually a gift — unwanted but still useful. If you can see past the criticism, you can learn a lot more about your audience’s preferences.
Use social listening tools
Customers often discuss their interests and pain points on social media. Facebook hiking groups, for instance, are full of posts asking for gear recommendations. Social listening tools let you take a peek at what your audience is talking about and see what’s trending. Hashtags can also help you keep up with — and then join — the conversation.
Invite customers to complete surveys
I know, I know — I’ve already said you can’t rely on surveys alone. But they can be incredibly useful, especially when you use them alongside other data collection tools.
Asking the right questions is key. Your surveys should be:
- Worded in plain language
- Phrased as clearly as possible
- Neutral — don’t try to guide customers to a specific answer
- Consistently structured to avoid confusion
Digital body language: What it reveals
You might not think much about your absentminded doom-scrolling or all the time you spend watching The Hunger Games edits. But your online behavior says a lot about your interests, even if it’s just that you’re obsessed with dystopian movies.
As a marketer, you can use online behavior to figure out your audience’s interests. You can use a platform like Google Analytics to track web traffic. It shows you how users get around your site and where they spend the most time. If they tend to linger on blog posts with videos, you can assume they’re interested in that type of content. But if they bounce immediately, you’ve failed to grab their attention.
Social media also provides a wealth of engagement data. Pull up your analytics dashboard — every platform has one for businesses — and look for patterns. For example, you might notice that your morning posts always get more comments and likes than evening ones. Scheduling content for earlier in the day could help you get more interaction. Pay attention to the types of content they’re engaging with as well as the topic. When you know what’s catching their attention, you can do more of that to improve your results.
The type of device is another factor that affects audience attention. A 2023 study found that mobile users “are more efficient, but engage in less information processing [and] are less attentive” than PC users. If your customers tend to browse on their phones, you’ll need to hook them immediately with powerful storytelling or flashy visuals.
Email engagement patterns
Investing in email tracking software is another great way to learn about your audience’s interests. Tools like Constant Contact allow you to track many email metrics, including:
- Click-through rate
- Conversion rate
- Open rate
- Unsubscribes
This data reveals if and how subscribers are engaging with your emails. If a message has a high conversion rate, it’s time to pop the metaphorical champagne. Clearly, your audience liked it. But if an email triggers a wave of unsubscribes, you know you’ve missed the mark.
Use this software to experiment with different content. For instance, you could send pun-filled subject lines to some customers — just don’t make them too corny — while others get personalized ones with their names. By tracking open rates, you can see which approach works best.
Different designs can affect clicks, too. Even seemingly small changes like putting an image at the top of the email make an impact. If you need inspiration, join mailing lists for other companies in your industry — it’s research, not cheating.
Social media attention insights
Learning how to keep your audience engaged on social media isn’t easy. Start by analyzing attention patterns on different social media platforms. According to a 2023 study, companies get significantly more engagement on TikTok than Instagram or X (formerly Twitter). The researchers also found that “brand-created short videos are more likely to be accepted by customers than longer videos.”
But that’s not necessarily universal. If you’re targeting educated hobbyists, they might be thrilled to watch long-form videos. For example, REI’s educational Miranda in the Wild series on YouTube has over half a million views. Meanwhile, certain demographics — like younger users — might be more swipe-happy on TikTok than others.
Platform analytics help you understand what appeals to your specific customers. This data can also reveal the best timing patterns for audience engagement. On LinkedIn, you may get more likes on weekday mornings — even the busiest professionals need something to read on their coffee breaks — while evenings might be the sweet spot for Instagram.
Finding what your audience is searching for
Okay, so now you have a sense of what your audience looks at and even when they’re doing it. But you also need to figure out how they come across your content and, more importantly, if they’re searching for other topics you could address.
Get started with keyword research tools like Ahrefs or Google Search Console. This software detects all the search terms that bring users to your website. If you sell cookware, for instance, customers might be looking for “best crock pot for single person” and “Gordon Ramsay’s favorite pans.”
But don’t stop with a surface-level analysis. You can also use these tools to:
- Analyze the searcher’s goal, such as buying a new crock pot or finding recipes
- Find gaps in your competitors’ search engine optimization (SEO) strategy
- Spot trending search terms in your niche
These insights can spark countless content ideas. If you notice an upswing in searches for “crockpot recipes for dogs,” you might create blog posts and video tutorials. Don’t think of it as chasing trends — you’re giving the people what they want and growing your audience.
The role of visual elements in capturing attention
It’s common knowledge that consuming content on a screen is very different from reading a print novel. But you may not realize just how much it affects your audience’s attention.
A 2023 eye-tracking study found that smartphone users tend to focus on specific areas of the screen instead of reading from top to bottom. In fact, 31 out of 47 participants (66%) never looked at a third of the screen while reading. In other words, there’s no reason to pack the full screen with dense text. They just won’t see it.
The amount of text also affects how users interact with digital content. When they encounter text-heavy sites, readers tend to scan in an “F” pattern — from left to right across the top of the page, then vertically down the left side until something snags their interest. Sparser text encourages a “Z” pattern — across the top and then skimming to the bottom.
Take advantage of this behavior by using F or Z patterns to organize your content. For example, you might bold key sentences in the middle so readers don’t skip over them. Bullet points can also make content easier to digest.
Focus on visuals, too. Color psychology may seem a little out there, but different shades really do influence your audience’s emotions and actions. High-quality images can also grab attention and help you tell memorable stories.
Just don’t rely on artificial intelligence (AI) visuals. A 2024 study found that customers are less likely to buy when companies use these generated images — not the reaction you’re going for.
Targeting the right people with the right messages
When customers give you their email address, they’re trusting you not to spam them with generic or irrelevant content. The last thing you want to do is break this unspoken contract.
Use click segmentation to organize your mailing list into groups with shared behavior and interests. Budget-conscious customers might click all your coupons, while hobbyists may watch embedded videos. Once they’ve sorted themselves into groups, it’s easier to send more of the content they love.
Here are a few more strategies to help you create email marketing campaigns that make your customers want to click, not unsubscribe:
- Add dynamic content, such as personalized names and product recommendations
- Switch up how you frame your messages based on each segment’s behavior and needs
- Use A/B testing to refine your messaging with every email
Measuring audience engagement effectively
There’s nothing more thrilling than watching your Instagram likes and page views climb. Success, right? Not quite. These so-called “vanity metrics” don’t actually tell you much about audience engagement. After all, you probably like random posts all the time without buying anything or even noticing the brand name.
See the full picture by tracking meaningful marketing metrics, such as:
- Bounce rate
- Conversion rate
- Retention rate
- Return on investment
- Search engine rankings
Tools like Google Analytics let you set up automatic tracking to capture attention patterns. They also allow you to customize dashboards with data visualizations and other resources for audience behavior insights.
Common attention barriers to overcome
In today’s world, information overload is real. Information online moves at lightning speed. Your audience can be distracted by a new email, notification, or a new video at any second, pulling their focus away from your information. These do’s and don’ts will help you maintain their attention:
- Do space out content to avoid audience fatigue
- Do use strategies like compressing images to speed up load times on pages
- Do make your design accessible and easy to navigate
- Don’t forget to check your website frequently for technical issues
- Don’t overload customers with information
- Don’t distract users with flashy animations or random popups
Optimizing based on audience attention data
Even the best marketing campaigns have room for improvement. But don’t make wild guesses about what you should change. Always rely on cold, hard data to make logical decisions.
Heat maps reveal how people interact with your website. Use this data to spot cold or less engaging content and improve it. And keep an eye on click patterns. If your call-to-actions aren’t getting much love, you may need to move them to a different spot.
Additionally, engagement analysis can help you pinpoint issues with your email design. If your open rates are low, your subject lines probably need a little more pizzazz — or maybe less pizzazz, depending on your customers. Or maybe emails with interactive quizzes are always a hit, but customers overlook static messages.
You may even discover that placing your CTA in the top third of the message is more effective than the bottom third. These findings can help you create the best emails for your target audience.
Make lasting connections in a hectic world
Now that businesses have access to so much wonderful technology, you might assume that it’s easier than ever to hook customers. But that’s not true. From email to TikTok, your audience has almost limitless content competing for their attention.
Forget about quick hacks like viral posts or buying email subscribers. If you want to stand out, you must understand your audience and create content they actually need. It’s as simple — and as challenging — as that. Get started by developing user personas, and don’t be afraid to experiment with new strategies.
Once you’ve launched your campaign, use metrics like bounce rates and search engine rankings to track engagement. And pay attention to any changes in user behavior, too. These subtle shifts often signal that it’s time to tweak your strategy.
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