1. Define Your Reader Personas

While marketers usually talk about “ buyer personas,” we like to refer to them as “reader personas,” since the group of users consuming your content can be broader than just buyers. As an example, you create blog posts to also get people to share them, and while not all of them will be potential buyers, they are still highly valuable as they help you spread the word.

So, you need to understand who you’re writing for, their background, and what information/value they are looking to get. This will help you tailor your content, messaging and tone of voice to meet the specific needs, behaviors, and concerns of your readers, and, ultimately, build trusted relationships with them.

Here’s the kind of information that can help you understand them better:

• Demographics (age/gender, level of income, location, family status, level of education);
• Professional status (job title, level, industry);
• Psychographics (professional/personal goals, beliefs and values);
• Pain points and challenges;
• Interests;
• Influences and information sources (preferred blogs, social networks, websites, influencers they trust, favorite events);
• Buying habits (their role in the purchase decision-making process, potential lifetime cycle, what can stop them from making a purchase).

You can get creative with your research, but here are a few ways to uncover this information: 

• Carry out interviews with your existing customers or talk to your sales team — they speak to customers and high-potential leads all day.
• Look for audience data from Google Analytics and Facebook Audience Insights. 
• Dive into the communities your reader personas are present in, adapt to the way they speak, and consider the problems they face.
• Discover the in-market audience data from Semrush market research tools.

2. Understand Your Audience’s Search Intent

Google pays a LOT of attention to understanding user queries and delivering results based on them. The Hummingbird algorithm, which is based on a semantic approach, has changed the SERPs dramatically. 

Here’s an explanation by Danny Sullivan, journalist and co-founder of Third Door Media:

“Hummingbird is paying more attention to each word in a query, ensuring that the whole query — the whole sentence or conversation or meaning — is taken into account, rather than particular words. The goal is that pages matching the meaning do better, rather than pages matching just a few words.”

There are four different types of search intent based on what a searcher is looking for:

• Informational — looking for specific information on a topic (e.g., “what should my tire pressure be”). 
• Navigational — wants to get to a specific web page or site (e.g., “walmart tires”).
• Commercial — wants to investigate their options (e.g., “best all season tires”). 
• Transactional — wants to purchase something as soon as possible (e.g., “tire shops open near me”). 

The readers’ search intent determines the content format you choose, the message you convey, and the call-to-action you include.

3. Come Up with a Win-Win Formula: Your Goal + Readers’ Intent

Make sure to set a goal for each blog and map out a way the blog facilitates this goal.

For example, let’s say your goal for a post is to bring attention to an ebook you’ve recently published.
Your blog post content would be related to the content of the ebook — likely at a higher level — and then your call to action (CTA) for your reader, at the very end of the post, and possibly throughout the post, would be to download the ebook to get deeper insights. 

To get them there, it’s important that your post is answering readers’ questions (discovered through keyword and topic research, etc.) and satisfying their search intent. If you write for your reader and address their needs, concerns, interests and objectives, then they’ll be more likely to accept your CTA.

In other cases, your goal might be to increase organic traffic to your site or get X number of shares for your post. The key is to: 

• Set your goal(s) prior to creating your content so you know how to track progress and determine whether the blog has been successful.
• Think in advance about what will help you achieve this goal. For example, if you want the blog to be shared on social media, consider all the creative assets you’ll need, who will produce them, how to make it viral, which influencers to attract, etc.

4. Research the Topic from the Inside Out

Before the Hummingbird algorithm, everything was related to keywords. Now, topic research is a logical response to how Google is interpreting search queries. 

Keyword analysis is just one step in your content strategy. It’s also essential to investigate the topic from the inside out to really understand people’s challenges and intent. This knowledge, combined with keyword research, will lead you to the content that answers readers’ most common questions.

You won’t believe how a helpful response to a reader’s request can affect their movement through your marketing funnel.