Who are your customers? Why are they your customers? What do you offer that your competitors do not? 

More importantly, what sort of content is your audience interested in? What do they enjoy, and what do they find compelling? What questions do they want you to answer, and what topics do they want to learn about? 

These are among the most important questions that you need to address. Understanding your audience is critical to your content marketing efforts. Without this knowledge, you cannot effectively target your content.

Let’s talk about where you can look to learn. 

Spend Some Time On Social

In addition to being among the most powerful marketing tools in your arsenal, social networks like Facebook are an incredibly valuable source of information on your audience. 

Examine who is interacting both with you and with your competitors. Take a look at their likes, their dislikes, the kind of language they use, and their primary demographics. Look at your social analytic data to see who’s currently engaged with your brand. 

There’s bound to be a fair bit of variance, of course. Your goal here isn’t to understand every single individual consumer, but rather to put together a picture of the common threads between each and every person. And as an added bonus, you can also get a more complete picture of what kind of content really resonates with people and generates the most engagement. 

Check Your Metrics

Although it may not always provide you with comprehensive information, your Google Search Console can nevertheless give you at least a partial picture of your website’s visitors. If you manage a digital storefront or use Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, you can augment your search and traffic data with information from both of these platforms. You’re looking to learn a few things here.

First and foremost, obviously, is who is visiting your website, and why — what search terms they’re using, what platform they came from, and what they’re doing after they arrive. Second, when they’re visiting your site, what time of day do you generate the most traffic? Finally, what they do just before they leave, whether that’s purchasing a product, signing up for an email, or simply bouncing. 

Ask Your Customers Directly

Last but certainly not least, have you considered just talking to your customers? 

If there’s one type of audience research we see consistently overlooked, it’s surveys and interviews. Businesses either assume they don’t have the time and resources to handle survey data or else it just never occurs to them to ask their audience what they want. Done right, however, this can be one of the most valuable sources of information you’ll ever collect.

Note that in order for your surveys to be as effective as possible, you’ll need to offer some sort of incentive for people who answer. Maybe they’ll get a temporary discount code, or get information about an upcoming new product. Maybe they’ll be entered into a contest or raffle. 

The point is, you need to give them a reason to answer beyond “I want them to.” 

Listen. Learn. Grow. 

A thorough understanding of one’s audience is the foundation of a successful business. By understanding who your customers are, what they want, and what type of content interests them, you can execute a more focused, better-targeted, and ultimately more successful content marketing strategy. At the end of the day, it’s easier than you’d think to do that, too.

You simply need to know where to look, and how to listen. 

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth ten times that. Modern audiences are intensely visual. It’s not surprising, then, that the streaming video market has grown positively titanic over the past few years. Per research aggregator Statista, digital advertising revenue is expected to top $11 billion by next year. 

On the video streaming front, meanwhile, marketing agency Allied Market Research reports that the video streaming market will reach $149.3 billion by 2026. With the massive shift towards digital and the upturn in streaming due to the coronavirus — news publication Variety reports a significant increase in video streaming subscriptions — the prominence of video will only increase. From a marketing perspective, this means that there’s a great deal of value in video, provided you can leverage it effectively.

This isn’t exactly secret knowledge, mind you. Video is memorable, easy to engage with, and easy to digest. It’s highly shareable, too, with a great deal of potential for bringing new traffic and generating brand awareness.

What you may not know is that video has a more direct connection with search engine optimization. Effective use of video has the potential to shoot your page up in the rankings. There are a few reasons for this. 

• Increased website traffic. Just as Google’s image search can display properly-optimized photos on your website, Google video search provides another means by which users can come across your brand. Just make sure you follow Google’s video best practices.
  • Ensure there’s a high-quality thumbnail image.
  • The video must be publicly available in order to be searched.
  • The video’s content must specifically apply to the host page.
  • Don’t hide your video with a complicated script. 
  • Use structured data markup or a video sitemap to describe your video. 
  • Make sure your site is verified in the Google Search Console. 
  • Host the video in a supported format. 
• Better engagement. Although we don’t know the exact weight, we do know that Google keeps a close eye on how long each visitor spends on your site. A video that’s engaging enough to keep people watching for a while will keep people on the page longer. And that, in turn, will improve your rankings.  
• More backlinks. As we’ve already said, video tends to be shared with great frequency. Where embedded video is concerned, that means more backlinks to your website. Not only does that increase your traffic, but it’s also likely to improve your placement. 
• Enhanced conversions. We saved the best for last. As mentioned, video can be an incredibly compelling marketing tool. Provided you’ve tailored your video content effectively and created it with a clear goal in mind, it can go a long way towards your conversion goals.

Used right, embedded video can be one of the most powerful tools in your marketing arsenal. It can increase both traffic and engagement, generate shares on social, and drive conversions to your site. It’s not a format that will work for every brand, nor every topic.

But for the topics that it does fit, it fits like a glove. 

To say that we’re living in a time of great cultural upheaval would be putting it lightly. From the coronavirus pandemic to the civil unrest surrounding George Floyd’s death, the world feels as though it’s existed on a razor’s edge for months. Not surprisingly, this has had a considerable impact on multiple industries, marketing included.

The current outlook for digital marketing now looks very different from what we all expected last year. This is understandable, though. There’s no way we could have predicted any of what’s transpired this year. 

What we can do, however, is consider how it will influence the marketing space moving forward. First, as reported by Forbes, we’ve seen a shift in consumer attitudes towards fully-digital marketing and social good. Expect to see an upturn in curated experiences supported by artificial intelligence. 

Consumers will also put a great deal more thought and deliberation into their purchase decisions, offering both capital and loyalty exclusively to businesses they feel they can trust.

In many ways, this is simply a ramping up of a trend we’ve already seen in the marketing space for quite some time. COVID-19 has simply supercharged it. For years, we’ve seen growing evidence that social responsibility and authenticity are critical cornerstones of effective branding. In the wake of the pandemic, their importance is now indisputable. 

Campaigns focused around self-love and body positivity will become more important as well, as noted by marketing agency Marvil56. Consumers were already growing tired of constant societal pressure to look flawless, to think, feel, and act a particular way.  By the time 2021 rolls around, it seems likely that these expectations and pressures will be a thing of the past.

Instead, people will be encouraged to take pride in who they are, to love both themselves and their imperfections while still striving to improve. Again, this is a marketing trend that is helped along by current events. Positivity is in short supply these days, and people are desperately seeking it wherever they can. 

Last, but not least, we’re going to see a greater focus on accuracy where marketing metrics are concerned, coupled with an emphasis on greater flexibility and foresight. The pandemic caught everyone off guard. None of us were prepared for it.

How could we? 

It’s been a strange year, and if current events are any indication, it will only get stranger before it ends. At this point, it seems safe to say that even the predictions we’ve made today may not still hold true in a few months. All we can do is ride out the storm, and hope we’ve made the right preparations. 

At this moment in time, no one is entirely certain when the coronavirus pandemic will end. Even as some regions look to reopen, businesses and people alike are still struggling with the isolation of remote work, the economic challenges of lockdown, and the emotional stress of the virus’s spread. It’s a difficult and trying situation for almost everyone involved.

That’s why it’s so important for customer-facing brands to engage with it.

People are exhausted right now. They’re tired, stressed, and afraid. They face an uncertain economic future, one marred by prolonged isolation and civil unrest.

Many of them are going to look at your business for comfort. They’re going to turn to you not just for a sense of normalcy, but for the assurance that things will ultimately turn out okay. It’s your job to give them that.

But what does that mean, exactly?

Per a Twitter survey released in April, a few things. 

First, 64 percent of consumers expressed the belief that brands should continue advertising products as normal. While it’s advisable to stay away from tone-deaf ad campaigns that involve travel or appeal to negative emotions, seeing products advertised as they usually would be offers some degree of comfort to 52 percent of users. There’s also one other caveat.

While people want the illusion of normalcy, they understand that our current situation is anything but normal. They expect businesses to acknowledge that. In that regard, you’ll want to take a more humanitarian approach in your business’s branding.

According to 82 percent of respondents, brands should look to support frontline health staff wherever possible, while 86 percent indicated that they should support vulnerable people within their communities. Reliability and authenticity are also extremely important, as is support for local communities and employees. 

This is where your website comes in. 

It’s highly advisable to publish a small statement on your frontpage about the novel coronavirus, and what measures your brand is taking to protect employees and customers from it. This statement, positioned at the top of each page on your site, only needs to be a few sentences at most. 

The initial statement should simply establish that you’re aware these are difficult times, and you’re doing everything you can to ease the impact on everyone. It should link to a page where you further explain your approach to COVID. On that page, you should explain the following. 

• How COVID has impacted the customer experience. This could include changes in hours, changes in delivery times, or changes in pricing. 
• What you’re doing to keep your employees safe.
• What additional measures you’re taking to safeguard customers. 
• How long you’ll be implementing all of the above measures.

These are difficult times for almost everyone. It’s up to you to do your part to ease everyone’s anxieties. And know that at the end of the day, we’ll get through this, and we’ll do it together. 

Owing at least in part to the coronavirus pandemic, mental health is at the fore of everyone’s minds. It’s no secret that people are struggling right now. We are stressed, fearful, and worn down by all the chaos and civil unrest. 

It’s wearing on us. As reported by the World Health Organization, the coronavirus pandemic has created significant mental health fallout. And it’s only going to get worse.

“Mental health repercussions regarding what is happening during this pandemic for people, today and beyond, will really be a problem in general,” explains neurologist Dr. Konstantinos Petsanis, speaking to the WHO. “Unless we act now to address the mental health needs associated with the pandemic, there will be enormous long-term consequences for families, communities, and societies.” 

Your business plays an extremely important role in this response. First and foremost, it’s imperative that you destigmatize conversations around mental health as part of your organizational culture. Employees should feel comfortable discussing their struggles with mental illness in a work environment, and medication and treatment for these illnesses should be covered by their health plans. 

Beyond that, however, there’s another way you can contribute —through your marketing. 

Perhaps the best example of this in practice is Bell Let’s Talk. First created in 2011 by Canadian telecommunications corporation Bell, its premise is simple. One day each year, Bell donates five cents for every message and call that includes #BellLetsTalk. 

The initiative has, over the course of its lifetime, raised over $100 million for mental health. Perhaps more importantly, however, it kicked off a series of incredibly important conversations about mental health. Although it hasn’t single-handedly destigmatized mental illness in Canada, it’s gone a long way towards helping people open up to the ideas of talking about their struggles with issues like anxiety and depression. 

There are a few key things you can learn from Bell Let’s Talk to apply to your brand’s own mental health marketing efforts.

• First, understand that this isn’t about you or your business. You are using your brand to promote a worthy cause. To help both customers and employees who may be struggling with mental illness. Don’t treat it as a sales opportunity, but instead focus on education. 
• Second, your marketing materials should align with a mental-health-positive corporate culture. Mental illness should not be presented as something horrible or shameful, but rather a disability that many people struggle with. 
• Finally, if you can find a way to wrap your campaign in with some sort of cause or nonprofit, do so. Awareness only goes so far. Action can go farther.

We’ve made great strides in eliminating the stigma around mental health. However, we still have a long way to go. Starting conversations around mental health via your marketing channels is one critical way your business can, and should, contribute.

Especially right now.  

Marketing and politics can no longer be kept separate from one another. Maybe they never could. Either way, brands have woken up to the fact that modern consumers desire more than simply a product.

They want a brand that actually has principles and values. In a recent report by PR agency 5WPR, 83 percent of millennial respondents want companies whose values align with their own, and 76 percent believe executives should speak out on issues they care about. 

Moreover, a further 65 percent said they have boycotted a brand that didn’t share their beliefs on an issue, while 62 percent favor products that allow them to show off these beliefs. 

Millennials now have the greatest buying power of any generation. Combined with Generation Z, which shares many of their values, the total spending power of millennials, according to real estate firm Coldwell Banker, will top $68 trillion by 2030. In short, it’s a generation you want to learn how to market to if your business is going to thrive.

However, you need to be careful that when you adopt a particular stance on an issue, your business’s behavior actually aligns with that stance. You cannot, for instance, support Pride Month if your business allows franchise owners to discriminate against transgender individuals. You cannot claim to support movements such as Black Lives Matter if your hiring practices and internal culture aren’t supportive of black people. 

There’s a term for this lack of alignment —for the cognitive dissonance created by a business that says one thing and does another. Wokewashing. At its most basic, it’s when a brand treats a sociopolitical issue as a marketing opportunity without actually supporting it. 

As reported by The Guardian, it happens a lot. We see it in major brands that release Pride-themed products one month of the year, and then promptly forget that the LGBTQIA+ community exists, even openly operating in markets that openly hate homosexuality. We see it in businesses that challenge misogyny while maintaining a toxic workplace culture that doesn’t provide paid maternity leave. 

The good news is that it’s relatively easy to avoid this pitfall. Simply fall the old adage practice what you preach. If you’re going to support a cause, actually do it. Don’t just treat it as a marketing opportunity or a singular advertising campaign.

Seek partnerships with charitable organizations. Have serious conversations with people within your business who have direct stakes in the cause you’re supporting. In other words, make an active effort to be better. 

At the end of the day, social good should never be treated solely as a means of selling more products and services. Your business and its people need to want to do good. Because if you don’t, every effort you make will come across as hollow.