By: Sarah Rassasse, Marketing Director, Valtech MENA

In the fast-paced world of marketing, content creation has become the beating heart of our strategies. Videos, blog posts, social media updates – the list goes on. However, it’s time to face a harsh truth: a significant chunk of these efforts is often misdirected, targeting the wrong audience. As the Marketing Director, I’ve witnessed firsthand the consequences of this all-too-common mistake.

While I can’t provide an exact percentage, I can vouch for the prevalence of the issue. It’s not exclusive to content marketing; similar issues persist across various practices. The root cause lies in a tendency to lose sight of the target audience when transitioning from strategy to content production.

The Common Pitfall: Losing Focus on the Audience

In the race to create captivating content, marketers often overlook the essence of why content marketing exists. The focus on the client diminishes during the transition from strategy planning to content creation, resulting in a mishmash of content catering to the target audience, decision-makers, or fellow marketers.

Rather than ensuring content aligns with communication policies and grammatical perfection, we should prioritize producing content that yields results, emphasizing conversion rates and optimization.

Avoiding Pitfalls: Four Practical Tips

  1. Help the Client, Not Your Business: Focus on the target audience’s challenges rather than promoting your product or service. Identify the problems your clients face and create content that offers solutions, showcasing your expertise and providing tangible value.
  2. Listen to Your Audience, Not Your Colleagues: Seek feedback from your target audience, not just from internal stakeholders. Use relevant metrics like readership, time spent on site, and conversions to gauge the impact of your content. High bounce rates and low engagement signal a misalignment with your audience – adjust your strategy accordingly.
  3. Let Clients Speak for You: Leverage social proof by featuring client testimonials and reviews. Authenticity resonates more with your target audience than polished marketing speak. Embrace imperfections in language or expression; they reinforce the genuine nature of client testimonials.
  4. Less is more: while quantity may seem important, overwhelming your target audience with as much content as possible in the hope that you remain top of mind at all times isn’t the best strategy. Targeted pieces of content that are designed to solve your clients’ problem spaces is a far better strategy to ensure you resonate with the right target audience as well as create brand weight. 

In Conclusion

In the pursuit of effective content marketing, focus on what truly matters. Shift the spotlight from trivialities that appeal to decision-makers to content that genuinely resonates with your audience. At Valtech MENA, we understand that resources are precious, and our commitment lies in delivering content that matters – content that not only speaks to our clients but is also endorsed by them. It’s time to redefine our approach and ensure our content aligns with the needs of those we aim to serve.