Comprehensive content strategy? Check.
Capable team and content function? Check.
Well-written content assets? Check.
When you have all the pieces in place but your content isn’t delivering the results you want, it’s time to consider that you may not have a content problem. You may have an audience problem.
Content that doesn’t clearly reflect who it’s for—what that audience already knows, what they care about, and how they consume information—is easy to ignore. Even if it’s substantive and high-quality.
This problem rears its ugly head in both external and internal communication. Whether you’re marketing to customers or communicating with the people inside your organization, here are a few common audience-related mistakes to avoid. (Note: We’ll use the term “customers” throughout this piece for simplicity’s sake, but the same ideas apply if you swap “customers” for employees.)
Mistake 1: Writing General Content for Multiple Audience Segments
Trying to speak to too many audiences with the same content often results in failing to fully engage anyone. When pursuing a multi-segment strategy, adjust your approach for each group. That includes everything from the topics you write about to the channels where you show up.
At the same time, be realistic about your team’s capacity. If you don’t have the resources to support multiple segmented content streams, choose the most critical audience and focus your efforts there first. Clear, focused messaging often resonates beyond its intended target anyway.
You can expand to additional segments over time. Ideally, you’ll begin to develop general processes and workflows that can be applied to developing content for any segment, so you’re not reinventing the wheel for each one.
Mistake 2: Writing More for Your Peers than Your Customers
It’s natural to default to peer-level communication—language that signals expertise, sophistication, and credibility to colleagues and competitors. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that…if your goal is to reach your peers. That may be the case if you’re building a thought leadership program for an executive. But if your objective is to attract and engage buyers, this approach can backfire.
Content that comes across as overly technical or abstract signals to potential customers, “this isn’t for me.” That’s because customers typically don’t have the same context, vocabulary, or priorities as someone deep inside the industry.
Effective content respects its audience by meeting them where they are. If you’re unsure where your audience falls on the sophistication spectrum, err on the side of over-explaining. A brief clarifying sentence or two can be the difference between keeping a reader engaged and leaving them feeling excluded or confused.
Mistake 3: Showing Up in the Wrong Places or with the Wrong Types of Content
Even well-targeted, well-written messages can fail to land if they’re delivered in the wrong format or on the wrong platform. Some questions worth asking:
- Where does your audience actually spend time?
- What content formats do they trust and gravitate toward?
- Which topics will immediately pique their interest?
For example, senior executives in pharma and life sciences often engage with content through bylines and opinion pieces that help them make sense of broader trends. If you’re looking to earn their attention, you might prioritize long-form thought leadership articles in industry publications over, say, branded blog content.
Get Support Writing about Complex Topics for Complex Audiences
Writing for the right audience is especially challenging when companies need to communicate with vastly different audience segments. You can’t share the same messages for patients and clinicians, for prospective clients and investors, and expect to get results.
At Every Little Word, we specialize in speaking about complex topics to complex audiences. Our approach results in substantive, high-quality content that respects the needs, interests, and intelligence of the people you serve. Book a call to learn more.
