Welcome to our “How to Make Money as a Content Creator Course”. In this course, you’ll learn how you can earn money online doing what you love. I’m James Caran, content creator at WayAway and Travelpayouts. In Lesson 2, we’ll go over ways you can learn more about your audience and explain how doing so can set you up for success as a content creator.
Have you ever heard the saying “Appeal to everyone, and you’ll appeal to no one”? While this phrase holds true, what does it have to do with you as a content creator? That’s simple. For you, it means that you need to find out who is likely to be interested in your content and how you can produce the right content for the right people. In other words, you need to define your target audience. Sounds like a daunting task? Well, it’s not. In this lesson, we’ll cover everything you need to understand your audience and create content that’ll drive a chord with them. Let’s get the ball rolling.
If you’re new to content creation, you don’t need to undertake massive audience research. Instead, start small and do a bit of brainstorming. Ask yourself: Who is most likely to be interested in your content? For instance, what’s their age, education, location, and family status?
Next, put yourself in your audience’s shoes, and imagine what sort of problems, challenges, and fears these people might face and how your content can alleviate those issues. Also, think about their topics of interest, what they are looking to achieve, and how you can help them do it. Understanding this will help you match your content and message to what your audience wants to hear.
Let’s run through an example to make sure everything is crystal clear. Imagine you want to start a blog about motor home travel. Odds are, your audience is struggling to choose a motor home or looking for a way to fund a long-term motor home tour. Or, perhaps, their goal is to become digital nomads, and they need advice on how to make money on the road.
Once you’re done brainstorming, it’s time to listen to your audience. You can get tons of insights if you explore relevant discussion forums or Facebook groups. You can also search on platforms such as Quora or Reddit to pin down the specific questions about your niche that people are frequently asking about.
These two strategies alone can provide you with a lot of info about your audience. To help you structure the insights gained, we’ve prepared an audience research template. Check it out in the Resources section.
If you’re ready to take things one step further, check out your competition. Spy on creators within your niche via social media. See what types of people follow them and who they are creating content for.
If you already have an existing audience, make sure to have a conversation with them on social media or conduct user surveys using tools such as Google forms, Survey Monkey, Typeform, etc.
Another way to get a lot of insights about your existing audience is to use in-built social media analytics tools or analyze demographics and interest data with Google Analytics.
To learn more about how to use Google Analytics for audience research, check out the Resources section.
Once you’ve built up a clear understanding of your audience, it’s time to create a specific image of your ideal target user with a buyer persona. Buyer personas allow you to relate to your ideal customers as real people and create targeted messages that resonate with them. How can you make one? You can do it hassle-free with a free buyer persona tool by HubSpot or SEMrush. Find the link in the Resources section.
Let’s put it all together:
In the next lesson, you’ll learn how to choose a platform to get your content in front of people. Stay with us! Meanwhile, think about what sort of people might be interested in your content, what challenges and dreams they have, and how your content can help them. Good luck and see you soon!
