What are some ways to ensure that everyone on a content management team is aware of the target audience?

Es crucial que el equipo de gestión de contenidos tenga una comprensión clara y detallada de las personas de su público objetivo. Realizar investigaciones y recopilar datos sobre la demografía, comportamientos, objetivos y desafíos de la audiencia es fundamental para crear contenidos efectivos y relevantes. Además, es importante que el equipo de gestión de contenidos se mantenga actualizado sobre cualquier cambio en las preferencias y necesidades de su público objetivo para adaptar su estrategia de contenido en consecuencia. Mantener un enfoque centrado en las personas ayudará a garantizar que el contenido creado resuene con la audiencia y genere un mayor impacto.

Do a team activity where everyone gets to be in the shoes of the target audience. Get your team to discuss where the target audience shops, hangs out, reads, and travels. This will help bring more ideas to the table and define the target audience better.

You can't build personas without real-life examples to draw from. Talk to your most-valued customers and get a feel for who they are, what made them come to you, what they think about on a daily basis, what they like to read, and so on. If you can't talk directly to the customer, talk to your account management and customer success teams – they're the ones who engage with your customers regularly and help them get around any kinds of issues they may be facing. From that, you'll have plenty of info to start building personas.

Following frameworks and doin clear communication is the key! Meeting the targeted audience's demand is crucial. Clear directions with accurate framework is essential.

Build a messaging matrix for each audience and have it as a reference for your content team. This will make sure everyone in the team knows perfectly the brand’s core messaging and positioning perfectly.

The team should spend a significant amount of time doing community management. It is not the most glamorous part of the job, but it is crucial. Through community management, the team engages with the audience and finds out who they are, their challenges, and what matters to them. The team should look at past content and how it was received by the audience. Direct feedback and insight can be gained from this. Team meetings are also necessary to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Communication should not flow in one direction; everyone should participate in giving feedback. I believe work-related team activities are another fun way for the team to stay engaged on the topic of their audience.

Make the Target Audience Visible: Post target audience personas in common areas: Display visually engaging representations of the target audience in team spaces as a constant reminder of who they are creating for. Use real-world examples: Share testimonials, case studies, or user feedback that reflect the target audience's voice and experiences. This personalizes the audience and makes them more relatable. Incorporate audience feedback directly: If possible, involve the target audience in beta testing or focus groups to gather direct feedback on content. This firsthand insight can shape future content creation strategies.

Every good account executive team and product marketing team has recordings of their interactions with prospects (discovery calls) and customers (case studies). There is gold in those calls if you're looking for direct feedback and insights from your target audience. Many content teams make the mistake of determining what resonates with their audience – that should only be determined by the audience itself through directly engaging the audience, surveying them, and analyzing traffic data. They are the bosses and experts, not you. So get your insights from *them*.

Communication between clients and content marketers is extremely important. The customer care team can really help bridge this gap by sharing the struggles and demands of the clients to the marketers. By filling this gap, the marketer will not only understand the target audience better but also tailor content better for clients.

Never make the mistake of thinking your content is special. The internet is absolutely packed with content just like yours. When your audience searches for content online, they won't actively pursue your content because you're not that special. You're just one of hundreds or even thousands of content teams out there creating content for people like them. What they *will* consume is something that provides something fresh and interesting and new, even on a tired topic. A great question to ask is: "What is the audience actively looking for online that they aren't yet able to find?" And it's your job to provide that.

Create a content style guide that serves as the Bible for the entire content team (including marketing and product). The target audience should be a separate chapter/section outlining detailed personas. And ensure that every new team member is taken through this guide during their induction/onboarding. Writers HAVE to know who they're writing for if the content is going to have an impact. This is non-negotiable for any content team.

Set the personas, content strategy, style guides, and frameworks aside for a bit and arrange for at least the key members of your content management team to meet with living, breathing members of your target audience so they can learn from them personally and ask questions. Give CM team members "bonus points" if they spark up working relationships with members of your target audience because of these meetings.