Content consumption by demographic
Regardless of what they are marketing, or who they are marketing to, this goal remains the same. Unfortunately, while it is a straightforward goal, it can be difficult to achieve.
The goal of any content marketing manager is to have their audience absorb their content. Regardless of what they are marketing, or who they are marketing to, this goal remains the same. Unfortunately, while it is a straightforward goal, it can be difficult to achieve. A big aspect of it is growing to understand your audience. That way you can create content that will actually catch and maintain their attention. With that in mind, we will give you a basic rundown of content consumption by demographic. Furthermore, we will take a closer look at how to create content that will be suitable for your target audience. So, let's begin.
A basic rundown of content consumption by demographic
Trying to find out exactly what type of content a certain demographic consumes is usually not worth the effort. For academic purposes, it can be. But, for the purposes of marketing, you are much better off getting a general idea of a specific demographic. You can then use that as a base to create content for your target audience, and learn over time what will actually work. When you factor in all the elements that go into content creation, you will soon realize that precisely outlining what your target audience will react to is impossible without experimentation.
Let's start our basic rundown by stating that the following will be generalizations. As you can imagine, personal differences can play a big role in what someone prefers. So take the following with a grain of salt, and understand that they represent a simplified view of what specific demographics prefer.
The older people are, the more they prefer more straightforward marketing. Younger people tend to be wowed by the pazazz or by more creative approaches to marketing. Clever lines, interesting animations, funny messages... These tend to work with younger audiences. The older the audience gets, the more your marketing has to be straightforward. Visual content is effective across all demographics. But, it is useful to mention that men will value the informative value of visual content, while women will put more emphasis on aesthetics.
Modern audiences by and large prefer bite-sized content, that won't take up much of their time. Elderly people tend to prefer calmer content with relatively warm colors. Younger people will be more receptive to more energetic content with vibrant colors. Furthermore, younger are more likely to interact with your content, if given the choice. But elderly people are more likely to provide personal info if presented properly.
Growing to understand your audience
What we've outlined so far should give you an idea of how to start creating suitable content for your target demographic. Of course, this is only the start of what will be a long process of you learning what your customer base is truly like. As a rule, you want to set u proper analytics systems before you start tackling content marketing. That way you can get customer insight from the start. Such systems will not only provide data about content consumption by demographic but will also point out whether your approach to marketing, in general, is effective. You'd be smart to invest in decent marketing analytics tools and have a more data-driven approach when it comes to decision-making.
Creating content for your demographic
To help you better understand how to approach your audience, we will elaborate on the content aspects that can differ based on demographics. Again, it is paramount that you first outline who your target audience is, and only then apply these content creation parameters.
What elements to use
As we've often mentioned, marketing content can mean a lot of things. From blog posts to videos, emails, social media posts, and story content. And all these can combine with one another and point to each other. Therefore, in order to not get lost in all these options, it is important to outline what type of content will be most impactful to your target audience. A big part of picking the right content will be the cost of making it. After all, it is far cheaper to write a blog than to make a video. But, know that cost-effectiveness shouldn't be your main drive. Instead, try to value quality over quantity. Especially if you are just starting to build your brand presence.
Preferred devices
Not all demographics consume content on the same devices. While you can count that most demographics will use phones, some will use them in tandem with other devices. Others might rely more on tablets, as a touch alternative that is easier to see. Therefore, it is important to keep the audience's preference in mind when creating your content. Men tend to spend more time on personal computers than women. And stats show that elderly people tend to prefer using tables for content consumption instead of their phones.
Customer location
The location of your customer should play a role in your marketing. Not only is it important for the language used, but you might want to include different languages. But, it is also important for the type of content you will opt for, and how you will present it. If you wish to improve your local marketing, you need to weave your brand into the local community. And the only way to make that possible is if you understand what the community is like.
especially for SEO management.
Time of use
Whether or not your customers will see your content is dependent on a lot of things. One of the bigger factors is the timing. Namely, in order for your content to be effective, it needs to show up when most of your customer base is online. This is why it is necessary to keep close track of your target demographic and outline the best times for posting. Proper timing can easily double the number of views you have. And if you combine it with quality content, you will easily find online traffic as you've never seen before.
Emotional attachement
Whether or not you should include emotional aspects within your content can be a complex problem.
On the one hand, emotions are a big motivator. If you wish to convince your audience to do business with you, you'd be smart to first put them in a specific emotional context. For instance, if you are selling tickets for music events, you want to make your audience excited. If you are selling food, you want to make them comfortable and peckish. These are fairly straightforward examples, as not all content has such clear emotions. But, they do showcase how important emotions are in content marketing, and how you need to make use of them.
by the colors and designs you opt for.
On the other hand, you need to hire a professional content creator in order to properly incorporate emotions. Doing so in a natural, nonintrusive way, while maintaining brand integration is by no means easy. Your content will have a distinct tone and feel to it that your audience will grow to enjoy. But, know that such tone and feel requires the experience of a professional content creator.
Final thoughts
With all that we've mentioned so far, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that content creation requires a fair bit of A/B testing. Once you get an idea of what your audience is like, you need to try different content styles to see what will be effective. While you might struggle at first, know that this is the only sure way to gain marketing knowledge and help your brand grow. Of course, you shouldn't shy away from consulting with a more experienced marketing manager and orienting your marketing efforts accordingly.
