Why You Should Never Write For A “General” Audience (And How To Getter Better Results)
By Hillary Gale
You’ve started a blog to promote your business, share your knowledge, and drive traffic to your website, so you might be tempted to publish content for “anyone who’s interested” to gain a wide readership. But in reality, writing for a general audience can backfire, especially for financial advisors who serve specific niches and want to gain clients in those niches.
For example, you probably tailor financial advice to the age range of the client receiving the advice. Your debt payoff advice is likely much different for an individual approaching retirement than it is for a younger client who still has years to continue making money.
The same principles should apply to your blog posts. When you write an article for everyone, you end up reaching no one. There are a few reasons for this:
Your readers won’t be able to tell if they’re in the right place
Your readers won’t engage because they can’t see themselves in the post
Your post loses focus because you’re trying to appeal to too many people
You miss out on opportunities to connect with specific audiences
Ambiguity
When you write a post with the hopes that the information will appeal to “everyone”, browsers who stumble across your blog can’t tell if the information is meant for them. If they don’t immediately feel like they’re in the right place, they’re unlikely to stay for long. They’ll simply return to Google search results and click on a title that’s more tailored to their profile.
By using keywords that describe your target audience, more people will be likely to land on your page because it describes them specifically. Plus, the people who land on your page will be the right people.
In a post I published earlier this month, I discussed how difficult it was to find a financial advisor who served people like me (I’m a millennial in my late 20s just starting to build real wealth). My advisor uses the word millennial in his posts and on his website, so he popped up first in my search results. Magic!
When you write a blog post, make sure you know who you’re writing it for. Once you’ve figured that out, signal to that audience in your title, headers, and throughout the content itself.
Lack Of Engagement
Blog posts are all about useful information. Most blog posts instruct how to do something, explain why you should do something, or (like this one) explain why you shouldn’t do something. So when your reader can’t see themselves in a text that’s meant to solve a unique problem, they won’t engage with it.
When I see a post about how millennials can save more money, you can bet I’m clicking on it. I’m not clicking on posts about how retirees can save more money. And if it’s between a post titled “How Millennials Can Save More Money” and “How To Save More Money”, I’m still going with the first one. The first one understands me and will have tailored advice for my situation.
Loss Of Focus
When you try to appeal to too many audiences at once in a single post, you’re in danger of losing focus. A lot of blog readers are skimmers, so staying focused and on topic is extra important for those skimmers. And just like deep readers, loyal skimmers are potential clients.
In fact, 43% of people say they skim blog posts, but 57% of marketers say they’ve gained clients just from their blogging efforts. All of your posts should appeal to skimmers, and it’s hard to do this well when you’re not trying to appeal to multiple audiences.
Plus, you’ll have more content ideas when you create several tightly focused but related blog posts. You can link to related blog posts on your site, thereby increasing your value and credibility. If you serve multiple niches, you can write different posts about similar topics for each niche.
Missed Opportunities
When you write for a general audience, you miss out on opportunities to connect more deeply with specific audiences. The more specific your audience is, the better you can appeal to their unique fears, concerns, and problems. Appealing to unique concerns is good for your blogging. It allows you to show how you are the best person to help solve someone’s specific problem.
What’s more, publishing blog posts that are tailored to specific niches decreases your competition. When you’re publishing about generic topics for generic audiences, it’s highly likely that others (possibly many others) have already published article after article about that topic. When your audience is specific, it’s less likely that others have already written about it.
This means better SEO results for the potential clients who matter.
Specificity Is King
Hopefully, these are compelling reasons to publish blog posts that are clearly targeted to a specific audience, group, or niche. Knowing your audience and tailoring your content for them allows you to:
Connect more deeply with that audience
Write more specific, detailed, and thus useful content
Appeal to skimmers, who make up a high percentage of blog readers
Expand your blog post topic ideas
Be more competitive on search engines
Hire A Personal Finance Copywriter To Help
If you need help writing consistent content to increase traffic to your website and share your professional knowledge, consider hiring a personal finance copywriter. I specialize in writing research-backed finance posts that bring true value to your potential and existing clients.
I’m also a university writing instructor, so I’m an expert at understanding audience and appealing to specific audiences in writing. If you want to know more about the value I can bring to your content marketing strategy, please get in touch. You can reach me at 480-353-1608, send an email to hillary@galecreativeagency.com, or schedule a free consultation call with me here.