Marketers that blog are 13x more likely to enjoy a positive return on investment.

However, that accomplishment won’t happen unless you get to know your audience, and produce content that’s relevant to their needs and interests.

When I first started blogging, I assumed that all I had to do was write, and the right audience would come to me. In the early days of Rosie Writing Space, I quickly learned that it’s a lot more complicated than that.

There’s a reason why I don’t accept content mill-like payments anymore.

A lot of content mills, sites such as Upwork, and businesses that are looking for bargain bin prices are underestimating just how much work it is to come up with an error-free blog post that people actually want to read.

So how do you create content that actually matters to your audience? Today I’m going to share some of my blogging techniques that I use on both my blog and my client projects.

1) Ask Yourself Who Your Ideal Audience is

When trying to figure out who to target, and who is actually interested in your work, start by getting to know who you actually want to target.

Ask yourself questions such as:

• How old are they?
• What’s their occupation?
• What kinds of things do they struggle with in their everyday lives?
• What are they interested in?
• What are their values?
• What’s their personal life like? Are they married, single, a mother with young children, etc?
• What kind of formal education do they have?

If you don’t know the answer to these questions, then all you’re really doing is creating content that might appeal to someone, if you’re lucky.

So, if you’re not really sure, take a second to get to think carefully about the answers to these questions. This will allow you to focus exclusively on an extremely specific demographic and lead to a more positive return on investment.

2) Pay attention to patterns on social media

Something that really opened my eyes to who I think my actual audience is versus who my actually audience is, is when I started to notice patterns in my retweets, followers, and LinkedIn invites.

A fun fact about me is the fact that I rarely post Facebook status updates, but I post new content on Twitter on a daily basis. And that suits me fine because I have a large Twitter following, and it has a positive effect on my web traffic.

Your social media profiles will have their own, distinct, consistencies, so get to know what those consistencies actually are.

Most importantly, start to pay close attention to who typically follows you, shares your content, and is interested in what you have to say.

That’s the best part of social media. You don’t have to have state of the art analytics software to know who actually cares about the content that you’re producing.

But what does this have to do with blogging? A lot actually. It will reveal a lot about what you can do to really engage with your audience on a personal level.

3) Respond to people’s most common questions, comments, and concerns

Blogging is a great way to respond to what people are already saying about you or your work, in an informal, friendly way.

But why is that the case? We live in an age where anyone can set up a website, and make any claim that they want, about literally anything they want.

And that’s both an exciting and dangerous privilege. Although anyone can set up a website, not everyone can set up a website that provides credible information and proof.

If you address people’s questions and concerns, before they even reach out to you, you’ll entice them to learn more.

But how do you do that? A lot depends on what stage you’re at in your business. If you’re established or have already had a few clients, bust out old emails, and look for patterns in terms of what questions people ask you on regular basis.

If you’re not established or are offering new products or services, get a friend to be your guinea pig, and encourage them to ask questions and give feedback.

Based on your feedback, create blog content, that will put people’s mind at rest.

4) Use Quora and Reddit

Quora and Reddit are both extremely useful resources for bloggers because they provide uncensored access to what people have questions about, in the here and now, who are interested in or actively work in your field.

Punch in subjects that are relevant to your work and a list of questions will show up on screen. The questions that show up more than once, or get the most views will likely make excellent blog posts.

5) Include “day-in-the-life” content

When deciding what content will suit your audience, you don’t just have to focus on their concerns and questions.

People also respond extremely well to authenticity, especially when you’re not the only one offering whatever you happen to specialize in.

Don’t be afraid to get personal, and give your customers a sneak peek of the people behind the brand.

Include features such as interviews, an about page that actually discloses how you got to where you are today, and fun facts about those that are actively involved in your company.

This is a great way to help readers get-to-know-you well enough to decide if your values and interests align with theirs.

If you don’t have the right skills and resources to do this yourself, check out my Website Personalization Package.

6) Use positive feedback to inform how you talk about your work and your process

What are people saying about what you’re doing right?

If people are basically saying the same thing in different ways, then that says a lot about what you’re doing to help others, and what you should continue to do to help others.

Use that feedback to inform and inspire the blog content that you produce.

7) Keep things current

If you want to keep people interested in your blog content, you need to keep up to date on not only what’s going on in your industry, but also current issues and events.

The reason why this is so important, is because of you appear out of touch, and out of date, then people will lose interest; And you don’t want that, of course!

Successful company blogs are the ones that are always one step of ahead of everything from politics and pop culture trends to upcoming holidays and current events.

But why is that the case? Because it makes people feel like it’s a product that’s relevant to their lives and worth investing in.

If you want a positive return on investment on your blog, start paying attention to not only what your customers are saying, but the things that are impacting their lives, in the here and now.

Far too often, people that are beginners at this whole blogging thing overlook just how much time, research, effort, and hard work is involved in getting people to read your blog.

However, if you’re willing to do your research, and get to know your readers a little bit better it’s not impossible.

Still confused about how to create engaging blog posts? Comment in the comment section below and/or check out my Blogging Deluxe Edition package deal. There are only ten spaces available, so book now if you’re interested.