As a content writer, you have one focus: pleasing and convincing the reader. Whether you work to persuade the reader’s opinion or to buy a new book, your objective remains the same. But your ability to do so effectively depends on your technique and ability to speak directly to people.
Knowing the type of people you need to market to is crucial, but you must avoid generalizations. Generalizing types of people create your first step towards marketing to stereotypes, known as oversimplified ideas of groups. Though you should have buyer personas in mind, you should picture them as your ideal customer, not as past cliches. Marketing to stereotypes not only feels fake and disingenuous but can become quickly outdated.
How can you avoid falling into the trap of marketing content to stereotypes? With the right understanding and research of what makes stereotypes and addressing real people, you can utilize some of the most effective marketing strategies.
When it comes to stereotyping, many develop based on common themes. Marketing stereotypes typically stem from the following characteristics:
As easy as it might be to break down marketing into age categories, this segmentation can be isolating. We may commonly associate green thumbs with younger people, but this does not make the elderly stingy. Every person of every age has wide interests regardless of their age. The same applies to gender, as not every man obsesses over sports, and not every woman frets over fashion. Applying common stereotypes to your marketing will typically turn off and hinder the audience rather than help.
One of the most irritating stereotypes for viewers however can be the use of specific demographics. Grouping people by their generations such as “baby boomers” and “millennials” can be a quick way to lose an audience. Assuming every millennial fall under their stereotyped narcissistic image makes for a limited, flawed marketing campaign. Despite that demographics cover a massive umbrella of people, assuming a person’s needs and wants based on it will further push them away.
Instead, consider a person’s interests based on the type of services your brand can provide. What will a person browsing a law firm’s website need, and what might they be experiencing right now? Asking these questions helps with truly understanding how to market to real human beings.
Stereotypes develop based on common patterns and preconceived notions, but this does not make them accurate. Utilizing stereotypes can be an easy way to turn off other customers and lose them. It provides an impression that your brand does not have realistic outlooks of its customers or does not respect them.
Instead of relying on stereotyped images, consider using scientifically proven stats and numbers to make your points. Not only will statistics relate to audiences more, but providing facts inspires confidence. Using data will confirm and identify common traits to be found among different groups and audiences seeking your brand’s expertise.
Especially if your brand works under technology, keeping relevancy to the current world is crucial. You should not only remain relevant to current times but remain relevant to audiences both young and old. Pandering to a specific audience will make other adopters feel excluded and alienated. When you miss out on relevancy with other audiences, your brand itself loses relevancy.
The best way to maintain relevancy is by appealing to people of multiple groups. You must also stay real with the audience and review your own writing tactics and audience. By reviewing these important factors every six months, utilizing facts, and understanding stereotypes, you can understand marketing to real people and not stereotypes.
If you are struggling to write to and create an audience for your brand, you can find help. Through services such as law firm marketing, social media management, and blog distribution networks, Actionable Agency can help you. By offering many marketing solutions and web development for law firms across the country, we extend their reach and develop their business. At Actionable Agency, we can provide an analysis of your current strategy and website of your firm to help formulate new solutions. For more information, call us toll-free at (855) 206-9689.
