Audience Engagement: Giving People What They Want

When people visit your website, does it remind them of generic cola or Coca-Cola? Is it a unique and memorable experience? This question seems to be important as we consume more billboards, commercials and Internet ads. To successfully target your audience, companies are now challenged to deliver a meaningful message that appeals to user background and demographic.
 
Showing site visitors things they are interested in is known as content targeting. It is essentially giving the right people the right content at the right time. Traditional marketing has dealt with content in a shotgun-blast approach. This meant irrelevant surface-level messages to a wide range of visitors with various backgrounds. The goal of content targeting is to guide users to the place you want them to go with content that matches their shopping preferences.
 
In order to do this, you must know who your users are as they interact with your site. Where are they coming from? What sort of function do they serve within their company? For example, if a user is visiting your site from Spain, it would be more beneficial for him to see an advertisement for an event in Spain than in Germany. Or if a user happens to work in the education industry, it would make sense to guide her towards receiving educational or school-related materials. In essence, it's having the knowledge and ability to offer appropriate calls-to-action. 
 
The first step in effective content targeting is research. You should identify the types of people visiting your site (by capturing their information through forms or surveys) and then set goals for users. Get a feel for their business and what their roles are. It would also be helpful to consider the following questions:
  • Who are you trying to engage?
  • What information is important to them?
  • What is the best way to display this content on the site?
The user experience of your site shapes how visitors might feel about your company or product. If you can successfully identify your target audience, you will be able to deliver content that matters to them. Users will reward you with more website interaction, and your company should increase its qualified leads in return.
 
Are you currently on Liferay 6.2? Visit the Marketplace and download our Audience Targeting app.
To learn more about content targeting, check out Ryan Schuhler's LRNAS2014 presentation and slides. You can also read his latest blog post.
 
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