Audience Value in Content Marketing With JTBD Theory
From the perspective of JTBD theory, an audience is not just a group of potential customers; it’s a collection of individuals trying to get a job done in their lives. These jobs might range from finding reliable information to making a purchase that solves a specific problem. When you think of your audience this way, it becomes clear that content marketing is not just a cheaper alternative to advertising—it's an investment in creating meaningful connections with those who have specific jobs they need to accomplish.
However, understanding the worth of this audience, especially subscribers, can be complex. A subscriber isn’t just someone who receives your content—they’re actively looking to get a job done by engaging with your content. This makes them highly valuable to your business because they represent a direct line of communication and a clear opportunity to assist in completing their job.
Defining Your Audience's Job and Value
In JTBD terms, a subscriber is someone who has hired your content to help them accomplish a specific job. They’ve made the decision to receive your content directly, showing a deeper level of engagement and a clearer indication of the job they are trying to get done. But not all audience members hold the same value. For instance, a social media follower might be casually interested, but without direct engagement, they aren’t as valuable as a subscriber who regularly seeks out your content to complete a job.
Segmenting Your Audience
To truly understand and measure the value of your audience, you need to segment them based on how they interact with your content. Here's a simplified breakdown:
Anticipated Audience: These are the people you aim to help with your content—the ideal group whose jobs you’re trying to fulfill.
Actual Audience: These are the people who engage with your content, giving you insights into whether your content is helping them accomplish their jobs.
Addressable Audience: These are the subscribers or followers you can reach directly—those who have explicitly expressed that your content helps them complete a job.
Understanding and Applying Audience Segments
When you combine these segments, you can refine your approach:
Audience Asset: The intersection where all three audience types overlap. These are the most valuable people—those who need your help (anticipated), are engaging with your help (actual), and have made it easy for you to help them (addressable).
Modeled Audience: This overlaps your anticipated and addressable audiences, allowing you to predict the potential value your content might bring as it continues to help people with their jobs.
Audited Audience: This is your complete list of subscribers, which can help you refine your strategies based on who they are and what jobs they’re trying to accomplish.
Targeted Audience: The overlap between who you want to help and who you’re actually reaching, giving you clear indicators of whether your content promotion is effective.
Measuring the Value of Audience Segments
To measure the value of different audience segments, consider how effectively your content helps them complete their jobs. For instance, a B2B tech company might find that only a portion of their subscribers are truly in their target audience. These are the people whose jobs align closely with what the company offers. By analyzing these segments, the company can assign a monetary value to each type of audience and estimate the overall value of their content marketing efforts.
For example, let’s consider a B2B technology company that has built an addressable audience of 8,500 subscribers over four years through an email newsletter. However, after a detailed audit, they found that only about 65% of these subscribers (approximately 5,500 people) were part of their target audience. These subscribers hold the most value for the company.
The audit also revealed that the total anticipated audience for their content was around 100,000 people, with an actual audience of 25,000 new people engaged each year. Using various business metrics, the team calculated the following valuations:
$150 per anticipated audience member: This represents the perfect value of each new anticipated audience member, considering factors like engagement decay over time.
$138 per audience asset member: This reflects the actual value they’re realizing from their current audience asset.
$73 per addressable audience member: This is the value of their total addressable audience, including those who aren’t part of the target.
Using these figures, the company estimated that their current audience asset is worth approximately $759,000. If they could increase the health of their audience—ensuring all members are new or as engaged as new members—they could potentially increase this value to $1.2 million. Their total anticipated audience could be worth $15 million, meaning their audience asset is currently at 57% of its potential value.
Audience Building Matters in the Long Run
Ultimately, audience building is about more than just getting eyes on your content—it's about creating lasting relationships with people who need your help getting a job done. Whether it’s through a blog, newsletter, or social media post, the goal is to build a loyal audience that continually turns to you when they have a job to get done. This approach not only helps them but also drives long-term success for your business.
