How To Know & Write What Your Customers Really Want to Read

Goodbye broad-spectrum content

For years, marketing rewarded reach. Be everywhere. Say a bit of everything. Appeal to as many people as possible.

That era is ending.

Today, the brands that cut through are the ones that understand their audience deeply and write directly to what they care about. Not in a performative way, but with clarity, empathy and intent.

Broad-spectrum content is easy. Meaningful connection takes work.

But it works.

The shopkeeper's instinct

Before ecommerce dashboards and heat maps, shopkeepers learned by listening.

They knew who came in every week and who only passed through. They understood people’s habits, insecurities and aspirations. They noticed who lingered, who asked questions, who needed reassurance and who already knew what they wanted.

They also knew who wasn’t for them.

This kind of attentiveness created trust. People felt seen. Understood. Safe enough to return.

Selling online doesn’t remove that responsibility. It heightens it.

If anything, digital-first brands have to work harder to recreate this depth of understanding without the benefit of face-to-face interaction.

Specificity builds belonging

One of the biggest problems with modern marketing is how easily it slips into generalisation.

“We sell yoga wear.”“Our customer is women and men over 40.”“Our audience cares about sustainability.”

None of this is wrong. It’s just not useful.

Because within that broad group sit wildly different motivations.

Take two people shopping for yoga clothing.

Martin is new to yoga. He’s spent years feeling uncomfortable in his body and is tentatively trying to make healthier choices. Walking into a studio already feels exposing. What he wants most is to feel included and not judged. If he finds a brand that makes him feel welcome, he’s loyal for life.

Elena has practised yoga for decades. She’s deeply connected to nature and increasingly conscious of the impact of what she buys. She wants to support brands that share her values, even if they’re still learning. Transparency matters more to her than perfection.

Same category. Entirely different desires.

When you speak clearly to one, you risk losing the other. And that’s not a failure. That’s focus.

Losing the wrong people is a good sign

Not everyone is meant to buy from you.

Trying to appeal to everyone usually results in content that feels vague, safe and forgettable. The right people scroll past because nothing speaks to them. The wrong people linger, but never commit.

When your writing becomes more specific, something interesting happens. Some people disengage. Others lean in.

That’s how you know it’s working.

Clarity repels and attracts in equal measure.

Content that starts with listening

Strong content doesn’t begin with formats or platforms. It begins with understanding.

If you know what your people fear, hope for and aspire to, ideas come easily. Stories suggest themselves.

Instead of “5 things to know before your first yoga class”, you might share the story of someone who felt out of place and found confidence through movement.

Instead of generic sustainability claims, you might document the messy reality of improving your supply chain and what you’ve learned along the way.

People don’t connect with perfection. They connect with honesty and intent.

Connection before commerce

Every touchpoint shapes how people experience your brand.

Your website copy, your emails, your social posts, your customer service replies. They should all come from the same place of understanding.

This doesn’t mean every piece of content has to sell. In fact, the opposite is usually true.

Treat every interaction as an opportunity to build connection. The commercial outcome follows naturally.

Learning at close range

Data is useful. But distance dulls insight.

Reviews, replies, survey comments and emails tell you far more than high-level reports. They reveal language, emotion and motivation.

Ask questions. Notice patterns. Pay attention to what people linger on, share and respond to.

The brands that do this well aren’t guessing. They’re listening.

Some brands that create worlds

The most successful online retailers don’t just sell products. They create worlds people want to step into.

Lick inspires creativity long before someone is ready to paint.

Cimmermann opens doors into the homes and lives of design inspirers and thinkers, not just showrooms.

Parched writes like a funny friend who knows your humour, taste and your mood.

They understand that people arrive with different needs and leave with different things, even when engaging with the same story.

Write for your main characters

A useful exercise is to write a customer book for your brand.

Not demographics. People.

What do they avoid and why? What makes them proud to buy something? Where are they ambitious and where are they cautious? What do they say they want and what do they really want?

When you know this, your content stops feeling like marketing and starts sounding like a conversation.

The shift

This is the shift brands are navigating now.

From broadcasting to listening.From reach to relevance.From content calendars to connection.

If you get obsessed with understanding your people, the rest follows.