---
title: Knowing Your Audience and What Makes Them “Sneeze”
description: Avoid marketing mistakes that could drive your audience away, just like spring allergens—ensure your strategy doesn’t leave a negative impression.
image: https://insights.yesandagency.com/hubfs/Imported_Blog_Media/Ampersand-March2022-SpringAllergies-SB.jpg
---
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# Taking a Cue From Spring Allergies
**Alexandra LaCroix
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**Allergens.** They’re typically harmless, but they trigger our bodies to react irritably. Eyes watering. Sneezing. Itchy throat. **All around unpleasant reactions**. So, what do you do? **Avoid them! **
Let’s take a cue from spring allergens and avoid marketing mistakes that could make your audience have a negative reaction and potentially avoid your business altogether.
When you visit any doctor one of the first questions they ask you is: *‘Do you have any allergies?’* That’s because not every person is the same and we all have positive or negative reactions to different things. Doctors need to know your specific needs in order to treat you properly. Let’s follow this approach and get to know our patients… or audience that is….
## Knowing Your Audience and What Makes Them “Sneeze”
A huge mistake marketing teams make is skipping the research to get to know who their audience is and what their wants and needs are. It’s important to revolve your marketing campaigns around this. What problems do your customers have and how can your business help? In order to connect with your audience, you’ll need to genuinely build a relationship with them and grow that relationship through thoughtful, strategic messaging.
Here are some of the top mistakes marketers make in their content marketing efforts that can turn audiences away, with tips on how to avoid them.
### 1. Not Having a Plan or Clear Vision
Once you’ve gotten to know your audience and understand their needs, you’ll want to have a clear, strategic plan on how you’re going to market to them. What platforms are they on? What content formats resonate best with them: long-form articles, short videos, infographics? Think it through and then execute appropriately.
### 2. Only Talking About Yourself
Sure, confidence is great. But, overly self-promoting yourself can bore your audience. In a world where people are being fed content 24/7, what value can you provide to them? Try to keep your content marketing efforts audience-focused, not brand-focused.
### 3. Keyword Stuffing & Link Stuffing is Ruining Your SEO
Keyword stuffing happens when you try to jam as many keywords as possible into your website content in attempts to boost your SEO ranking. But in reality, your content is giving your readers a headache. Avoid adding words that are out of context, overly inserting the same keywords, or repeating words and phrases unnecessarily.
Link stuffing is similar and appears “spammy.” When you include too many links to different websites in your copy, it hurts your website’s SEO and it just looks strange. Focus on adding only relevant, useful links to your content to improve your overall credibility.
We hope these tips help you clearly communicate more effectively in your next content marketing push and boost engagement with your audience. And, if you’ve already made these mistakes in the past, don’t worry, *ACHOO* there’s always another chance to improve.
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Alexandra LaCroix
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