Do you want unexpected visitors to your blog?

The appearance of a raccoon on my squirrel feeder made me think. Just as a dried ear of corn on a nail drew an unintended masked guest, your financial blog may draw readers who don’t belong to your target audience. Is this good or bad?

Are you still serving your target audience?

If you’ve chosen your target audience well, your top priority should be serving them, NOT your unintended visitors. After all, you’re aiming at a narrowly defined group of potential clients, referral sources, or other folks who are in a position to help you meet your goals.

It’s bad if you attract unintended visitors because you routinely stray from topics that interest your target audience. Your ideal readers will abandon you if they can’t find enough good content on your blog.

On the other hand, if your blog meets your target readers’ needs, but still attracts broader interest, that’s good. You never know where your next referral will come from. Your ideal clients may be best friends with people who don’t share the characteristics on which you focus. Those oddballs can be powerful referral sources. Plus, social media’s unexpected dispersion of your content can eventually put your content in front of great prospects and referral sources.

Raccoon-squirrel analogy

If I’d attracted a raccoon because I’d put out a form of corn that’s loved by raccoons, but spurned by squirrels, that would have been a failure. Since the dried corn also pleased the gray squirrels that abound in my yard, I was okay.

Still, if I start to see more raccoons than squirrels at my feeder, I should rethink my feeding strategy. You should do the same with your blog.