MKTG90046 · Content Marketing
Audiences, Demand and Jobs to Be Done
Week 2 explains where content demand comes from - audience needs, online information behaviour and the classic five-stage buyer decision process - and gives you the Jobs to Be Done lens to read it. In assessment it is foundational: the individual audit and Section B both expect you to run the chain Audience Problem -> Demand Signals -> Job to Be Done -> Content Opportunity and to write a job in its functional, emotional, personal and social registers rather than describe a demographic.
What this chapter covers
- 01Signal sources for audience understanding: CRM/customer data + online behaviour + market research (no single source is enough)
- 02The five-stage consumer decision process (need recognition -> search -> evaluation -> purchase -> post-purchase) and where content operates (stages 1-3)
- 03Why audiences seek content: information gaps between a problem and a solution create demand
- 04Demand signals - searches, Google auto-suggest, Reddit/forum questions, reviews - as observable expressions of audience problems
- 05Jobs to Be Done: 'people don't buy products, they hire solutions to make progress in a context'
- 06The four dimensions of a job: functional, emotional, personal (individual) and social
- 07The demand-to-content chain: Audience Problem -> Online Demand Signals -> Job to Be Done -> Content Opportunity
- 08From recurring demand patterns to personas (developed fully in Week 3)
Running the demand-to-content chain for a personal-finance app
- +1Audience problem: the questions reveal people who want to start investing but feel behind, uncertain and unsure of the entry requirements - an information gap between 'I should invest' and 'I know how to begin'. That gap is the demand for content.
- +1Demand signals: the two queries (and the auto-suggest / forum variants around them - 'investing for beginners', 'minimum to start') are observable demand signals; they show what the audience is actively trying to solve, not just what they type.
- +1Write the job in three registers: functional = 'start investing correctly with a small amount without making a costly mistake'; emotional = 'feel confident and in control rather than behind or foolish'; social = 'feel like a responsible adult who has their finances together'. (A personal register: 'become someone who invests'.)
- +1Content opportunity: a beginner-friendly 'how to start investing with $100 at any age' guide (owned hub) plus short reassurance-led social pieces that reframe 'too late' - content that resolves the functional job while addressing the emotional 'behind' feeling, creating an entry point into the app.
Key terms
- Demand signal
- An observable online expression of an audience problem - a search query, a Google auto-suggest, a Reddit or forum question, a review comment - that reveals what people are actively trying to solve and therefore what content they need.
- Jobs to Be Done (JTBD)
- A framework focused on the progress a customer is trying to make in a specific context: 'people don't buy products, they hire solutions.' It asks 'what job are they trying to complete?' rather than 'who is the customer?'
- Dimensions of a job
- The registers a JTBD is written in: functional (the practical task), emotional (how the person wants to feel), personal/individual (self-perception, private goals) and social (how they want to be perceived by others).
- Five-stage decision process
- The classic buyer decision process - need/problem recognition -> information search -> evaluation of alternatives -> purchase -> post-purchase evaluation. Content marketing operates mainly in stages 1-3, where audiences are asking, researching and comparing.
- Information gap
- The distance between an audience's problem and its solution. People search because they have a problem to solve, so the gap itself is the demand for content - close it and you have a content opportunity.
- Signal sources
- The combined inputs that build audience understanding - customer/CRM data, online behaviour (search, social, reviews) and market research. No single source is sufficient; understanding comes from triangulating them.
Audiences, Demand and Jobs to Be Done FAQ
What is the difference between a demographic and a Job to Be Done?
A demographic describes who someone is (age, income, location); a Job to Be Done describes the progress they are trying to make in a context - the functional, emotional, personal and social outcome they 'hire' a solution for. Two people in the same demographic can have completely different jobs, and two very different people can share the same job. Content built on jobs is relevant and specific; content built on demographics alone tends to be generic, which is why the subject pushes you past demographics.
Where does audience understanding actually come from?
From triangulating three signal sources: customer/CRM data (what your existing audience does), online behaviour (searches, Google auto-suggest, Reddit/forums, review sites) and market research (reports, surveys, interviews, sales-team insight). No single source is enough - CRM data tells you about people you already have, search behaviour surfaces live problems, and research adds context. Combining them is what turns scattered observations into a reliable read of demand.
How do I turn a demand signal into a content opportunity?
Run the chain: start from the observed signal (a query or question), infer the audience problem behind it, write the underlying Job to Be Done in all four registers, then design content that resolves that job and creates an entry point into your system. For example, 'how to stop emails going to spam' -> problem: unreliable delivery -> job: deliver email reliably -> opportunity: a deliverability guide. The skill the exam tests is mapping signals to the real job, not just answering the literal query.
Can AI help me with audiences and JTBD in MKTG90046?
Yes, as a study aid. Sia can generate practice demand signals for a fresh brand, check whether your JTBD covers the functional, emotional, personal and social registers, and walk the demand-to-content chain with you step by step. It mirrors how the subject is taught and assessed at UniMelb, but it does not do your graded audit or exam for you, and academic-integrity rules apply - use it to rehearse the method and confirm assessment details on Canvas.
Exam move
Make the demand-to-content chain automatic, because it underpins both the individual audit and Section B: given any query, write the problem, the job (all four registers), and one content opportunity. Practise reading real demand signals - open Google auto-suggest or a subreddit for a category and translate five questions into jobs. Drill the discipline of writing the emotional and social job, not just the functional one, since that is where marks and distinctive angles hide. Keep the five-stage decision process in mind so you can say which stage a signal comes from and therefore what content it needs. When a job is hard to phrase, ask Sia to reframe it and set you a fresh signal-to-job drill; confirm assessment dates and the exam format on Canvas.
Working through Audiences, Demand and Jobs to Be Done in MKTG90046? Sia is AskSia’s AI Marketing tutor — ask any MKTG90046 Audiences, Demand and Jobs to Be Done question and get a clear, step-by-step explanation grounded in how MKTG90046 is taught and assessed. Read this chapter free, then take your hardest questions to Sia.
