Building a strategy without a clear understanding of your audience is a bit like sailing off into the sunset without navigational tools.
Take action.
Work towards a specific goal.
To ensure your success, begin your writing with a strong understanding of your audience.
By targeting a specific market does not mean that you are excluding people who might fit your criteria.
With a clearly defined target audience, it is much easier to determine where and how to market your book.
Conduct an Informal Market Analysis
- Who is your target audience?
- Where is your target audience located?
- What do they think about your current brand?
- What would you like them to think about your brand?
- How will you attract them to your products or services?
- Who else is competing for their loyalty and devotion?
- Are you targeting business or consumer sectors?
Target market:
- Age
- Gender,
- Income,
- Married, widowed, divorced, student,
- Occupation,
- Ethnic background
Understand your readers’ most pressing issue, problem, or desire
Every person has something that keeps them awake at night: a persistent problem, the willpower to be healthy, or finding happiness. It might be insomnia, passing an exam, or dealing with a difficult client.
Whatever the issue – whether longstanding or short-term – realizing it is the beginning discussion. If you understand this from two perspectives, you’ll be much better equipped to create powerful content.
As you develop your audience profile, do your best to articulate what drives them.
Where do you connect?
Choosing the channels to deliver your messaging is absolutely critical.
- Your brand will lend you credibility with a wider audience.
- Your website will benefit from their high ranking.
Writing great content achieves your goal of connecting with the right people.
Fake news – false claims
We live in a world of skeptics. The modern world is bombarded with advertisements and brand messages: online, TV, and bill-boards. These invasive sales pitches are filled with claims that are hard to verify. It many cases, advertisements are filled with outright lies.
Always act with integrity. If your brand is known for being honest, ethical, and delivering value, you’ll become a trusted source. It can take years to build trust and seconds to lose it forever.
Understand the dynamics of your market well enough to be able to identify the standard bad claims.
Back up your claims with proof. Take the time to figure out what would back up your content and spend the time to work it in. Prove that your brand delivers.
Gain your readers’ trust
The more connected you are with your fan base, the more that trust and belief in expertise is transferred to you.
Getting to know your audience in real depth takes time. It’s well worth the time to develop this expertise.
“Linda has published fifteen books. She blogs about the publishing world, posts useful tips on the challenges a writer faces, including marketing and promoting your work, how to build your online platform, how to get reviews and how to self-publish.”