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How To Identify Your Target Audience

By on October 30, 2018
How To Identify Your Target Audience - Writer's Life.org

Every writer, no matter what kind of writing they are doing or what their subject matter might be, should know their target audience.

Without this knowledge, it is challenging to tailor your writing to anyone in particular, and with all the competition out there this makes it very easy for it to get lost in the ether.

So whether you are writing an article or a novel, how can you identify your target audience and ensure that your work is speaking to them?

Using the themes of your book, consider the groups of people it might interest. It may be evident if your book is about something more factual, niche or specialist. However many writers may need to take more time to consider this. It might be that your novel could appeal to many different groups depending on what it’s about, so really work at pinpointing the various aspects of your plot and characters and thinking who might relate to them.

Do your research

Are there any other books out there that have similarities to yours? If so have a look at how they are marketed and who they are packaged for and use that as inspiration for your own marketing plans. It can be beneficial to see what other pieces of writing in your niche are doing to find new fans and the strategies they use to appeal to their target audience directly.

Figure out your USP

Thought USPs were just for businesses? Well, you thought wrong! Pinpointing what makes your book unique can help you become more clear on who it might appeal to. Your hook is the reason someone might buy your book, and you need a sentence at most to describe what that is. The more clarity you have around this, the easier it will be to decipher what kind of person might be interested in the story you are telling.

Create an ideal reader

Thinking about who you wrote the book for is very important. Create a new character in your mind - The Ideal Reader. Give them a name, give them a personality, give them likes and dislikes and habits and quirks. The more you know about your ideal reader, the better you’ll be at communicating with them and listening to what they want as well.

Once you have done all of the above you need to start working out ways to communicate with your target audience and let them know you, and your writing, exist. Find out where they hang out, either physically or virtually and make your presence known there. Look at their buying habits and use that information to catch them when they are most likely to part with their cash, use your knowledge of them to create brilliant pieces of marketing that they just won’t be able to resist.

Discovering your target audience can help you write with a clear purpose in mind and will make it so much easier to find ways to get your writing noticed by the people who it will appeal to the most!

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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