One of the most important things you’ll need to do as a blogger, author, or even as an entrepreneur is to define your ideal client. For bloggers and authors, that means that you need to define your reader and create a reader avatar. Once you have your reader avatar, you’ll use that avatar to help you write and market your book, and you can also use it help you write other great blog content and social media posts, too.
HOW DO YOU DEFINE YOUR READER?
So exactly how do you define your reader? There are a few ways to start. First, you could cater to your existing audience. Who reads your blog? What information are they looking to gain as they read your blog posts? How is your blog helpful to them? Your reader avatar won’t cover every single one of your blog readers, but you should be able to create an avatar that will resemble many of them.
Your other option to define your reader is to think about who you’re hoping to reach when you write your blog posts. Often this is a person who’s a few steps behind you on the same journey, but they may also be from a different background. What change do you hope to help your reader make in his or her life? What does your ideal reader need to do to create his or her ideal life?
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However you choose to begin fleshing out your ideal reader, be sure to think through as many details of your reader’s life as possible. You want to be as you can with your reader avatar; the more detailed your avatar is, the more help it will be as you write and market your book. Consider age, gender, family, education, and hobbies. What kind of language does your reader prefer to use, and most importantly, to read? Does your reader prefer a more professional or personal tone? For marketing, think through which social media platforms your ideal reader spends most of his or her time on. How can you as an author connect with him or her?
If you need more help defining your reader, download my free worksheet that will help walk you through the basics of creating a reader avatar. Click below to download your worksheet!
CLICK HERE to download your free "Who's Your Reader?" worksheet.
HOW TO — USE YOUR READER AVATAR
Once you have created your detailed reader avatar, you can begin to use that avatar as you write your book. Think about the goal of your book—do you want to teach a skill? Bring about some other improvement in your reader’s life? If so, what does your avatar need to know to get to where you want him or her to be? You should define your reader well enough to understand what he or she does and doesn’t know about your topic, then use that understanding to decide what topics you will cover in your book.
You can also use your reader avatar to help you be a better blogger. What’s true for writing your book is also true for writing future blog posts. Think about gaps in your ideal reader’s knowledge, and write blog posts to help fill those gaps. By constantly focusing on your avatar, your blog will stay focused, and you’ll continue to provide value to your blog’s readers.
When you begin to market your book, consider how your reader avatar uses his or her social media platforms. Which platforms does he or she use the most? Which platforms does he or she use to find information on your book’s topic? Also consider what hashtags your ideal reader is using on platforms like Instagram. You may want to do some hashtag research to help you connect with people who would be interested in buying your book. Having a good reader avatar will allow you to focus your time on the social media platforms where you’ll have the most impact so you can avoid wasting time on those platforms that won’t bring in readers.
