Describe your “ideal reader”
Why focus on an “ideal reader”?
In blogging, like any other aspect of life, trying to please everyone usually results in pleasing no one. Not only will keeping your ideal reader in mind help you avoid straying too far from your goals, it also makes the actual process of writing easier.
Consider how much more quickly words flow when you’re writing an email to a friend versus creating a formal business presentation. When you have a specific recipient in mind, you have a much easier time communicating your ideas.
Picking just one “ideal reader” is easier said than done, though!
Ask any business who their target customer is and you’re likely to get a general category in response: small-to-medium-sized businesses; people who want to improve their health; growing companies who need accounting support but can’t afford an accounting employee. You’ll often encounter that truly optimistic soul who says, “Everyone needs my product!”
Along the same lines, if you ask most bloggers who their ideal reader is, you’ll hear more broad terms: people who want to lose weight; progressive liberals; frugal moms.
These categories are a start, but I prefer something I’ve found much more practical in the day-to-day work of blogging: think of one person—your ideal reader, not readers.
A local radio station does this. Their “ideal listener” is a made-up, but extremely detailed, woman named Jane. If you ask any of the station’s employees, they can tell you how old Jane is, how many kids she has, what her hobbies are, and just about anything else that matters to her.
This might seem a little overkill, but imagine how much easier it makes music or programming decisions. Instead of trying to decide if the nebulous “listeners” would like a change, the question is just about one person (a person who is intentionally representative of “the listeners”). It becomes much easier to have a core focus and escape distractions.
When you use this concept as a blogger, your benefits are similar. When you’re evaluating a potential blog post topic, you can ask yourself, “Why would Sam (or Jane, or Harriett) care about this?”
It’s way too easy to justify off-topic posts by reasoning that they’ll be useful to someone. If you have to feel confident that they will be valuable to Sam, the result will be a blog that is a much better resource for the actual people you want as readers.
Having a specific ideal reader in mind also will help you in the writing process. As you get to know your ideal reader, you will start to write directly to that person and anticipate his (or her) questions. You’ll be able to frame your suggestions and observations in a way that resonates, and everyone who reads your blog will benefit from the specificity.
You might think that focusing on one person would exclude others and cut your readership down. I’ve found, though, that people are pretty good at abstracting specific concepts to fit their situations; they also just ignore what doesn’t fit for them.
How many times have you seen a specific resource, like a book written “for dummies”, described as “not just for beginners”? Good information, presented well, will be useful for a broad range of readers, and they can usually tell pretty quickly.
How to identify your ideal reader
Time to dig into the details. Get a notebook and pen, or use your computer and open up a text editor. Let’s go!
Start with generalities:
- Who is your target audience for your product or service? Does it make sense for your ideal reader to be the same?
- Thinking about your business goals for your blog, who is the target audience that is most likely to help you reach those goals? For instance, if one of your big goals is three leads a week, then your ideal reader is someone who is your ideal customer, but has increased motivation to take action now. If a big goal is to increase credibility and become known as an expert, your ideal reader might be a person who’s considered an expert among his or her peers and has a lot of connections and influence.
- What is your reader’s main motivation to visit your blog? In the first example above, the “ideal customer” is motivated to find a solution to a problem that’s currently causing discomfort or pain. On the other hand, the “connected expert” (in the second example) is more likely looking for interesting information that he can pass on to his circle to enhance their opinion of him and cement his good reputation.
Once you have some general ideas about your ideal reader, start to narrow it down and discover a single person that would read your blog. You might be able to use an existing customer or colleague as your model. Feel free to start writing a bit of a narrative rather than just answering each question individually.
- Is your reader male or female? How old?
- Is your reader tech-savvy?
- Where does your reader currently get the information he/she needs? For instance, talking with people, books, magazines, websites, etc.
- Why will this reader care about your blog?
- What’s significant about where your reader works, lives, shops, and or/plays?
- How knowledgeable is your reader about your topic?
- Is your reader reading for personal enrichment or professional development?
- Is your reader’s need for your knowledge urgent or curiosity-driven?
Now get really specific, beyond things that have a direct relationship with your blog. These details will help you think of your ideal reader as a specific, individual person. You might find it helpful to clip a photo from a magazine to represent your ideal reader. Having someone to look at can be surprisingly helpful.
- What is your reader’s name?
- Is your reader married? Are there kids? How many? What ages?
- Ethnicity? Hair and eye color? Height and weight?
- Is your reader’s work fulfilling?
- How is your reader’s free time spent?
- How does your reader dress during the week? On the weekends?
You get the idea. Just write and write until you feel like there’s an actual person. You may come up with a composite of people you’ve met, you might find a complete stranger, or you might discover that your ideal reader is someone you already know. It doesn’t matter, as long as you find someone to write to.