What is an Ideal Reader Profile?

Do you have a marketing plan for your blog? If so, does it include an ideal reader profile?

Ideal Reader Profile Silhouettes

One of the pillars of a good marketing campaign is to know your audience. By knowing who you are selling to, you can then work out the best ways to sell them something. In the blogging world, the best way to figure out who you are selling to is to create an ideal reader profile.

 

By knowing who you are selling to, you can then work out the best ways to sell them something. Click To Tweet

 

Because you are not able to meet every member of your audience, an ideal reader profile creates a stand-in of sorts which allows you to connect with the audience on a more personal level. The profile summarizes a large portion of the audience you are trying to reach and gives that group a name and a face.

 

Why is an Ideal Reader Profile Important?

When starting out, you may either have written with everyone in mind or no one in mind. In the first case, you wrote your articles in a tone that would appeal to as many people as possible. You did this because you never knew who would stumble upon your site and you wanted to build an audience. The problem with this writing style is that the content sounds thin and it doesn’t allow you to connect on a personal level with your readers.

 

In the second case, you may have written your posts with no one in mind. You were excited about a topic and wanted to put your thoughts out there. While it’s great to have this kind of passion, you run the risk of losing focus in your writing. If you aren’t writing for a specific audience, you run the risk of not appealing to your ideal reader, even if they stumbled upon your site. They don’t know you are talking to them, so they move on.

 

Blogs are all about building a following and gaining the trust of their readers. If you want to do this, creating an ideal reader profile is critical. Not only does it focus your writing and help you build connections to your readers, it also helps you develop your marketing strategy. By knowing who you need to target and how your audience may find you, you can develop a marketing plan to address these needs. To learn more about blog marketing, check out our post here.

 

How to start creating an Ideal Reader Profile?

Whether you are a newbie blogger or a veteran blogger, you can create an ideal reader profile. There are three steps in creating an ideal reader profile: researching your audience, creating a profile to represent your audience, and then writing for that ideal reader. In the next section, we break down these steps in more detail:

 

Step 1: Research your Audience

To create your ideal reader profile you need to profile your audience and potential audience. You do this by creating a list of questions that you need to answer about your ideal reader. Information on your audience’s demographics, interests, frustrations, and how they get their information is vital. This not only gives you better insight into your readers needs, but it will also help you focus your writing and your future marketing strategies. Your questionnaire can look something like this:

Demographics:
Gender:
Age:
Education:
Profession:

Interests:
What are their hobbies?
What social media platforms do their use?
What other websites do they visit?

Frustrations:
What common problems are they facing?
What do they ask for the most help with?

 

Use this template as a guide to help you compile all the information you need. If you have an established blog, start your research by reviewing the comments section of your blog, comments from feedback forms and any comments from social media. This will help you see who your current audience is.

 

If you have a brand-new blog, don’t worry. You can still find out a lot about your audience. Start by looking at online forums and things like Facebook groups to see who is talking about this and what are their questions. You can also peek at your fellow blogger’s sites to see what people are posting on their sites to get more information about your audience.

 

For more great tips on how to do in-depth research of your audience, check on this post here.

 

Step 2: Create the profile

Once you have information about your general audience, you can use this to create a single profile. This single profile represents both your current audience and your ideal reader. Depending on the type of blog you have, you might just stick with the one ideal reader profile, or you might have a few to represent the different types of readers you may get.

 

In creating your ideal reader profile, you can view this the same as creating a character in a fictional story. You want to give them a good backstory. This will help you understand their motivation and what they are looking to gain from being on your site.

 

For example, say you have a blog on dog training and solving behavioral issues. After doing all your research, you have created the following ideal reader profile:

 

Victoria is a 30-something living in a small town outside Phoenix, Arizona. She is married, has one child, and both her and her husband work full-time. Victoria loves animals and has an older cat that she has had since she was a kitten. Recently, the family adopted a two-year-old mixed-breed dog from the local shelter.

The new dog has a very sweet temperament but came from a rough situation and has not had a lot of training. The dog was brought in as a stray, but the shelter found signs that the dog came from a rough situation.

Victoria noticed that a friend shared one of your recent blog posts to their Facebook page. After reading the article, Victoria decided that she liked your approach to dog training. She has since visited your site a few times to learn more tips on how to train an older dog. She is a silent reader that doesn’t leave comments but hopes to learn more training tips so the dog continues to thrive in its new home.

 

Step 3: Write for your ideal reader

Now that you know who your ideal reader is, you can tailor your posts to meet the needs of your ideal reader. You can write about topics that are top of mind for them and since you know some of their backstory, you can personalize what you are saying. This type of writing resonates with readers and makes them think, “Hey, this blogger really gets me. What else do they got”.

 

Final Thoughts on Creating an Ideal Reader Profile

Knowing your audience takes your blog to a whole new level for your readers. It allows them to connect with what you are saying and builds a level of trust between you. But as with everything, things change and so might your audience. On a periodic basis, go though this process and decide if your ideal reader profile adequately reflects your audience. If it does, great! But it not, don’t be afraid to change tactics and write for a different audience in mind. Happy blogging!

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