How does P&G sell their latest Tide product? Who does Disney sell tickets their latest movie to? How does your local coffee shop bring in customers? How do you sell more copies of your book? There are many ways each of these companies reach their customers but the one thing they all have in common is they all have a clear understanding of who their ideal audience is.
There are many ways people have described what an ideal audience is but it all boils down to one thing, your ideal audience is a group of people to whom you can sell your product. You will make the most of your marketing time and budget when you have a clear understanding of who your ideal audience is and where they hang out. Let me rephrase that, if you do not know your ideal audience and where they hang out, you will lose valuable time and money when you are marketing.
Finding Your Ideal Audience
Now that you know how important your ideal audience is, you can find them. A great way to find your ideal audience is to create a client avatar. An avatar is a fictional representation of the most ideal person who will buy your book, your product, or your service. You want to be extremely specific with your description of your avatar so you can focus in on what your ideal audience will connect with. Our Guide To Develop Your Best Seller is a great way to begin working on your avatar and in our follow-up emails you will also see a full avatar exercise with one of our old avatars for some more inspiration and clarity.
Follow Your Leads
Once you have your avatar the next step is finding them. How do you go about finding where your ideal audience hangs out? A little research, a little trial and error, and a little intuition.
Ask Others
First off, if you know a client or prospect who fits closely with your avatar you can ask them where they hang out. In all likelihood, they frequent the same networking meetings, go to the same social gatherings, use the same social media, etc. as other people who match your avatar. Model your marketing after where you know your avatar is first and you will have a good beginning.
Use Your Intuition
Next, use your intuition. You can probably tell where your competitors are marketing; follow them. If your competitors and colleagues are all using Facebook, go there, and your ideal audience will be more likely to see you. The same goes with all marketing areas, if you are clear on your avatar you should have a good understanding of where they hang out so go there and be present.
Learn and Adapt
Finally, not all of your initial marketing is going to be perfect so you need to find out what is working and what you might want to change. There are a number of ways you can see your analytics but before you go looking at your analytics you need to know your marketing goals. Be sure you set SMART marketing goals or you won’t be able to use the analytics correctly. Most social media sites have a decent analytics area for businesses and brands where you can see your followers, your interactions, people reached, etc.
For your website I highly suggest using Google Analytics which can tell you everything you ever wanted to know about your website… and more! Once you look at your analytics you can see what marketing avenues are working, what needs to change, or even what needs to be scrapped all together. It’s all a learning experience and as Gary Vee says in his book, Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, ” Social media, however, finally gave them [consumer] the advantage.”
Using Your Ideal Audience
When you treat your book like a business, you will need to be clear on finding your ideal audience. After you sell your book to your family and friends who else is going to buy your book? When you have a clear ideal audience you can easily market to those most likely to connect with you and your story. The earlier you start the better, but it’s never too late to start! If you want to learn more about how you can make your book a business join our new Facebook group: Making Your Book Your Business. We’ve started a book club which meets every Monday and Wednesday evening to discuss books on the subject and you can find more information about the book club in the group. See you in the group!
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