Many of us want to write a good quality book for the right audience… but what kind of audience is right for us?
The truth is, if we can narrow down our audience and understand the depth of the pain problems and desires, then we can write a book that resonates deeply with them.
I like to give some support on these areas and so have a brief video in the Book Creation Success course on competitive research. Independently, you can go along to Amazon and with ‘Amazon Suggest’ you can see what types of keywords people are typing in to find your area.
You need to have a competitive overview of your marketplace and the key bestsellers in your niche.
Then you can do some further research on BuzzSumo (free account, 10 searches) or SparkToro (free account) to get clearer on what topics are important to users today. You’ll be able to tell just from the sheer number of article views and shares to Facebook. How-to Videos on YouTube are also another thing you can look at for topic area research.
Audience Research
If you’re a business owner or coach, you may be able to do primary research of your audience.
To do audience research, answer the following questions:
- Who does your book help or entertain?
- Who regularly speaks to the people your book helps?
- Where do your potential readers hang out, both online and in person?
- What podcasts might they listen to? Could you be a guest on them?
- What associations, local clubs and groups do they belong to?
- What other ways could you get the word out about your book?
There are Podcast matching sites, like PodMatch, that help you find the right area. WearePodcast is a Facebook group for those hosts looking for guests.
Also, if you talk to a lot of coaches and executives in complementary niche fields, you will gather a lot of perspectives.
Inspire Your Audience Search
As well as hearing perspectives from distinct groups, you can build ties and even offer to speak on a topic of interest (once your book is out).
- International Summits want to hear different voices, e.g. Virtual International Speakers Summit, Future Women Leadership Summit
- Speakers’ or arts meetup groups or similar – e.g. Artazen, PowerSpeaking, etc.
- Creative community groups – like the Moreton Bay Arts Council
- History groups – each area of Australia has a history group
- Associations – like the National Business Institute of Australia, Institute of Learning (ILP).
- Magazines of your memberships – e.g. Latte is magazine of Business Chicks and often features authors.
- Magazines which are local, and want to feature interviews of local notable people — e.g. Feature, North Lakes Now, Redcliffe Guide.
Would you like creative messaging, blurb, bio and author media kit all made ready for promotions? If so, see my special for 1-to-1 Book Launch Marketing Package…
Grow your Email List
Add Value.
The best way to grow your email list is to offer various lead magnets from the website, also called reader magnets. (Chapter, video, or interactive type resource). Make sure your autoresponder contains a link to the online resource, and they can easily download it.
Collaborate.
Going into a co-operative promotional venture with a likeminded person (who is a good collaborator) could be fruitful. Make sure their audience’s needs is compatible with your simple offering. Take out any words that might be misconstrued. Make an offer too good to refuse.
Promote.
Promoting your email guide or infotainment on your social feed (profiles) might be an idea, to get some people to manually give you permission to email it.
Happy researching! Finding out the problems and goals of a book’s ideal audience is necessary to your book authoring success.
