5 Simple Steps to Uncovering Your Ideal Audience

Ten years ago, I attended my first writing conference with a friend.  I knew God had called me to write, but I was a newbie. An agent read our book proposals and I was excited to see Him open doors.

Sadly, and with great embarrassment, I found out my proposal was dreadful. The writing swung from angry and aggressive to hilarious and hopeful and back again, focusing on me and my story, without a second thought for my reader. Apart from a couple of sentences in the proposal that described my “primary” audience, I naively ignored addressing their needs. God might have called me to write, but I clearly had no idea what I was doing.

Recognize the Common Traps that Challenge New Writers:

• We try to write for everyone. Our motives are pure; we want to help as many people as possible and fear narrowing our niche will exclude people, but unfortunately, by keeping our audience broad, it’s not clear who we are talking to. 
• We don’t articulate the felt needs of our audience. If we neglect to identify our readers’ struggles, fears, longings, and problems, our writing tends to be too broad and vague. Few people say, “Oh, I need that book” or “It was like you were speaking just to me.”
• We build a detailed demographic profile. We assume we need details of the age, geographic location, and education level of our readers, when what is more helpful is a clear picture of who they are, what they struggle with, and the transformation they crave.

Identify your ideal audience by asking these questions:

Your ideal audience “gets you” because it sounds like you’re reading their minds.  They resonate with you.

Implement 5 simple steps to identify your ideal audience.

1. Describe what you already know about your reader. ‘Brain dump” everything you can about your audience—their age, stage, struggles, hopes, dreams, longings, faith, and frustrations; be as specific as you can. If you’re stuck, think about your posts on social media that get the most attention/engagement. Consider what people come to you for advice about, and who you feel called to minister to, and why.
2. Name your reader’s number one problem or pain. Describe their pain point or felt need. Try writing in the voice of that person. Think about how that problem erupts and how it would be described it to a friend. If you asked, When it comes to (insert their struggle), my biggest challenge is…, what would he/she say?
3. Identify the promise you offer. This is the transformation they crave that you help them to achieve. Paint a picture of what their life will look and feel like after reading your words or hearing you speak, articulating what they want, not what they need. For example, they may need to read their Bible more, but what they want, is to know God is trustworthy when life falls apart.
4. Create Your X, Y, Z statement. Pulling all this together, fill in the blanks of this ideal reader profile.
   • I help ______________(X), do ______________(Y), so they can __________(Z).
     • X = who – be specific
     • Y = what you help them do, understand, change, etc.
     • Z = the transformation/promise you help them achieve
     • Example: I help young widows navigate loss with grace so they can find the peace and hope they need to keep moving forward. 
     • Now, when someone asks you what you write about you can use your X, Y, Z statement with confidence.
5. Perform a quick gut-check. Are you excited? Does your topic resonate with what you feel God’s been calling you to speak about?  If you’re still unsure, don’t panic. Describing our reader is an organic process that takes time and becomes clearer the more we write and speak.

Now it’s your turn. In the comment section, please post your X, Y, Z statement. I look forward to finding out who is in your target audience, whether you are a writer or a speaker (or both).