• Written by James Carmody • 20th August, 2019

Blogging 101: Identifying And Understanding Your Target Audience

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Whether you are just starting a blog or have been working on it for a while , you might notice that deciding on your target audience is a difficult process. You want to ensure that you know and understand who this audience is – the content that you write needs to be relevant not only to you, but also to who you are writing for.

This post outlines a basic method of how to understand your audience, which consists of two steps:

  • Firstly, researching and surveying your audience (surrounding what you offer and the problems you solve) to determine the specifics. 
  • Then using this knowledge to develop approaches and personas that you can put into practice. 

Researching Your Audience

Firstly, although there are a few ways to go about researching your audience, a more straightforward approach is the most effective and efficient way to get a quality blog in motion. 

This can be achieved through a comprehensive survey of your audience – with the aim of gaining information regarding the following factors:

  • Demographic: Factors such as age, gender, occupation and education.
  • Psychographic: Personality traits, values, interests and opinions.
  • Geographic: Segmenting your audience by location, e.g. city or country.
  • Behavioural: Factors such as where and how readers like to get their information.

Each of these factors should be focused on people that surround your chosen blog topics. Check out this blog post on CHOOSING YOUR NICHE to learn more.

While much of this information may seem irrelevant, an in depth view of your audience will allow you to revise and tweak your entire content strategy in a way that takes advantage of often overlooked specifics. 

Not only does this give you an edge when it comes to your blog – you can also apply the knowledge to your broader marketing strategy.

Developing Personas

The next step is putting this knowledge to use within your blog, through determining an approach that can be used throughout your posts. In this approach, you may want to consider everything from content topics to writing style. 

An easy way of commencing this task is to develop personas, or characters, from your research. This allows you to consistently refer to an audience member that feels real, and in doing so, this can take the struggle out of making new decisions. 

With this all in mind, be sure to use a level of language and tone that relates to your audience, as well as relevant media throughout. Ultimately, this process will allow you to effectively come up with content and ideas that resonate with your audience.

If you’re looking for tips on writing style, check out this post on CREATING BLOG CONTENT.

Conclusion

Ultimately, this post outlines a proven method of identifying and understanding your target audience, as well as creating content that is relevant to them. This approach is just one of the ways by which you can develop a better understanding of your target audience – many bloggers and marketers will have their own methods. 

Regardless of how you decide who you want to read your blogs, be sure that your audience is well defined, and that your content is created with them in mind. For a more in depth guide to creating a successful blog, be sure to check out the link below.

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James Carmody

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