Getting Specific With Your Blog: Who Do You Want To Create For?
Last week we kick started January’s monthly series and explored our answer to the question: why do you blog? If you've come on board this challenge with me to make this the month we get specific with our blogs, hopefully from that post you would have pinpointed your motivations, intentions and purpose behind your blogging adventure and taken the first step to creating a really bold and brave online space. Today we’re going to focus on who we’re creating for and how we can really get specific with our content and the audience we want to connect with.
Getting specific about your ideal reader and who you're creating for is a great way to really connect with your audience and readership. Aiming to please everyone usually leaves you creating watered down content that doesn't embrace who you are, whereas when you get specific about who you're writing for you can really have impact and reach with the words you're sharing with the world. Back in the summer of last year when I started to shift this space to become a resource for fellow bloggers and creatives I was petrified that I would alienate my entire readership and be left just writing to myself, but along the way I've found the people for me who are as passionate about creativity and online content as I am. If you take anything away from this post I really want to encourage you to be bold and brave with your online space and really push forward on sharing with the world what it is you really want to share, without the fear of polarising a few people along the way.
So if you're ready to start getting specific about who you're creating for, I’m breaking the question down into four mini ones to help you really get specific and discover your ideal reader:
Who is your ideal audience?
In last weeks first part of this series we started to explore what it is we really want to share and say with our online spaces. We all have a story to tell, and whether you're a beauty blogger wanting to empower consumers, or maybe a lifestyle blogger sharing snippets of your life to inspire others to live with intention, or maybe like me you want to share advice and useful content to encourage and motivate others (or maybe something else altogether) knowing what you want to write about and who you want to write it for is super important. Pinpoint who your readers are - are they 20-somethings just finding their way in life? Or maybe 30-somethings with more expendable income and interested in pricier purchases? Whatever your niche, getting specific about who you want to write for and attract with the content you share with the world will mean that instead of just being part of the noise you will start to create a space that really connects with its readers.
What content are they looking for?
First and foremost the content you create should always be something you're excited about creating. If you really want to appeal to your ideal audience though, exploring what it is they really want to read and tailoring your editorial planning around that is a great way to really have more impact with the content you share. What problems do your ideal readers struggle with most often? What lessons learned and advice can you share to help them along the way? Why do your readers come to your blog? For escapism? For advice? For motivation? For community? Exploring the answers to these questions is a great place to start. If I can give you any advice to take away though it would be this - sometimes what your readers will connect with the most is something they haven't experienced yet. Never be afraid to try something new, step outside your comfort zone, and reinvent the wheel from time to time. Just try and always keep in mind who you're writing for and the purpose behind the content you share.
What are you doing now to attract your ideal readers? Are you doing anything that turns them away?
Looking through your recent blog archives, does your content work well alongside the purpose you have for your blog? What content has really connected so far with your ideal audience? Is there anything you'd change or switch up so you can be even more specific along the way? I think a good thing to think about is whether you've outgrown some of your content - for example, you may or may not know that this blog started out focusing on all things beauty and when I started to transition into creating content for fellow bloggers and creatives I made the decision to stop the beauty content altogether. It may have been bringing in good traffic, but it wasn't really the purpose of my space anymore and it wasn't what my ideal readers were looking for so I knew it was time for it to go. Now saying that, if there is something you really want to write about but it's a little against your specific focus, that's not to say you can't make it work. It's just up to you to explore what's the best path to take for you.
What can you do moving forward to really attract your ideal readers?
So looking forward, now that you've started to pinpoint who it is you really want to create for, are there new things you want to try so that you can really craft an online space that connects with your ideal readers? Can you be a little braver and really say the things you want to say? Sometimes I think the hardest thing is embracing the fear that comes with a expressing an opinion, and that's a huge thing I've learned to be more comfortable with over time. Instead of worrying about polarising some people, can you take a leap into really getting specific with your content and hopefully have more impact and reach with your space? Brainstorm some ways you can really start to create for the audience you want to attract.
Like last time I've put together a little PDF to help you get your ideas down on paper, and hopefully alongside last weeks printouts they can be something to refer to when making plans along the way!
Getting specific about who you want to create for may sound like a super intense process, but hopefully this post can just be some food for thought and help you along the way to create an online space that really stands out from the crowd. Next week we'll be focusing on getting specific with your long term blogging goals and how we can let them guide us in the decisions we make along the way.
I'd love to know if you have a specific audience you're creating for?
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