Finding Your Ideal Reader
If you’ve ever fallen in love, then you know how powerful that experience is. You’re walking through a bookstore and you stop dead in your tracks. A book cover catches your eye. The title jumps out at you. You can’t help but pick it up and flip it over. You’re hooked. This is the power of having a clearly defined Ideal Reader. Even before you define your message, knowing your ideal reader will help you decide what content to write and which message to deliver.
Your book content needs to be relevant to your target reader. To achieve that, you need to get a clear picture of exactly who is reading your work. In other words, who is your core audience? In the business world, we call this our “target” or our “ideal client” or our “avatar.” I call it your ideal reader. I like to have my client visualize the scenario of his or her book on an endcap in a bookstore (or trolling around on Amazon). An ideal reader is walking (or surfing) by and is so compelled by your book that he or she crosses the bookstore to come over to the shelf and pick it up (or click the button to buy). Online, they are clicking on that thumbnail.
Who is that person? Consider 5 things…
1. Demographics (e.g., age, gender, employment, income, etc.)
2. Geographics (e.g., country, state, city, etc.)
3. Psychographics (e.g., interests, culture, lifestyle, hobbies, buying history, associations they belong to, etc.)
4. Buying Habits (i.e., where they are spending their money)
5. Technographics (e.g., technology enthusiast or pessimist, where are they spending their time online, what is their social media platform of choice, what products are they buying and from where, what websites do they frequent, etc.)
Start out with general characteristics, such as male between the ages of thirty-five and fifty years old, living in North America, married with two children. Then distill that down. Who would be your dream client? Get clear and specific about who is reading. We want that person to have a name, a face, a real physical description. We want them to be nodding while they read your book. Pretend they are sitting across from you. If you have a Facebook fan page, this is a good place to start to get an idea of who your demographic may be.
Do this now:
Ideal Reader Profile
1. Sex:
2. Age:
3. Occupation:
4. Income:
5. Education:
6. City, State, Country:
7. Physical description/General appearance:
a. Height:
b. Weight:
8. Interests:
9. Culture:
10. Lifestyle:
11. Hobbies:
12. Buying history:
13. Associations he or she belongs to:
14. Technographics:
15. What is their most important asset? (Time, money, loyalty, etc.)
16. What is this person’s name?
17. Draw or find a picture of this person.
The final three questions of your Ideal Reader Profile are the most relevant of this entire activity.
19. What is bothering this person right now? What is causing them pain?
20. What are this person’s top fears and frustrations? What gets them mad or worried?
21. What do they think they want versus what is the outcome this person is really after?
If you do none of the previous questions and only answer these last three questions with clarity and certainty, you can use the answers to write an entire book. Consider them your ticket to book freedom.
Seek out your ideal reader. Join target-rich environments such as business accelerators, mastermind groups, or business chambers or councils and meet them through word-of-mouth. Your ideal reader is looking for you, but they won’t know it until you are standing in front of them.
Post your answers to the Ideal Reader Profile questions in the comments section. Your answers might help someone else think more deeply about their ideal reader too!
