How To Write for Your Target Readers: 4 Important Steps for Success

So you want to write for an engaged audience, gain new followers, and meet your writing goals, but you’re unsure how to go about it?

Fear not because you are now in the right place.

Whether you are a fiction or nonfiction author, whether you write blog posts, video scripts, emails, case studies—or anything else really—writing for your target readers makes a lot of sense no matter how small they may be in size or number.

New writers or those just starting their writing business or career sometimes make the mistake of trying to write for everybody. This is often because they want to write for a large number of people—all while becoming a successful writer or author overnight.

Unfortunately, writing for everyone doesn’t work because the content produced usually ends up being too generic to appeal to an appreciable number of people or attract and engage any specific group.

But, when you make it a habit to write for your target readers, you can:

• Develop a strong connection with them
• Attract more readers, followers, and subscribers
• Convert readers to customers
• Achieve your writing goals faster

Now, let’s look at four steps that can help you write for your target audience, no matter your niche, your genre, or the kind of content you are creating.

Define and Understand Your Target Readers

Before you can write successfully for your target audience, not only must you identify them, but it’s also important to learn and understand everything you can about them.

So, who exactly are your target readers?

Also known as your target or intended audience, your target readers can be described as a group of people with similar traits, behavior, interests, and needs who get a lot of value from your writing 

As soon as you know who they are, go ahead and make sure you can answer these basic questions about your target readers:

• Where do they live?
• How old are they?
• What do they look like?
• What is their level of education?
• Are they single, engaged, married, divorced, or widowed?
• What is their occupation or profession?
• What are their online habits?
• Which social media platform do they prefer?

In addition, you also need a good knowledge and understanding of their:

• Interests and hobbies
• Income level / purchasing power
• Habits and lifestyle
• Likes and dislikes
• Pain points and challenges
• Desires and needs
• Preferred type of content

The good news is you can identify your target readers when you know the goal and purpose of your writing, carry out a lot of research, and create a reader persona or audience profile. 

In addition, you can also study and analyze your competitors’ audience, use social media listening tools like Buzzsumo, and even check out your competitors’ followers on social media.

Once you have a solid knowledge and understanding of your target audience, writing for them will be less challenging.

Create Engaging Content That Provides Immense Value

Are you aware that the definition of valuable content varies from one target audience to another?

You can therefore write for your target readers when you use all you know about them to create content that gives them a lot of value. You can do this in various ways, such as when you: 

• Fill a gap: Provide information you know your readers are looking for and also answer questions you’ve seen go unanswered elsewhere. 
• Be a mentor: Provide solutions to problems and challenges they deal with regularly, help address their concerns, and also provide tips and tricks to help them achieve their goals.

To create valuable content that’s more engaging to your audience, you can go a step further and use subheadings and bullet points to introduce more white space and make your writing scannable. 

You can also use short sentences and paragraphs, support your claims with credible links, and add relevant images like pictures, graphs, charts, and so on.

Provide Various Types and Formats of Content They Love

Another step you can take to write for your target readers is to make your writing available in the different content types and formats they prefer.

There are so many types of content out there:

• Text-based content: Usually written in words and consumed by reading, these include physical books and eBooks, blog posts, articles, white papers, case studies, guides, tutorials, email newsletters, original research findings, and so on.
• Visual content: This format has been very popular in recent times because both the young and old enjoy watching visual content. Examples include videos, images, infographics, screenshots, memes, GIFs, etc.
• Audio content: People enjoy listening to audio content since they can do so while busy with other tasks and chores like cooking, exercising, walking, etc. Examples include podcasts and audiobooks.
• Interactive content: This type of content is highly engaging because it requires the active participation of your audience. For instance, quizzes, contests, surveys, polls, calculators, and so on.

Remember, even though your target readers may enjoy reading blog posts, case studies, ultimate guides, and so on, don’t be surprised if they also love to watch videos and webinars, listen to podcasts or audiobooks, and also take part in quizzes, polls, and contests.

And, if you write fiction, your target readers may love to read novels and novellas, and at the same time be a lover of short stories and flash fiction.

To achieve your goals as a writer or an author, always do your research to uncover the types of content your audience loves or prefers so that you can make these available to them on a regular basis. 

 Use the Right Tone and Language

You can also write for your target readers when you use the appropriate tone and language in everything you write.

But what is tone in writing?

Similar to your tone of voice when you speak, the tone of your writing communicates the attitude, feelings, and emotions behind your writing. It can also influence how your readers feel while reading your content and sometimes long after they’ve finished reading. 

Different types of tone you can communicate through your writing include those that are formal, informal, friendly, and encouraging. Your tone can also be assertive, curious, worried, neutral, sad, and so on. For example, words and phrases like “hey,” “what’s up,” “see ya” can be used when writing with an informal tone, but these will be out of place when writing with a formal tone.

You can use the proper tone to write for your target audience when you consider all you know about them, the type of message you want to communicate, and the length and structure of your sentences. 

In addition, you should also write at their level of understanding: Use the right punctuation and formatting, including words, phrases, and slang terms they already use and are familiar with.

When you use the right tone to write for your target readers at all times, not only will you pass your message across effectively, but your chances of attracting, engaging, influencing, and even converting more of them will increase dramatically. 

Start Writing for Your Target Readers

You can gain the trust and loyalty of your target readers, boost your credibility in your niche or industry, and achieve your writing goals faster when you write for your target audience on a regular basis.

For best results, start by defining who they are, then go a step further and gain more knowledge about them. Next, take everything you’ve learned and use it to create high-quality content that gives them a lot of value.

You can also write for your target readers when you create different content formats they love and also use the right tone and language in your writing.

Bottom line, start writing for your target readers so you can enjoy fantastic rewards and take your writing career to a higher level.