Blogging Part 2 - Who Do I write to?

The question I almost always get is “How often should I write?” but I’ll get to that next week. The reason for that is there is much more important question that I rarely hear, “Who do I write to?”

Knowing who to write to is where you have to start when you’re starting a blog. Everything flows from your audience.

People who don’t write constantly rarely think about who their audience is, they’re just worried about not looking foolish. But if you don’t know who your target is then how can you know if you’ve reached them? If you’re not reaching the people you need then how can you be successful? If you’re not successful, then looking foolish should be the least of your worries. 

Think about whom your customers are, this is the easiest way to decide a target market. 

Target Market - Think Micro, Not Macro

If you run a beauty salon and want to write about make up tips then you have to concentrate on people who need make up tips. As I don’t own a beauty salon and have no make-up tips to share I’m going to guess the target market for this writer would be:

• Female
• 16-30
• Single
• Go out to bars/clubs

That’s a large group of people, and it’s important to know that you don’t have to narrow it down to a tiny group to be successful. You just have to know that who gains the most from the information you are putting out there.

Now that I have narrowed it down to a smaller group, I know have a much better idea of how to move forward. I now know a little bit more about their lifestyle and this can help me with the direction of my blog. That small amount of info gives me insight into:

• Topics for articles, i.e. “How to make sure your make up doesn’t sweat off on the dance floor.”
• When to post my blog, probably late in the week when these women are planning their party filled weekends
• Tonality, I know how to talk to these women.

Knowing how to talk to your audience is crucial to your blog. If you know that you are dealing with when you are writing it is much easier to build a connection to them, and that will keep them coming back to your blog. If that is your target market you know that you can be a little more relaxed, crack a few jokes share some stories, use colloquialisms and so forth. However if you’re trying to reach top executives at banks you’re going to want to make it very straight forward, use proper business jargon and make sure you give off a professional image.

Next week, How Often should I write?