How to Find the Right Target Audience for Your eBook [Our Top Tips]
Finding the right audience for your book can be tricky, but it is not unachievable. Selling your eBooks online becomes much easier since there are several ways of doing so. Traditional book promotional methods, such as selling printed books in bookstores and shops, while they can be promoted online as well, the chances of them being discovered are lower compared to eBooks.
For instance, it does not matter how small or big a business leader’s company is; they could list down as many customers and top customers they have without putting too much thought into it, but not all of them will be created equally. However, the list can be more tricky to jot down when we look at authors and their target audience and readers.
In this short read, you will learn more about your target audience and how to find your target in order to promote your book according to that perspective. Here, we will share our top effective tips on how to find the right audience for your eBook.
What is a Target Audience?
A target audience for eBook writers and authors is a group of readers or people that an author aims to reach and engage with their work. This group is defined by several demographic, behavioral, psychographic, and other factors, such as age, gender, interests, educational levels, reading habits, and purchasing power.
However, before one gets into the hunt for finding the right audience, authors and writers must understand their audience first before they jump into writing their eBooks. This allows them to tailor and customize their content to the specific needs, desires, and preferences of their readers. There are many ways of learning about this, and through this method, when authors identify their target audience, they can make informed decisions about topics and their writing styles and use strategic marketing strategies to make sure their eBook resonates with their intended readers.
Read more: 10 Advantages of eBooks Over Printed Books.
Top 10 Tips for Finding the Right Target Audience for Your eBook
Here, you will learn the most effective ways to find your eBook’s target audience. These tips have helped the best of the best writers. So, let us get into the list.
1. Define Your Ideal Reader
Say that your novel idea is a hit for you, and you assume that readers will love it because it is a hit in “your” mind, and you know that there are many kinds of genres that were similarly a hit, but does that mean you kept your ideal reader in mind? No. Defining your ideal reader is one of the first important steps to take before you consider writing your eBook. It is better to keep the reader’s intent in mind when you are writing your novel because you will want to understand their desires and psyche behind what they will expect from your novel. This involves creating a detailed profile that highlights and outlines the targeted or specific traits and characteristics of the people you want to reach.
For example, a younger female audience (generally) would go for romantic fantasy novels, but most of the time, that is not the case. In this situation, knowing your readers comes in handy. Learn and understand the interests, demographics, challenges, goals, and interests of your readers so that you can create content that resonates with them on a deeper level.
For example, suppose you are writing an eBook about healthy, quick cooking for people who are busy professionals. In that case, your ideal reader must be around the age bracket of 28- 36, working parents or business people who value healthy eating and want to whip up something fast as well since they struggle with finding the time to cook. By understanding their needs and the challenges they face, you can create recipes and eBook content that resonate with those readers and deliver them with practical tips and recipes that are fast, nutritious, and easy.
More to learn: Best eBook SEO to Increase Traffic and Sales.
2. Identifying Your eBooks Niche
Identifying your eBook’s niche is another essential factor for finding the right, specific targeted audience and interested readers. A niche is a specific segment within a broader market that has several unique needs, interests, and preferences. By defying your eBook’s niche, you can shortlist your target audience to a more specific group of people who are likely to be interested in your topic of choice.
For example, if you are writing an eBook about starting a vegan bakery, your niche is heavily trimmed to the vegan food industry and those who are obviously vegans. This will allow you to target the right individuals who are interested in veganism, baking, and starting a home-based business. Through this focus point on this specific niche, you can create your eBook content in such a way that it is significantly appealing and relevant to your target audience, increasing your chances of success.
Interesting read: Top 13 Stephen King Writing Tips.
3. Conducting Market Research
Market research does not only apply to businesses or to research industries. This also applies to authors who intend to write to a target audience and to measure that audience better. That is where the art of research comes into play. Conducting market research is important for finding the right audience for your eBook. This includes gathering the right information that is specific and directed towards your potential readers and their preferences.
Now, you may think that if this is something you do, what new will you bring to the readers? Well, the answer here is that even if you write an eBook that caters to their needs, this is different if you write a book related to information, education, cooking, or motivation, but when it comes to novels such as sci-fi, you can use this research of your to deliver something that is unexpected as well.
To many readers, that may keep them at the edge of their chairs, and to other readers, that will leave them with a cliffhanger. Additionally, there are several ways to conduct the right market research, from online surveys, social media, fics groups, analyzing existing data, and email listings.
For example, you can create an online survey where you ask potential readers about their reading habits, personal preferences in eBooks, interests, and other things related to your topic of choice. You can also use social media platforms to monitor and take suggestions from the audience and identify potential targets. Through conducting online market research, you will gain valuable insights and can make more informed decisions about your eBook and tailor that to your target audience’s interests and needs.
More tips for you: 10 Tips on How to Write a Good Poem.
4. Analyze Your Competitors’ Target Audience
They say you should keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer. While this term should not be taken literally here, you basically see this as taking your competitor’s target audience and taking note of those valuable insights for what keeps their eBooks interesting for them. By learning about your competitors here (the enemies), you can understand who they are targeting and why their audience likes them so much.
You can identify certain gaps and overlaps in the market this way. Just because you are writing an eBook does not mean there are no gaps in the eBook market. There are! This information you will gather can help you gather and filter your own target audience and tailor that content to meet their specific needs.
For instance, if you are writing an eBook about weight loss recipes, you can analyze your target audience, who are interested in eating healthy and reading with the intention of losing weight. This way, you can go through blogs and other weight loss cookbooks, see what information they are lacking, and examine their audience as well. Go through their review notes and observe their online behavior. This way, you can identify any areas in which weight loss cookbooks are lacking, and you can fill the gaps by addressing their audience’s requests and highlighting those to attract that audience.
More to know: How to Write Great Adventure Books [10 Helpful Tips]
5. Social Media to the Rescue
Do not let social media take advantage of you; instead, take advantage of it. By benefiting from social media, you gain a powerful way to connect with potential readers and gather feedback on your eBook. By staying actively engaged with your target audience on social media platforms such as Instagram, you can gain valuable insights into their interests and learn more about what your audience wants and expects from your eBook.
For example, on Instagram, you can create polls or surveys to ask your followers about their reading habits, desired content, and genres, or the kinds of challenges they face, depending on the type of eBook you intend to write. You can also actively take suggestions through live streaming options and read their comments while they see you respond to their queries and wishes. This will not only show your target audience that you, as an author, care about creating content and an eBook dedicated to them but also that you positively partake in their discussion.
By actively engaging with your audience on social media, you can build stronger relationships, and this will make your audience see your genuine interest in your eBook. Showing your efforts this way is important.
Find out more about author websites and why you should make one immediately: Is Creating an Author Website Important? [A Complete Guide]
6. Creating Buyers Personas
Creating buyer’s personas is a strategic way to understand your intended audience and readers more personally and deeply. Buyer personas are a fictional representation of your actual or ideal reader based on real insights and data. When you gather that data from social media platforms and more, you can then use that data to find your ideal readers based on it. By developing a detailed profile of your buyer personas, you will gain a better understanding of their desires, expectations from rising eBooks, and motivations.
For instance, say that you are writing an eBook on personal finances for young adults. Here, your target audience is young adults, but also adults who are looking for ways to guide their young adults in learning more about personal finances. In this case, you can create buyer personas for two different aspects of your target audience. The focus is on those recent college graduates who are struggling with student loans and debt, and then the send is for young professionals looking to save for a down payment on a home.
By understanding each personas specific goals and needs, you can customize your eBook content to resonate with both groups and increase your eBook’s appeal to a wider audience. This trick is like killing two birds with one stone.
More tips for you: Is it a Good Idea to Write an Autobiography? [+13 Tips]
7. Consider the Tone and Style of Your eBook
Now comes the more specific and detailed part. The tone and style of your eBook matter. It can significantly impact your intended audience. Different genres and topics require different tones and styles of writing. For example, a tech-savvy how-to guide will require a more formal and informative tone, while a funny book on jokes would benefit more from a casual and conversational tone and writing style.
Think of it this way: You would want to consider the type of reader you want to attract and write your eBook in a way that you know will attract them. For more examples, take students, for instance. They will expect your eBook to have an informative and academic tone, where not only will they benefit from it but also researchers and professionals will resonate with it, as well as general readers. By selecting the right tones and writing style will make your eBook more engaging and suitable for the intended reader and audience. The chances and likelihood increase for attracting more people as well.
Interesting read: How to Write an Epic Fantasy Novel [+7 Tips for Beginners]
8. Test Out Your Target Audience
Testing your target audience is an essential step in making sure that your eBook resonates with the right people and readers. We have previously mentioned how conducting surveys or focus groups would help, but testing those surveys out will help even more. It is important to keep your tests inclusive for everyone, even those who are not the target audience because you never know their interests in your work.
For example, you decide to conduct a survey by asking potential readers about their interests, challenges, and expectations for your eBook. Through live sessions, you can actively respond and take note of what they are looking for in your eBook and its content. Say you are interested in writing an eBook about fantasy, which includes vampires.
Now, you already know that your audience also knows that there are a lot of vampire fantasy genres out there on the market. By taking suggestions through testing your audience, you can see what content they did not like from old fantasy novels, and you take that information to see what you can make better out of it.
By analyzing the results of these surveys and the focus groups, you can identify any areas of improvement in your work and tailor your eBook content to be aligned with the target audience’s interests. Making necessary adjustments shows your audience that you went the extra mile to create something that is truly for them.
Learn more about your looks genre: What Genre is My Book? Unraveling the Famous Question.
9. Refine Your Intended Audience
Refining your target audience is another greatly important step to make sure that your eBook reaches the right readers online. By constantly monitoring and adjusting your intended audience and readers you can maximize your eBook’s effect, impact, and reach. The first step that you should consider when you want to refine your target audience is to start analyzing your initial research and figure out any trends and patterns.
For instance, if you found out that you defined your audience as those who are interested in finances and savings, you will further discover through more research that there is a specific age bracket and geographic location that shows more interest in your eBook topic. This way, you can narrow down your target audience to “adults under the age bracket of 30-45 living in urban areas,” you can customize your marketing efforts and messaging to better gravitate with this group of people.
Furthermore, it is important to monitor your eBook’s performance and gather as much feedback and reviews as you can from your readers from several platforms, such as social media, surveys, emails, and more. This can help you identify any areas where your target audience may not line up with your expectations. But by analyzing your eBook’s sales data and the reviews along with other metrics, you can make more informed and calculated decisions towards your marketing strategies.
Here is a read for those interested in writing a manga: Where Should I Start With Manga? A Beginner’s Guide.
10. Keep Monitoring and Adjusting Your Work
Continuously monitor and adjust your target audience. This is essential for making sure that your eBook remains relevant and appealing to your readers. As your eBook gains more popularity over time and reaches a wider audience, you will find new segments, metrics, and readers interested in reading your eBook. Moreover, your intended audience may change over time, which means that their interests, requirements, or desires will shift to something else. This process is inevitable and only natural.
By staying informed about your intended audience and their desires, needs, expectations, and more, you, as an author, can make more informed decisions about your marketing techniques and the kind of content you feel is relevant at that particular time for future projects and more.
For example, suppose you notice that your target audience is becoming more interested in a specific topic. In that case, you can create additional content and resources to cater to your intended audience’s needs. Of course, this does not mean that every time you come up with a concept, you change that all the time. No. You will be wasting your time away this way, but staying informed about the change in directions and trends is important so you can create relevant content during that period.
Easily Reach Your Target Audience with BookCreating
Now is the time for you to uplift your eBook strategies with the right help. If you are an author and you see yourself struggling to find a target audience and promote your eBook, with the rising competition in this field, it is understandable if you feel this way. It is time that you bring life back into your eBook strategies and provide your readers with compelling content without having to worry about staying up all night doing so—not when you have a team of experts backing you up to help you.
BookCreating offers a wide range of services that help authors specialize in identifying their ideal readers by performing rigorous market research and helping you develop the right marketing strategy for your eBook. We have a team of proficient and experienced writers, editors, and proofreaders who can perfect your eBook to the best degree. Our ghostwriters are talented at transforming your ideas into captivating eBook realities.
Our services will make your eBook more discoverable and targeted at the right audience. No matter what your genre is, our writers have mastered the art of crafting and mapping out ideas and plots that are perfect for what you want. With BookCreating, you are speeding up the process of developing your story while we handle the writing process for you. Let our services help you create a strong first impression on your target audience to leave a strong, lasting impression.