If you write to everyone, you write to no one…
What you say or what you write cannot appeal to everyone. Not everyone is interested in what you may offer. So when you offer a product or content to someone, you want to make sure you are offering it to someone who would appreciate its value.
For example, you wouldn’t offer a beef burger to a vegetarian. You may enjoy a good hamburger. But no matter how delicious you describe this food, you likely will have very little success connecting with a vegetarian audience.
Know You’re Audience
Know who you’re writing to. This goes beyond just a general idea. You need to know you’re reader’s needs. Just as you would a friend. You need to use You’re imagination and picture you’re reader. Actually picture the person you are speaking to.
Visualize Your Reader
Is You’re typical visitor male or female? How old is he or she? Does she have children? What is his hobby? What is her fear? What makes him happy? What does she value most?
Get a clear picture of you’re reader. Actually picture this person in you’re mind. If you already know someone who fits this description, that’s even better. Why not picture her?
Then, when you write. Write as if you are talking to that person.
At this point, you may be asking,”Why go through all of that trouble? Why not just blog to everyone?”
But the answer to why you need to visualize you’re reader, is to enhance you’re writing. It will make your communication much more natural.
And from an SEO perspective, you will attract the people whom you target in your blog. When they read it, it will be as if you are talking directly to them. Remember, you are targeting the people who will appreciate and respond well to the information you’re offering on your site.
The result is, good quality return traffic and loyal readers.
Use You’re Imagination
When you were a child, you had an extremely vivid imagination. Children have the ability to use their imagination to picture “worlds of things”. Imagination plays a very big part in a child’s life.
As we grow older, we tend to down-play our imagination,– but it’s extremely important when we blog. In fact, it’s the only way we can be creative in anything!
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” — Albert Einstein
Develop You’re Voice
The way you improve you’re writing, is by developing you’re voice. Every writer has his own voice. Your voice is what makes you different. With all the noise on the internet, it is important to sound separate and district.
One way of accomplishing this is speaking to that one person you imagined. When you write, imagine you’re both sitting at the kitchen table, and having an informal conversation.
Let that person ask questions in you’re imagination. Then be sure to answer those questions as you write you’re blog post.
Write the way you speak
Be yourself when you speak. Use the vocabulary of you’re everyday speech. Don’t write the way you’ve been taught in school. Don’t write the way you are expected to on the job.
Instead, just write the way you would speak to a good friend.
Forget about all the key grammar that you learned in school. All of that overly formal mumbo-jumbo of the corporate world… Just get rid of it when you write your blog.
Use the phrases you would use in you’re normal conversation with you’re imagined visitor.
Just by doing this, you will be miles ahead of you’re competition in knowing your audience and connecting with them.
Of course this is just one aspect of creating a successful blog. If you want to see a program that really covers all the bases in training, check out my review of “Wealthy Affiliate”…
Your article on knowing your audience is written by someone with expertise in the subject. Thank you for bringing out those pointers which are very informative. Being a successful writer is about delivering quality content to the reader. Often times we get caught up in key words and wanting to show off knowledge on a particular topic that we forget to be authentic. These are surely qualities I will bear in mind every time I write something.
Thank you Nozipho. That is very true. We have to keep a careful balance between concern for keyword optimization and concern for having appealing content.
Hey Monty; you have made it clear here about blogging, that a blogger should know the audience to whom the blog is directed. Of a truth when you are talking to someone you know the conversation is freer. Words flow comfortably. that is where imagination comes into good writing practice. As we all know, practice makes perfect.
DorcasW
Thanks for your comment Dorcas. Just as Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.”
Hello there, Knowing the audience for a particular Blog is important because it determines the content that will appear in the writing. The content of an article that has a specific topic will vary depending on the intended audience as they are the most important part that must be considered.
Yes, exactly Ismeglamour. When we write to everyone, we reach no one. We must know who our readers are.
Thanks for the information. I am a new blogger, so this information is very useful to enhance my writing style. Now I see that bloggers’ writing style isn’t dependent on his skill only. They also need to adjust the style depending on the audience. Can I ask a question? If the audience is more than one type (let’s say a blog that targets both career women and young moms), then do we still need to choose one of the most suitable audience? Thanks
Alblue,
The beautiful thing about a blog, is that you can choose to write an entire post targeting young moms but include a link to another entire blog post where you targeted career women.
The linking internally from one blog to another will help your blog’s S.E.O. (When visitors transfer from one blog post to another within your website, it reduces a metric called “Bounce Rate” –which you want to keep low) At the same time you will be speaking directly to your audience.
I hope this helps. Thanks for your comment Alblue.
I really enjoyed this article. Writing what you know is so much easier and a lot more stress free when you are Not forced to always do research on a topic and everyone is super concern with grammer.
I totally agree to write as if you were talking to a dear friend over brunch and mimosas.. okay, okay, I added the brunch and mimosas, but the sentiment is the same, right?
Yes. The brunch and mimosas works well too 🙂
Thank you for your comment Brendaliz.
I never really thought of visualizing my audience and having a conversation with them, but I can definitely see how that can help with the creative process.
When developing my voice, I know you said to be yourself, but should I also try developing a more professional tone too? Like if I were to write a blog post that’s reviewing a product. Or does it just depend on what kind of blog I’m going for?
Yes Gladeno. A lot has to do with your subject. But, even when in the most formal business setting, you will attract more readers when you let your genuineness shine through.