Audience Engagement: How to Establish a Genuine Connection with Your Readers

October 23, 2017 by Kimberley Grabas

In part 1 of this book marketing series, we talked about how to find your ideal audience—what steps you can take to figure out who your dream reader is, where they hang out, and how you can reach out to them.

Hopefully by now you’ve had a chance to put a few of those tips into action, starting to reach out to potential new fans and attract them to your writing.

But there’s a difference between knowing where your audience hangs out, reaching out to them, and actually engaging with them.

Think of it this way: the people who put take-out menus in your mailbox know where you live, and they have reached out to you. But do you save and cherish those menus, relying on them for comfort or support, telling friends about them, and writing raving reviews about them online?

Probably not.

The menus reach you, but they don’t engage you. They don’t make you a fan.

The real secret to building a lasting author platform is to connect.

Let’s take a deep dive into how to make that happen. [Read more…]

The 4-Part System to Define and Attract your Target Audience (Part 2: UNDERSTAND)

September 13, 2015 by Kimberley Grabas

The more you know about your readers, the more effective your sales and marketing efforts will be.

So, it’s well worth the effort to find out:

who they are,

what books they buy,

and why they buy what they do.

And after the work we did in part one of this series, it may seem like the hard part is done.

In part 1, we tackled the first step in defining your target audience: identifying who it is you wish to reach or serve.

We did some research and asked a whole lot of questions – and I shared ways that you could find the answers to these questions – to create a detailed and specific persona of your ideal reader.

However, we’ve only just scratched the surface.

To recap, let’s have a quick look at the 4-parts of the system to define and attract your target audience:

Step 1: IDENTIFY, where we define exactly who it is that you are trying to reach. [Read more…]

The 4-Part System to Define and Attract Your Target Audience (Part 1: IDENTIFY)

July 27, 2015 by Kimberley Grabas

When defining your target audience, the first question you need to ask yourself is this:

“Who do you want sitting in the seats?”

Who do you want reading your work, sharing your ideas and contributing to your community?

The audience you develop should be exclusive – it should be made up of only those individuals whose desires, values and interests align with the creative work that you offer.

And since these are the people you will be spending a majority of your professional time with (through your blog, social media, email, conferences, speaking engagements and so on), it’s prudent to carefully choose those people who will not only be the most supportive, but motivate and inspire you to grow as a writer.

Actively test, target, and refine the way you reach the people you want to reach.

But there is more to defining your target audience than simply picking the people you’d like to spend time with.

An empirical understanding of your ideal readership usually beats gut instinct, so you need to move past your own assumptions about who your “right” audience may be, and develop a refined and targeted demographic. [Read more…]

Identifying Your Target Audience: The Top 8 Mistakes Writers Make

May 23, 2015 by Kimberley Grabas

(Want to avoid making costly mistakes when identifying your target audience? Scroll down to grab the FREE cheatsheet!)

Defining your target audience is much easier said than done.

Many writers end up skipping this step because they fail to recognize its importance in their book marketing plans.

But the truth is, identifying and understanding the wants, needs and desires of your ideal readership can “make or break” your marketing strategy.

Without a solid grasp of what makes your readers tick – and what they are really searching for – you will waste a considerable amount of time and energy promoting your work to an indifferent market.

Or worse, you’ll begin to receive pushback or negative reviews from people that your book was never written for.

But here’s the good news…

There is a wealth of information at your fingertips, about every audience and sub-genre imaginable.

From basic demographics like age, gender, location, income, occupation or ethnicity, to audience psychographics, like personality, attitudes, values, interests, hobbies, lifestyle and even behaviour.

The roadblock? [Read more…]

Blog Post Ideas for Writers: Solving the “What Do I Blog About?” Conundrum

February 15, 2015 by Kimberley Grabas

Writing your book is enough of a challenge.

Many of us have sat staring miserably at a blank screen, cursor winking mockingly, trying desperately to pull our thoughts together to form a sentence.

And then (hopefully) another.

It’s rarely easy, and even on good days when your Muse is with you, there’s still that niggling self-doubt to contend with.

I have nothing to say.

And even if I did, who’s going to listen?

But if you want to stay ahead of the curve, you also need to consistently craft mind-blowing blog content to grow your audience – while you write your book.

… Ugh.

So, the big question is this:

“What’s the most effective, most efficient way to regularly conceive and produce high-quality posts that attract more readers?”

Because you do have something to say. Your ideas are worth sharing. And people will listen.

You just need a little guidance on how to focus your creative super powers to get the job done.

How to Decide What to Blog About

Ready to solve the “What do I blog about?” puzzle, once and for all?

To do so, we need to lay a little groundwork.

Before we can think about creating amazing content, we need to know three things first: [Read more…]

Actively test, target, and refine the way you reach the people you want to reach.

How to Decide What to Blog About

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