7 Ways to Identify Your Target Audience for Your Blog

If you want to start a blog, one of the first things you’ll need to do is identify your target audience.

Knowing your audience and who you’re trying to reach with your content will allow you to write more effectively, find better guest bloggers, and attract readers who will love what you have to say.

Don’t worry – it’s not as hard as it sounds! Here are seven ways you can figure out who you should be writing for.Before we start, you might want to check out The Bloggers Roadmap.

1) Speak with Your Readers To Identify Your Target Audience

One of your best resources for identifying who your target audience is is in your own inbox. From Facebook messages to tweets and comments on your posts, these communications can help you figure out which types of content resonates with readers.

Look at what people are saying—and not saying—to get a better sense of their interests. You might also consider using polling tools such as Polldaddy or SurveyMonkey, so you can find out how people respond to different features or potential new products.

Get creative: Tapping into user-generated content (UGC) will give you valuable insight into what kinds of content resonate with your audience, but try not to limit yourself just because something’s popular with other users.

2) Look at Google Analytics

The most important piece of data you’ll gather from your website’s Google Analytics is your demographic. This can be in a very general sense (like men ages 18-34) or extremely specific (like retired people living in Boise, Idaho).

When gathering information about your demographic, you need as much data as possible—you don’t want to just rely on some numbers you pulled out of thin air! Think about where your readers hang out online and look at demographics from sites that match up with that.

If you know what kinds of sites they visit, consider looking at those site’s demographics reports as well. The more information you can gather, the better picture you will have of who your target audience is!

3) Use Keyword Tools To Find Your Target Audience

When starting out, you won’t have much of a following, and it can be hard to figure out who your target audience is. In order to identify what people are interested in reading about on your site, you should use keyword tools like Google AdWords Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest.

Keyword Planner is by far more powerful and offers more data than Ubersuggest does (free versions anyway), but Ubersuggest is a good way to get started with finding relevant keywords and searching blogs similar to yours that are getting traffic right now.

For example, you could type blogger into Ubersuggest and see all of these related terms come up. You can follow this step by set guide to creating a life changing blog here.

4) Create a Persona

A persona is a short description of an ideal customer. It includes their demographics, behaviors, and beliefs.

While it can help to have multiple personas depending on your business, having just one target audience will allow you to focus all of your efforts on that niche, making it easier to develop content that resonates with them.

To help identify your target audience and determine which persona is most appropriate for you.

5) Ask Around

Asking your friends, co-workers, and family members if they’d read a particular type of post is a great way to identify who your target audience is.

You’ll have better luck understanding who you’re writing for if you know people that are actually looking for what you have to offer. For example, maybe your target audience is bloggers with similar blogs as yours or people who want to start blogging.

If there’s someone in your network who fits into one of those categories, ask them if they’d read a certain type of post; they may surprise you with their answer! There are tons of ways you can get feedback on how well your idea will resonate with readers. You just need to know where and how to look!

6) Conduct Surveys To Get Feedback From Your Target Audience

The best way to truly know what people think is to ask them. Surveys are incredibly easy and effective ways of getting feedback from your target audience. If you’re interested in blogging, answer a few questions about why you are drawn to blogging.

Then, ask your friends and family members if they’d be willing to answer a few questions about their online habits or what they like or dislike about blogs they read (or used to read). Chances are that your responses will reveal many interesting things about your target audience that you might not have thought of before.

Once you’ve gathered some data, analyze it carefully and make sure to incorporate your findings into how you plan on running your new site!

7) Make Use of User Feedback Forms

User feedback forms not only help you identify your target audience but also allow you to collect feedback from those people as well. These forms give you a chance to ask questions about demographic information, page preferences, and general interests. Here are 7 more secrets the guru’s don’t tell you.

Feedback forms are an easy way of gathering data that can help define your target audience. If all else fails, a survey can be used in conjunction with email marketing or social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter.

Whether you’re selling a product or promoting a service, it’s important to know who your audience is so you can tailor your message and make sure it is something they want.

Finally

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