This document outlines 7 core elements for building a powerful and engaged audience for a book: 1) Identify and seek out your ideal fan, 2) Determine what you have to offer, 3) Define your goals, 4) Create content that's worth sharing, 5) Promote, network and partner, 6) Engage with your burgeoning audience, and 7) Make it easy (and hard) to be a part of your tribe. The document provides action steps for each element and emphasizes identifying your ideal fan, offering value to readers, engaging in promotion and networking, and facilitating discussion within the community.
5. One of the biggest mistakes writers
make when trying to build their
readerships is failing to identify
exactly who it is that they are
trying to reach.
6. Action Steps:
Create a profile of your ideal fan – their
interests, needs and desires, where they can
be found (online and off) and who they are
influenced by.
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Also decide who you want to spend time
with. Who do you want to learn from?
8. Forget about being “discovered”.
Instead, give people a reason to
support you and your work.
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What value can only youprovide?
9. Action Steps:
Don’t try to dictate your audience’s needs –
understand them.
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Notice your passions, ideas and interests. Do
they resonate with your ideal reader? Dig deep.
What makes you stand out? What exactly is
your appeal and why is it relevant?
11. The goals you define for yourself
will help you determine whether
or not you’ve reached what you
set out to do.
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Knowing your goals defines what
success actually looks like.
12. Action Steps:
Ask yourself what it is you wish to attain with
your book or your writing. Different motivations
require different goals to achieve the desired
outcome.
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What does success look like to you? Recognition,
influence, speaking gigs, a full time writing
career, bestseller status? Or something else?
13. Image credit: Daniel Robert Dinu via Unsplash
4. Create Content That’s Worth Sharing
14. Word-of-mouth marketing
is the most powerful marketing
tool available.
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But the only way to access and
activate this mechanism, is to
create content that begs to be shared.
15. Action Steps:
Create highly valuable content that addresses
the needs and desires of the people you most
want to reach.
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Consider using multiple mediums to reach your
intended audience and focus on answering
your reader’s question, “What’s in it for me?”
17. Spend as much time promoting your work
as you take to create it
– perhaps more.
It takes a village… So don’t wait
until “later” to start making genuine
connections and partnerships.
18. Action Steps:
Get out from behind your desk, off your blog
or away from the safety of your usual haunts.
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Guest post, comment and interact on other
blogs. Offer your insight in new groups and
forums. Develop online and offline
partnerships by contributing value first before
expecting something in return.
20. “Traffic” alone is not enough.
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By connecting, responding and
engaging with people,
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you give them a reason to come back
again and again.
21. Action Steps:
Start by creating relevant content that spurs
conversation.
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Ask questions, respond to comments,
encourage feedback and facilitate discussions
within your growing community.
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Be human and authentic.
22. 7. Make It Easy (And Hard) to Be a Part of Your Tribe
Image credit: Hotblack via Morguefile
23. Contrary to popular belief, your
work will not appeal to everyone.
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Be clear about who your community
is for, and who it is not.
24. Make it super easy and enticing for your ideal
fan to join (subscribe). Make them feel like
they are part of something special.
!
Get community members excited and involved
– allow them to take ownership of what they’ve
created and help you share it with the world.
Action Steps:
25. To Summarize:
1. Identify and seek out your ideal fan
2. Determine what you have to offer
3. Define your goals
4. Create content that’s worth sharing
5. Promote, network & partner
6. Engage with your burgeoning audience
7. Make it easy (and hard) to be a
part of your tribe
26. Presented by Kimberley Grabas
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www.YourWriterPlatform.com
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To learn more about finding an audience for your
book, click the link below:
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http://www.yourwriterplatform.com/how-to-target-an-audience/
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