Blogging without knowing whom you’re writing for or who your target audience is, is like cooking a stew without knowing what ingredients you’re using.

You’re sure to get it wrong.

Let’s face it.

Starting a blog is super easy but writing blog posts takes a lot of time and research.

And if you aren’t really writing your posts with a vision, people are going to leave your website without really reading that content you took so long to write and format.

It’s a sheer waste.

Good heavens!

That’s why you need to craft your Ideal Reader’s Profile before you start blogging.

This post will teach you

  • why you need a target audience
  • how to write your mission statement
  • a cool method for crafting your ideal blog avatar
  • how to define that target audience

And by learning all this, you will learn how to write the right content for your audience. Which means, you’ll never have to scratch your head to come up with blog post ideas!

Now if you don’t have a blog or are thinking of starting one, I have an extremely detailed step-by-step guide here on starting a money-making blog that will help! Or you can take my free 7 day course on starting a blog that makes money on autopilot!

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Let’s get down to business, shall we?

This post includes affiliate links, meaning at no extra cost to you, I might make a small commission if you decide to buy something and this money will be used to feed my poor lil’ dogs. They are perennially hungry, my little ones.

Those little rascals…

Why is knowing your Blog’s Target Audience important?

1. It will help you identify your reader’s pain points.

It doesn’t matter if you’re writing great content.

I made this mistake with my first blog.

Sure, my posts were long, detailed and extremely well formatted, but it didn’t resonate with my audience. And as a result, I made no money with my first blog.

It was like trying to sell raw carrots to people coming out from a burger joint.


What a ridiculous strategy!

Thank God, I didn’t spend all my earnings on carrots. I’d have been bankrupt.

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Therefore, you should not only aim to write useful content, but you should aim at writing the right content.

By knowing your target audience, you will easily be able to identify the pain points of your readers, and write solutions to those problems specifically.


What a ridiculously good strategy!

By getting into your readers’ minds and knowing exactly what they want and when they want it, you are skipping miles ahead as a Blogger or an Entrepreneuer.

This is the kind of mindset that will help you engage more with your readers, decrease your bounce rate and get you more sales.

And yes, this one change will decrease your bounce rate and increase your blog traffic tremendously. This along with using Tailwind.

RELATED: HOW I GOT 18,000 PAGEVIEWS IN MY 3RD MONTH OF BLOGGING


2. You will be able to make more money.

This is directly related to the first point, of course.

Imagine you’re a Blogger who has a blog about Budgeting and Finance. You also love creating Printables.

One day you create a beautiful meal planner printable and pitch it to your email list.

And you wonder why you hardly get any sales at all…

This is because most of the people on your list are looking for ways to earn more money or save money.

And you’re pitching them a meal planner, that they can probably get for free somewhere else.

However, if you had created a Monthly Finance Planner or a Yearly Expenses Planner, chances are you’d have made some pretty sweet sales.

By doing target audience research, Sarah was able to make tons of sales.

My point being, you need to truly understand your target audience, in order to continuously create content that clicks with them or products that they’re dying to buy.

You have to get into the minds of your readers and solve every nagging question that they have which is related to your blogging niche.

This will help you make more money with your blog.

And by accurately pin-pointing their pain points and constantly creating content that resonates with them, you will make terrific sales and commissions in no time by implementing sales funnels. 

RELATED: 17 EASY WAYS TO GAIN CLIENTS ONLINE + FREE IDEAL CLIENT PROFILE WORKBOOK

Understanding your Blog’s Mission Statement

Until you really understand your Blog’s goals, you can’t really define your target audience.

You need to know whom your content is going to serve, what problems you want to discuss in your Blog, and really hone in your niche.

Every time you create a piece of content or a product, you need to ask yourself if it really aligns with your blog’s Mission Statement.

If it doesn’t, scrap it and go back to the drawing board.

Your Mission Statement should contain these 3 things

1. Whom you’re helping/educating/entertaining.
2. What you’re helping them do.
3. What makes you stand out from the rest of the Blogs in the same niche.

For instance, this is mine.

“I help bright, young women build creative online businesses that stand out from the norm. My blog is unique because I use humor and hand-drawn illustrations to effectively communicate with my readers.

The key to have an amazing blog is to not only know how to find your target audience online but also to stand out from the competition in whatever you do.

Now, build yours:

I help/educate/entertain ____________ to _____________. My Blog is unique because ____________.

As your blog grows, your Mission Statement might evolve to become better and more refined.

This is totally okay.

Brands change and grow as they evolve.

Ideal Blog Avatar

By filling in the details and answering the following questions, you will be able to craft your blog’s ideal reader profile.

Basic Questions

1. What is the gender of your reader?
2. What age group does your reader come in?
3. Where does the reader live?
4. What does the reader do for a living?

Questions that delve a little deeper

1. What are your reader’s hobbies?
2. Which social media does your reader use?
3. What are your reader’s goals?
4. What is your reader struggling with?
5. What is your reader typing in the search bar of Google?

And by crafting a reader’s profile, you will understand

1. What blog posts do you have to write to engage with the reader
2. What products you can create that will result in high sales
3. How to market to the reader and stand out from the competition

In short, your reader’s profiles need to be really detailed as this will lead to better blog engagement. And by doing this, you can come up with better marketing strategies.

Crafting a Reader’s Profile for your Blog is like creating a beautiful life story of your reader.

In order to do this, you have to make believe that you are writing for your greatest fan – your imaginary reader.

By constantly over-delivering, you will build a crowd of fans who are dying to read your content the minute it is published. This is what you should aim for as a Blogger.

Note: Greatest fan, not stalker.

You can then fill in the blanks and get a better perspective of your target audience.

RELATED: HOW TO CHOOSE A PROFITABLE NICHE FOR YOUR BLOG


Sample Reader Profiles

Take for instance 2 sample reader’s profiles I have for my Blog:

Example 1

That doesn’t make you special, Jeanne.

Jeanne has just finished her education and has started a job. It’s been 6 months and she doesn’t like it so far, and is keen to start her own business.

She is tired of her 9-5 and wants to quit.

So, she starts a blog in her spare time but doesn’t really know how to build it up.

She is keen on looking for tips to help her write better blog posts, gain more blog traffic and monetize her blog.

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So, she signs up to different blogs and loves reading their newsletters early in the morning at work while she’s checking her email and drinking her coffee.

She spends 1 hour every morning researching tips to help her become a better blogger.

What kind of posts Jeanne is looking for:

Example 2

Sue on the other hand is a stay-a-home mom with 3 children and is looking to start a side hustle so she can help her husband pay the bills.

She’s taken a few online courses on graphic designing and managing social media but doesn’t know how to gain clients or build an online portfolio.

She’s heard that blogging is good for gaining clients but she has no idea how to attract an audience.

These are the types of posts she is looking for:

Do you get my drift?

Once you have your target audience and your ideal reader’s profile in hand, writing viral blog posts and creating products for them becomes a piece of cake.

I could really do with some chocolate cake, right about now.

5 Clever Strategies to discover your Target Audience

1. Use Google Analytics to note the demographics.

Simply open your Google Analytics and hop on over to Demographics > Overview.

You will get the following metrics.

This will give you an idea of what type of people are visiting your blog.

Additionally, you can also see their interests. Under Demographics, click Interests and you will get the following statistics.

Google Analytics is a super useful tool!

If you haven’t set it up yet, simply follow this video guide.

P.S. Don’t get addicted to your Google Analytics and check it every single day. This might make you slightly nuts. I’m of course speaking from experience. On the bright side though, there wasn’t a shortage of nuts in my house. 

2. Send surveys to your readers.

I do this once a year-ish.

This mask is so itchy…

I love asking my readers what they would like to hear from me.

This really helps me create a stellar blog content plan.

Aside from this, whenever I send an email out, I note the number of opens and clicks. I use ConvertKit which displays all this information next to each broadcast email I send out.

Convertkit shows you detailed metrics on each broadcast email you send out to your readers. This helps you understand your target groups.

ConvertKit is super awesome, and if you’d love to get in on the ConvertKit madness, simply take their free trial by clicking below!

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This is very helpful as it helps me understand which blog posts my readers prefer reading. And I am able to fine-tune my content based on their reactions.

YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE: HOW I USE CONVERTKIT TO MAKE $600 A MONTH

3. Facebook groups and Facebook Ads

This is one extremely popular and well-used method.

Simply join 4-5 Facebook groups in your niche.

Spend about 1-2 hours every day reading questions posted by fellow bloggers. And note the common theme. Often, you will find that questions can be grouped by categories.

Note a question down if you find it recurring a lot. And make a mental note to write an outstanding blog post. This is how you find great blog post ideas. By reading the problems faced by people in your niche.

I’ll give you a small example.

In my area in Bangalore, I noticed that a lot of people outside the liquor shop were perpetual drunks.

They were hungry and too drunk or high to actually drive to a restaurant to buy food.

So a man opened a fried chicken and kebab restaurant right next to the Liquor Shop. Not only is it one of the only restaurants in the area, but fried chicken and kebabs pair extremely well with whiskey.

Needless to say, he’s making a lot of money.

And rightfully so.

If you have excellent marketing strategies, you don't have to chase your target audience. They will come to you.

Why… yes. Thank you!

He did his research and started a business knowing that there was no chance he would fail.

By defining a target audience, you will also find it easy to create Facebook Posts and/or Facebook Ads to promote your services/products.


4. See the most popular posts of your competitors.

Oh, there’s a superbly easy way to do this.

Visit www.buzzsumo.com and enter the website URLs of your competitors. It will generate a list of their most popular blog posts.

This will give you an insight into what readers in your niche are really after.

5. Join quora

After creating an account on Quora, you can select topics that garner your interest and you will be shown questions people ask on that topic alone.

This is a great way to understand what questions people are asking in your niche.

And by constantly knowing what solutions your readers are seeking, you will be way ahead of the curve!

Yep, these are pretty much the 5 most valuable tips that have helped me discover my target audience. There are lot of other tips you should implement as a new blogger but this is by far the most important!

Don’t forget to take my free email course that will help you double your blog traffic!

I’m going to hand the mic over to you now.

Leave a comment, pls. Now isn’t that eloquent?

Who do you feel is your target audience?

Let me know in the comments below.

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