How to Engage Your Primary Audience in 3 Easy Steps

Your primary audience does not always naturally gravitate toward your blog. Sure, people land on your blog posts by chance and then quickly bounce away. You got some traffic but are these your people? Sometimes you have to step outside of your blog and actively look for your ideal audience.

You may know who your ideal audience is but are you actively seeking them out? Do you study them, talk to them on platforms other than your blog? If you’re a new blogger the most important thing you can do is learn who your primary audience is and then find them.

In this post, I want to go over how to find your tribe, and I’m not talking about defining your avatar or persona. I’m assuming you already know who your audience is. Here, I want to give you a fresh perspective on diving deeper and learning more about your primary audience.

Before we get into it, I have a PowerPoint template you might find helpful in planning out your primary audience strategy. Business and marketing planners use this format for planning general business ideas, products, ad campaigns among other things. It’s just a simple workflow to help you get organized, and laser-focused on your primary audience.

The Three Step Process of Finding your Perfect Audience

We’re going to cover three steps that you can take right now to figure out where your primary audience is online and how you can get in front of them, engage with them and build a lasting relationship.

These are the steps:

• Learn
• Engage
• Build

We’ll go over how these steps look in different situations. First, let’s take a closer look at audiences in general.

General Audience Vs. Primary Audience

If you’re a content marketing snob, then you know that there are several different audiences for whom you can potentially communicate. In this post, we’re focusing on the primary audience, but you should have some idea about different content marketing angles, these are the big five:

• Initial – This is your first contact with a company or a person. If you’re a small blog, this would be a friend recommending a post to someone who could potentially buy your products.
• Gatekeepers – These are filters like personal assistants, you have to convince this person that what you have to say to the Primary is worth her time.
• Primary – the decision makers, the people with the buying power or the primary user of your product or service
• Secondary – These people influence the ultimate decision of the primary
• Watchdogs – Regulatory agencies, advocates and the like. For an online business, you could say that Google, Bing and even Facebook and can act as watchdogs because they have the power to dictate who sees your content on their platforms. And at what volume based on how valuable (or not) they feel your content is to their audience. These entities can’t stop you from putting out your message, but they can restrict it on their platforms.

Book Recommendation

If you want to learn more about content marketing in general, I highly recommend Managing Content Marketing by Robert Rose and Joe Pulizzi. This book has tons of great information, visual concepts, and tools for creating content for different audiences.

This book has an excellent segmentation grid that will help you visually define a strategy for communication with these different audiences.

Your Primary Audience

The core goal of any content marketing is to get to the decision-makers, the primary audience. Your primary audience is what some refer to as “your tribe” your “ideal avatar” and so on. This audience is the group of people who watch all your videos, read all of your blog posts, listen to every podcast and buy all of your products because you speak to them in a way that no one else can. They get you, and you get them.

First, find out where they are. Here are a few quick tips on finding where they hang out online.

Why this is important

The only way to build a stable relationship with anyone (personal or business) is to get to know them and to let them get to know you. Finding out where your primary audience hangs out online is essential so that you can use this as a springboard to get to know them and so that they get to know you.

Blogs

I’ll be honest with you, I have never written a guest post to promote this particular blog. Of course, I’ve been blogging for almost ten years so yes, I have written tons of guest posts. However, even if you’re like me and you rely way too much on paid ads, you should know the blogs your primary audience reads. This is where your people are. Regardless of whether you submit a post or not, you should be reading this blog, and following the comments, this is where you’re going to get to know your audience.

Blog Research

Get to know the most popular blogs in your niche. Guest post on the blogs that your primary audience will read. Make comments on the forums that they’re on and get on their radar just by being there and helping out.

From afar, it seems simple to merely contact specific blog owners or post on forums but quite often what happens is we get stuck. We have no idea what has to happen next to figure out where our people are.

Here’s what that will look like within a blogging context.

• Do specific searches to find the best blogs in your niche
• Guest post and comment outside of your blog and social media accounts to build rapport and trust
• Tailor your niche content to other related niche blogs
• Create an outlet for further engagement

Not an SEO Tactic

Guest blogging may have some impact on SEO for your blog, but I invite you to take a different mindset about this. Gaining organic traffic or helping raise your domain authority magic number is only a benefit and not the sole purpose of link building through guest blogging.

Additionally, a lot of the things that you do will not show up in your site analytics.  However, guest blogging and commenting to build rapport and gain trust in the people that you want to visit your site is not going to be as cut and dry.

Step One, Learn

The first step is to Google:

“Top [your niche] blogs”

Do a few of these searches with different super niches that surround your topic. For example, if you’re a social media manager think of some niche topics surrounding your niche like social media graphics, content, ads, promotion, etc.

A real estate agent might search for things like obtaining a mortgage, wedding blogs, new baby blogs, finance blogs, retirement blogs, etc.

This spreadsheet should have the following headers and more if you want.

• Blog name
• Owner & contact
• Blog link
• Niche angle
• Other Notes

Stage two, Engage in the right places

Choose the blogs that best suite your niche.

Check out all the blogs that are showing up on the first few pages of your searches. Once you have a good understanding of the top blogs in your niche prioritize your list based on the blogs you think you would get the most engagement from, you will use it to engage.

Request to guest post

Request to guest post on the blogs that best suits your primary audience. Again, you may or may not want to guest post, Deciding to guest post is entirely up to you. However, if your goal is to get in front of the people that you want to attract without paying for ads, then you have to put in this work.

In this step you’re going to take the list that you made in step one and Google:

[Domain name] plus one or more of the following:

• guest post
• contributions
• Contribute to this site
• Contributor guidelines
• Guest posting guidelines
• Suggest a post
• Guest posts wanted
• Writers wanted
• Wright for us

You can also find blogs that accept guest posts while doing research. For example, if you see “this is a guest post” at the bottom of an article naturally, they take guest posts. Look out for this when doing a “Learn, Engage and Build” process to target specific bloggers or influencers in your niche.

Check the footer if you’re having trouble figuring out where you can submit your guest post. You will usually find a contact page, about page or even a link directly to the “write for us” page there.

In the unlikely event that there is no way to contact the blogger on their site find them on social media and connect there.

Use the Right Angle For the Host Blog

Of course, your guest post email request should be specific to the blog in which you are writing. Remember, it’s not about quantity it’s about quality. If you pay close attention to the blogs you want to feature your writing on then, you won’t feel as overwhelmed to know everything about that blog and its owner.

This post has a few email templates for contacting a blogger. There are tons more templates like this all over the Internet. The main focus is to make sure that you understand the blog’s topics and that you get across to the blogger how you’re going to make your topics relatable to their audience.

Creating the right content for your Primary Audience

Anytime I write a blog post I always think about how I can make the reader’s life better. I’m not talking about changing someone’s life or writing something that will create an epiphany. No blogger needs that kind of pressure.

I am talking about teaching something entertaining, inspiring or making someone smile. Help your people make an informed decision or to make their lives easier in some small way. We all have something we can share. Give freely. You never know how much impact it might have.

Creating the right content is pretty straightforward especially if you are familiar with the blogs for which you want to write. What are the blog posts that do the best on those blogs? Write in that format to get the most engagement and attract those people to you.

When you’re looking for blogs to guest post on they may not be directly related to your topics. However, there is always a way to put an angle on something your primary audience is interested in for it to make sense within the context of the host blogs topics.

Step Three, Build

Determine your call to action before you write anything. At the very least you should have a link to your website somewhere in your guest post. The point of guest blogging is to build a relationship with the blog hosts readers. Make it as easy as possible for them to take the next step. Either to offer more help with the specific topic your blogging about or to help solve another problem.

If you’re looking to build an email list (and you should be) have an opt-in incentive available that you can link to in your guest post as well. Writing a guest post is a great way to get in front of new people, but an email subscriber gives you a person that you can contact and communicate with over and over again. An email list is the best way to start a lasting relationship.

Finding Your Primary Audience on Forums & Social Media

Step One, Learn

In this step, you’ll be researching of course. Google [your niche] + forum read through some of the threads and start learning how your ideal customer talks and what their pain points are. Keep a spreadsheet just like you did with blogging with headings like:

• Forum
• Forum links
• Important/popular threads
• Value words
• Noted pain points

Step Two, Engage

You’re not getting on these forums to screw around or do mindless scrolling. You have a mission. Your mission is to learn the language that your primary audience is using. Understand them and talk to them. I’m not telling you to change your personality to match that of your primary audience, but you should understand their lingo.

If there are specific words that you use but your target wouldn’t understand, the words you use need to change.  They may be referring to the same thing using different words, but you won’t know it until you talk to them. Your main priority in everything that you do is to create clear communication between you and your primary audience.

Step Three, Build

It goes without saying but always have a call to action for your potential leads.  Give them a way to interact with you and your product. You can do this with free samples, tutorials, case studies and white papers or anything else that makes sense and supports the trust of your audience and their decision to interact with you.

Which Social Platforms and Forums are Right For You

Learn, engage and build are just three steps to drilling down to a clear focus and getting to know your customer but there are so many platforms where you can apply this.

All social media platforms are great for talking to people. Getting to know them.  However, not all social platforms are created equal. Let’s take Twitter and Pinterest as examples.

Twitter vs. Pinterest

Twitter seems to do well with time-sensitive news topics. It’s fast-paced. On Twitter information is consumed and discarded quickly. Pinterest, on the other hand, has a slower pace. It takes time and patience to see results. On this platform, people collect and revisit ideas at their leisure. The pace is slow and thoughtful.

If your primary audience is on either platform, learning about them is always the same.  Quick searches on Twitter will give you tons of information on what your primary audience talks about and what interests them.

Search a few hashtags and then look at the tweets that your ideal readers are tweeting, what they’re saying and how they’re saying it. There is a goldmine of demographic and psychographic data here.

Pinterest is another very intuitive search engine that is also somewhat social. Pay attention to what people are pinning. Not just the influencers but your target market as well.

If the blogs your follower’s visit have a presence on Pinterest, then check out that blogs Pinterest account. Drill down to what their followers are pinning. The things that they put on their Pinterest boards are very insightful. Your audience can tell you a lot about what type of help and products they are searching for without even trying.

Offline Inspiration

My favorite way of defining my people is looking at the magazines they might read. Magazines like Entrepreneur, Money and even fashion magazines like Elle are all niched down to specific interests. This focus makes them excellent places to look for guidance.

I don’t study magazines to find out where my primary audience hang out. I’m not going to put an ad out in Elle Magazine that would cost me a fortune.

Magazines are insightful because they do help me get in the mindset of the Person I want to attract to my website. There’s also fantastic value in the ads and the words used in the advertisements of the big companies. Those companies with the resources to create full-page displays in Forbes and other top magazines. I don’t have the means to compete with them, but at least I can learn from them.

Other Benefits of Learn, Engage and Build

This post is not about building links to your site or even guest posting. This three-step process is about understanding your primary audience. Write for your people and give them the things that they want to create something of value for them.

Side benefits of “learn, engage, build” is

• Building links to your site
• Building an email list
• Getting the best bang for your buck with ads that you run on search engines and social media
• Creating professional relationships
• Easier content creation
• Targeted Branding
• Better User Experience

Let’s take a closer look at a few of these.

Paid Traffic

Of course, if you need a quick boost in getting people to your website you can use paid traffic. The problem is if you don’t understand the person that you’re trying to attract you’re going to spend a whole lot more money than you ever intended.

Don’t do any paid advertising until you understand who it is you’re talking to and where they hang out. I’ve done tons of Facebook ads only to have those ads skyrocket my traffic and my bounce rates right along with it.

Most people typically think of Facebook for their ads. Sometimes Google ads or some other platform are the best for your brand. In my experience, Google ads are better for selling low-cost products. Still, don’t overlook Pinterest, LinkedIn or advertising on blogs directly.

For me in my business, Tumblr is a fantastic traffic generator. I always thought of Tumblr as a cool hipster platform (I’m far from being a cool hipster), but the Tumblr crowd also love learning about design, planning, photography, and blogging, so we get each other.

The point here is to think outside of Facebook ads as well.

Content Creation

Creating content for your site will be so much easier. You’re not going to worry about what you should write. Your audience will tell you about it on social media and blog comments. You’ll also find it by learning the things that are most popular on other blogs that are similar to yours.

There’s no need to regurgitate what another blogger has already stated either. All you have to do is put your spin on a specific topic, make the topic better, more impactful and tailored to your primary audience.

Working with other bloggers

Finding blogs for guest posts is not just about writing for these blogs to gain access to your primary audience. Although that may be the primary purpose, there are other reasons to do blog research.

For example, you can find partners, collaborators and other business owners that can be very beneficial to you as a blogger. You may also have a way in which you can help other bloggers as well.

Not too shabby on the side benefits, right?

A Final Note About Defining a Primary Audience

One final note about defining your primary audience is not to fall in love with them too soon. They are real people, but the idea of this group as a primary audience is still only a concept. The group you target may or may not respond to anything you have to offer. That’s OK. If you don’t get a response at the engage stage, then you will have to experiment with other personas.

Everything about business is testing and the more data you collect, the more intelligent you will become about your business and how to make it grow. Don’t get discouraged. These are trials and errors every company goes through in the beginning. You’re not alone.

What’s Next?

If you enjoyed this post join our email list! Get notifications on everything new on the blog with monthly updates and direct links to all of that month’s freebies on the blog and in the PrettyWebz shop.

Share this Image if you liked this post or want to save it for later 😉