In the months before and after your book launch, it’s important to reach the readers who will be most interested in your work. One of the most effective ways to streamline your marketing efforts is by creating an ideal reader avatar (IRA)—a detailed, fictionalized representation of your perfect reader. With a fully-fleshed out IRA, you’ll be able to craft targeted campaigns that resonate more effectively. In this post, we’ll break down the steps to creating an IRA and explore how you can leverage it in your marketing efforts.
Creating Your Ideal Reader Avatar
Your books are bound to draw in a diverse crowd of people—too many for you to individually build your marketing strategy around. That’s where building an IRA comes in. Having an IRA in mind while drafting your campaigns is helpful because it allows you to visualize and understand who your audience is.
For example, an author who writes nonfiction exercise and fitness guides might define their IRA in the following way: Sarah, a 38-year-old marketing executive and dedicated runner living in a suburban area. As a hardworking professional, running is her outlet for both mental and physical well-being. She’s been running for over a decade and is constantly looking for ways to improve her performance, stay injury-free, and maintain her fitness as she ages. She enjoys nonfiction books that not only offer useful advice, but inspire her to keep setting new exercise goals.
Creating an IRA like Sarah is as easy as creating a new character in one of your books. While it might seem silly, this exercise will help you visualize and define your target audience in a way that isn’t overwhelming. To create your own IRA, start by considering factors such as age, gender, occupation, and other demographic traits of your ideal readers. Then, flesh out your IRA by answering some questions about your target audience, like:
- What hobbies do they have?
- What values are important to them?
- What challenges do they face on a regular basis?
- Why do they read?
- What is their preferred book format?
You can also use market research, feedback, and surveys to help you understand who is drawn to your books. Once you’ve compiled enough information on your IRA, it’s time to put it all together by choosing a name for them. Giving your avatar a name and a detailed backstory can make them feel like a real person you’re writing for.
Tailoring Your Branded Content
Once you’ve created your IRA’s profile, you can begin tailoring your campaign to resonate with them. Remember those hobbies, values, interests, and challenges that you brainstormed earlier? You’ll want to address these topics in all the branded content you create. Whether you’re writing a blog post, sharing a social media update, or creating promotional materials, you should always keep your IRA in mind. Make every single choice—your tone, font, even your website’s color—count. When done correctly, your readers will feel like you’re speaking directly to them.
Using Your IRA to Improve Targeted Ads
Digital marketing platforms like Facebook and Instagram allow for highly specific audience targeting. By creating an IRA, you’ll have a better understanding of which demographics and interests to target in paid ad campaigns. You can specify your ads to reach readers based on age, interests, geography, and even the type of books they read. For example, you can target your ads to users who have shown interest in exercise and fitness pages on Facebook.
Making Long-Term Plans
Having an IRA isn’t just useful for individual marketing campaigns; it’s also a valuable tool for your long-term marketing strategy. By consistently creating content and messaging tailored to your avatar, you can create a cohesive brand that aligns with your readers’ expectations. This consistency builds trust and makes it easier to introduce new books or projects down the line.
Overtime, your ideal reader avatar might change—that’s OK! As you learn more about your audience and what resonates with them, you can keep refining your IRA. As you grow as a writer, continue developing your avatar. This will help guide and improve your content strategy, marketing efforts, and author branding over time.
Looking for more tips on author branding and marketing? Contact Pacific & Court for expert guidance tailored to your unique publishing goals!