5 Ways to Identify Your Book Audience & Start Marketing

5 Ways to Identify Your Book Audience & Start Marketing

Aerio Staff

Your ultimate goal is to sell books, but in order to do that you must first identify your book audience.

Once you understand who will be reading and buying your books, you can target your book marketing and promotion strategies.

Are you unsure how to get started? Here are some tips to help you begin to find and reach the right audience for your book.

What are some ways you can start reaching your book audience?

  1. Think about your book content. What kind of books do you write? Non-fiction? Chick lit? Science fiction? Fantasy? Literary fiction? Who are the people that would read the kind of books you write? If you write suspense novels, check out the blogs and social media pages of authors like Dean Koontz, Tana French, and Harlan Coben. Engage with readers of books that are similar to yours in order to introduce yourself.
  1. Identify the primary and secondary markets for your book. The primary market for your book is typically considered to be book buyers. Who is going to actually purchase your book? However, the primary market also includes your primary audience, those who will actually read and benefit from your book. Although the primary market for Harry Potter books is probably parents (the book buyers), the primary audience is the children who will actually be reading the books.

Considering the secondary market for your book is where you can really grow book sales. Secondary markets include libraries, educational institutions, financial counselors, therapists, museums, and even specialty stores that sell items related to your book. Retail stores that sell cooking and baking supplies often sell cookbooks and chef memoirs right alongside pots, pans, and gourmet cooking tools. Considering as many possible secondary markets as you can will help you find your book audience.

  1. Collect information from your existing audience. You can learn a lot from those who are already buying and reading your books. Knowing who is interested in your book can help you identify your book audience by targeting people who like what your current readership likes. Use tools like:

Use these tools to find people with profiles that are similar to your existing audience.

If you write historical fiction, you might find that your current readers also tend to read historical non-fiction or literary fiction. What else do they have in common? Perhaps they tend to be similar in:

  • Age
  • Gender
  • Occupation
  • Geographic Location
  • Websites they Visit

Utilize online tools such as Facebook Audience Insights and Twitter Advanced Search that provide specific data on profiles and demographics. Once you have built a profile of your current readership, you have identified a target audience for your book and can start your book marketing.

  1. Develop reader personas to inspire marketing messaging. Not only can you develop a reader profile from your existing book audience, but you can develop reader personas by using some common sense and thinking about your own persona. You want to read your own books, right? Ask yourself where you like to buy books. What do you like to read - and why? Where do you get book recommendations? Consider your hobbies, interests, shopping practices, and the way you use social media on a personal level. Your own persona can help you find your book audience.
  1. Create marketing content and develop book promotion ideas around your personas. Now that you've identified your existing audience and understand the target audience for your book, you can focus on your book marketing tactics and take advantage of book promotion ideas that appeal to that audience. Perhaps readers who have already enjoyed your fantasy novel also regularly attend sci-fi trade shows and conventions. Maybe they gather on a particular social media site during TV episodes of Game of Thrones. Use this kind of information to create and direct your marketing content.

Research keywords to see what's trending that relates to your book and your audience. Your book promotion ideas can take advantage of what's trending by using trending keywords in your messaging. If a particular basketball player is the most popular thing being discussed online, find a way to incorporate that into a flash sale of your book. For example, "There's nothing mysterious about why Kobe Bryant is retiring, but my new mystery novel will keep you guessing until the very last page. Buy it for half price during this flash sale!" Well, you get the idea...

Identifying your book audience is crucial to building your brand, engaging with your readers, and selling more books. Fortunately, it's not too soon - or too late - for you to find and reach the book buyers and readers who are looking for your book. Get started on finding the audience for your book today.