How to Build an “Ideal Reader Persona” so You Can Grow Your Audience With Confidence

It’s the easier path to online writing success.

For the past two years, I’ve spent most of my time helping (aspiring) writers build an audience and income online.

I founded a writing community with 10k members and have been busy creating resources for new writers, including dozens of articles and videos.

And even though every writer’s journey is individual and unique, I found that some principles can help almost anyone.

One of those underrated principles is knowing who you write for.

I know some writers will get mad about this advice because they aim to write whatever they want without worrying about who they’re writing for.

And that’s perfectly fine.

If you’re writing for fun, you can do whatever you want.

But if your goals include building a loyal audience and monetizing your work, you can’t just do whatever you want.

Writing for anyone = Writing for no one

The problem with not knowing who you’re writing for is that you might end up creating content that’s not valuable to anyone.

Let’s look at a specific example and imagine you’re a health and fitness writer.

You’re writing articles about leading a healthier, fitter, and pain-free life.

You strongly believe everyone needs your advice, so you don’t know who you’re specifically writing for.

Now let’s look at a few different types of people who might be interested in fitness advice:

• Mark is 45 years old and has been struggling with obesity for the past two decades. He hates exercising and is looking for advice on how to still lose weight.
• Julie just got pregnant with her first child and wants to educate herself to create a healthier lifestyle for herself, her spouse, and her baby.
• 25-year-old John has always been skinny and wants to gain muscle mass to impress more women.
• Martha is 60 years old, loves exercising, and wants to implement healthy routines because she wants to be fit and energized when her first grandchild is born in just a few months.

They all need health and fitness advice.

They might even need similar advice, but how you present your ideas needs to be fundamentally different, so it’s relatable, actionable, and helpful for each of them.

Depending on who you’re writing for, your language will be different.

You can’t talk to Martha like you’d talk to John.

And the ideas you’d share with Julie might differ from what Mark needs.

If you’re writing for a pregnant woman, you’ll be able to speak to her deepest desires and fears, so she takes your advice seriously and makes profound changes in her life.

If you’re writing for a young person who wants to look hotter, you’ll paint a different picture in his mind because his aims are different.

Now that you know why creating reader personas is so important, let’s move on to how you can get started:

Meet Jennifer:

The most powerful persona is the most detailed one. The better you understand your readers, the easier it is to speak to them.

Depending on your niche, not all details might matter, but most of the time, being specific about who your ideal reader is makes sense.

As an example, I want you to meet Jennifer:

Jennifer is my ideal reader persona for this article.

She’s 29 years old, lives in the Netherlands, and is single.

She went to business school and has been working in a marketing agency for the past five years. In her work, she’s also exploring Web 3.0 and NFTs.

She’s good at her job and likes what she does because she’s fascinated by the changes blockchain and Web 3.0 could lead to in just a few years.

She’s satisfied with her income, yet, she’d love to build a side hustle and personal brand online because she’s always worked for large companies and desires to have more freedom so she can explore creative work.

She’d love to write and share her ideas about Web 3.0, but she doesn’t know where to start and is afraid of wasting her time.

This article will be a great help for Jennifer because it’ll help her gain clarity before even publishing her first piece.

It’ll help her take a shortcut, so she doesn’t write dozens of articles that speak to no one.

Let’s wrap it up

Depending on your niche, the information you’ll need to create your ideal reader persona can be slightly different, but here are a few ideas any writer should think about:

The basics:

The easiest way to get started with your reader persona is by answering demographic questions: What’s her age? Where is she from? Where is she living? Are you writing for men, women, or both? Does gender even play a role?

What’s her background?

What are the beliefs she grew up with? What did she study? Where does she work? What are her hobbies and interests?

What are her goals?

What does she want to achieve? What are her big aims in life? What does she want to achieve, and why does she need your advice?

What are her challenges and fears?

Relate this question to your content: Which of her problems could you help her solve through your writing? Are you writing educational stories? Step-by-step guides? Or just inspiring/funny stories that make her forget about her busy life, so she can relax and enjoy a few minutes of peaceful reading?

If you can write stories that help your ideal reader overcome her challenges and achieve her goals, you’ll be able to build a lasting bond.

Here’s how to use this

Jennifer is one of many reader personas I write for.

About 80% of my writing is about personal development.

The remaining 20% is about writing, online marketing, and entrepreneurship. That’s why having just one ideal reader persona isn’t even possible for me. And it’s probably also not possible for you.

Instead, I create personas for the different content buckets I serve and sometimes even approach each article individually.

Most of my personal growth articles are written for my younger self.

When writing those, I write for 16-year-old Sinem, who needs encouragement or actionable advice to create a life she loves.

Articles about other topics are written with different personas in mind.

Weird things will happen

Even though you might write with a specific reader persona in mind, you’ll still reach readers who don’t align with your ideal persona.

My personal development articles get comments from readers of all ages and various backgrounds. Most of them are nowhere close to being like 16-year-old me.

Yet, they find value in my stories because their struggles are similar to those I faced. This allows me to connect with them regardless of demographics.

Unlike what most writers believe, writing with a specific person in mind doesn’t restrict you.

Instead, it helps you dig deeper and create stories that are truly valuable.

And even though I write this story with Jennifer in mind, you are probably nothing like her.

You might have a completely different background and different goals.

Yet, you’re still able to benefit from this piece, right?

Final thoughts

Even though not specifying who you write for might sound like a more flexible approach, knowing who your ideal reader is will give you more freedom, clarity, and confidence.

When you know who you write for, you know how to communicate because you’re able to come up with stronger arguments to clearly articulate the value of your story.

And most importantly, knowing who you write for enables you to dig deeper into her specific pain points, so you can write articles that are truly helpful.

Give it a try. You won’t regret it.

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