Are You Truly Focused on Your Audience?

Are You Truly Focused on Your Audience?

Reader Comments (43)

  1. You can’t see this because I’m the first to comment, but Brian’s so good, he doesn’t even need a hyperlink:

    “There are no comments yet…Kick things off by filling out the form below.”

    Somebody, put this guy to the test! 🙂

  2. Here’s a good question that I have to answer for myself someday soon: How frequently should I revisit topics on my blog?

    I sometimes forget that my audience doesn’t read everything I write/read and might not be bored of the same things I would be bored of.

  3. Great post. We posted along the same lines today at YGG but geared more towards the problem with everyone vying to be a “millionaire blogger” and ruining their personal brand in the process.

    Here’s the linkage.

  4. I catch myself writing not for the reader all the time, then I remember to put in “you”, “your”, etc…

    If you can think along the mindset you are talking with one person, you’ll create a very interactive piece.

  5. But Brian, in many cases blogs are about branding and about personality. Don’t you think there are exceptions–when the blog is supposed to be about developing you and differentiating yourself–that it’s prudent to focus less on the reader?

  6. Ryan, no. What you do is find a unique way to delight the reader with who you are while giving them something they want.

    Over time, “you” become what the reader wants. Some people have personalities and perspectives that allow them to fill a need the reader has just by being who they are. Tucker Max is one of those guys, but that doesn’t mean he’s not fulfilling a need his readers didn’t already have.

    A “brand” doesn’t exist until other people care about it. What’s the best way to make someone care? Give them something they want.

  7. You are right on again man! I find that the minute we humble out and accept other’s point of view or “try their hat on”, we can see ways in which we can be totally wrong or mistaken.

    No one is always right.

  8. Here’s the reason I should win: It’s because I want my copy on http://www.ChilesAdvertising.com as well as the layout and Call To Action to be the most effective I can make it.

    # 2- I ask questions all the time and read volumes of books in order to be the best I can be.

    # 3- Most of my good ideas and energy go toward clients and I find my own work (my own site) suffering as a result…

    # 4- Living in North Florida provides few chances, other than online, to meet and be taught by valuable mentors and teachers. I welcome this experience.

  9. I just wanted to say that long hyperlink at the end of your post sounds hilarious! Was it a technique to get people clicking by using sense of humour? (Or maybe by writing long and confusing anchor text that might provoke curiosity and/or a need for clarification?)

  10. Brian – Another great post that reminds us what is most important to focus on – you.

    Thank you for all of your efforts and wonderful personality that shines through in every post that you write. You’re the best. Maybe a video could be made explaining why, except that someone else has already done that for you.

    =)

  11. Brian – Personally I find a mixture of media types for the same subject a true benefit. For example, Adobe CS3 has a great set of video tutorials that really fast track you into using the software. They also have written tutorials in conjunction with the videos that whilst take considerably longer to read and absorb, reinforce what was learnt as well as giving additional instruction and detail skimmed over in the videos.

    For me this combination of different media styles really helps with the learning process.

    So can we hope to see a few Videopods or Podcasts from Mr Clark in the future perhaps?

  12. Hello all! Long time reader, short time commenter 🙂

    Anyways, I would like to nonimate my site: MothersClick.com for this contest 🙂 I should note I am the CTO of this company too.

    Why’s that?

    – We appeal to moms, and as we have found, is a very hard audience to target on the web. Current generation of moms tend to be less savvy (what’s a feed?) and highly protective “why should I sign up and give you my email”.

    – Everyone has a mom, so why not make one of the most friendly and up and coming mom sites out there even better? Your wife or mom would agree 😉

    What do we want to achieve?

    – increase our user signup rate, either for an account or to join the newsletter (amazingly fantastic articles once week)

    What have we done?

    – After reading this blog, I rewrote our welcome user page (try it and sign up!) and it’s working wonders — clear concise, and lots of action items!

    How do we measure?

    – We have Google Analytics and Heatmapping (e.g., we can tell what parts of the page are hot and being clicked) technology in place to track results

    We would implement results right away and compare them to our current rate of user signups verse how much this increases after changing the text / adding buttons / etc.

    Thanks for your consideration and keep up the awesome and helpful topics!

    ted

  13. Thanks for the great advice. Sometimes it can be hard to see the forest before the trees when writing for a site. I guess every mistake is just another opportunity to learn.

  14. “Win your own Free Killer Hyper-link, Competition ends soon”

    So all the contact details and avenues on this page count for nought if they don’t use them (and they don’t).

    A marginal increase with the addittion of Audio but maybe a 20-30 second video message would be the way to go.

    With space blocked out in my schedule I’m ready to begin testing as we say Downunder “pick me Pick me”
    Regards, Brendan

  15. My blog is about literature and writing – so I hope my core readers don’t mind my “text-only” content. However, I do plan on expanding out with some other ways of getting information to my audience rather shortly.

    Personally, however, I’m one of those people who tends to shun blogs where every post is a video/audio clip. I like the reading part.

  16. Your article is great. But what can I do when I don’t know what my audience is ?
    My blog has so few visitors so that I can’t messure it.
    So the real question is to know what my audience want to be and not what my audience is.

  17. This is a great post. I was browsing through some of the blog posts on your blog and came across this particular post, even though it is an old post, but the information is of timeless value. Thanks for putting out such great content.

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