Create a Business Book Only After Defining Audiences Related to Your Goals

Posted on by Carol Abrahamson

To be successful as you create a business book, you’ll first need to make four foundational decisions. They build on each other and need to be made in order. Without careful thought in making them, you won’t be able to accomplish your book-generated business growth goals. The first decision defines your book’s Why and its success measures. And this post covers the second one. It requires you to get VERY clear and VERY specific about your book’s audiences. (Note they are not necessarily the audiences for your current business. Instead, our sole interest is the ones related to your book’s desired results.)

Add to the notes you made about your first decision as you read the second one’s highlights below.

Prioritize and profile the target audiences related to your desired results.

Identify Target Audiences

For each of your book’s desired business and growth results, make two lists of all target audiences who directly or indirectly control or influence its occurrence. (Indirect audiences, such as the media, are those whose recommendations of your book and expertise may get you noticed by one of your direct targets.) Do this for every result within each timeframe of your first foundational decision. Why? The audiences for some multi-period results may change over time. And indirect audiences for some results may be direct audiences for others.

Prioritize Targets

Now, put each direct and indirect target audience into a high, medium or low priority list. High-priority targets are essential to your top-priority results (by timeframe and overall) plus are most important to multiple goals. This step is particularly important because you will later choose topics that benefit several of your top three or four target groups.

Profile Audiences

Next is to create a profile of each result’s direct and indirect target audiences. Produce detailed profiles for the three or four highest-priority target audiences you’ll consider when choosing your book’s topic. Be as specific as possible about each’s preferences, world view, issues, worries, challenges, fears, opportunities, goals, dreams and dynamics. Then create brief profiles for all the others which you’ll use when marketing yourself and your book.

Time now for cheers and congrats! You’ve finished the highlights of the second foundational decision about the audiences tied to your book-related growth goals. Now go on to your third one.

For the full details about all four foundational decisions for starting to create a business book — plus a link to our free printable interactive PDF worksheets — see our free workbook, 77 Book Types For Building Your Business & Brand, in the sidebar to the right. Or check out more highlights in the related posts below.