My ideal cookbook audience are men and women who value cooking fresh meals at home using seasonal, local ingredients. They support restaurants such as Holly Hill Inn because the restaurant has the same mission about the food they serve. This event was so much fun because I talked to those who care about what I care about. Sounds selfish, kind of, but we connected and had such a good time talking about seasonal cooking and about cookbook trends. We also shared a delicious local, seasonal meal prepared by Chef Ouita Michel. It doesn’t get much better than that.
When I am offered the opportunity to speak to a group of people who are my ideal audience I take the opportunity if I can. There’s not a lot that I find more enjoyable than connecting with people who share my love of seasonal cooking and of course, cookbooks.
Want to connect with your ideal audience? Here are 3 good ways to start:
1. Take time to define the ideal audience. Write down details about the people you most want to connect with. Define their age, gender, income level, cooking experience.
2. Write down their main problem or challenge when they cook or use the kitchen. Maybe they don’t know how to bake using gluten-free products or maybe they aren’t sure how to deep-fat fry Twinkies. Write down as many challenges as your audience might have.
3. Identify how can you help them with this challenge. What does your cookbook do to spread your message and help the reader at the same time with the challenges listed?
Every time you sit down to write your recipes, or cookbook content, keep this ideal audience in mind. Speak to him or her. I pretend I’m writing to them personally once I’ve defined them. This builds my cookbook platform (blog posts, articles, tweets, Facebook updates for example) and helps my audience solve their challenges. In essence, when I speak their language I have better luck connecting with them.
Who is your ideal audience?
What do they want to hear about when you write to them?