#104 - Writing as Ministry - How to Reach the Right Audience

Is your writing also a ministry? And are you wondering how to reach those who can most benefit from the messages in your books? Hi, my name is Shelli Hitz, and I help writers get their books out of their heads and onto paper with my book writing formulas and monthly virtual writing retreats. We've been mentoring writers for over a decade and really just enjoy helping you write words that outlive you, self publish books that fulfill your calling and reach more readers with your message. In each of these Ask Shelley episodes, I promise to share at least one thing that will help you write, self publish and market your books so the message of your books can impact lives. That's really what we're doing this for, right? And so I received a question. How do I reach those and help those that the Lord has in mind for this writing ministry he has given me? This is a loaded question in many ways, but I'm so glad that you're asking it because it means that you care. It means that you have a passion for the message that God has given you and that you want to see it reach those that it can help. So. So first of all, I want you just to get in the habit and I want you to get used to start clicking publish. So that means creating content for this audience, writing blog posts, writing social media posts, if you're on social media, if you're doing video or audio, creating new content for your audience. And then finally, I want you to publish the book. So I don't know where you're at today with the process of your book, but that would be the first step is just start putting yourself out there. And I know that brings a lot of fear to a lot of you that are listening right now, but that's literally how I started. God had given me a burning message for teen Girls back in 2007. I started speaking with CJ and then the girls just came up and they wanted counseling and they had asked questions, and I wouldn't have time to individually counsel and talk with everyone that I wanted. And that's when the Lord led me to start blogging. Basically, it was a website at the time, so website articles, and I would answer the questions that I started getting. And then those articles became my first book. It was messy. I didn't do probably hardly anything right, but I did it. I got it out there and girls began accepting Christ. We heard from people in Japan and South Africa and Venezuela and all over the world, and they're continuing to accept Christ into their lives because I published that first book. So I Know, there's a lot of fear, there's a lot of questions, there's a lot of paralysis of analysis is what they often call it, where you're analyzing and trying to figure out everything before you ever put anything out there. See what resonates with people, start talking with people. It doesn't have to just be online. It can be in person, like at your church or, you know, get some free speaking engagements and just start ministering with that message and see what God does. So I first just started getting stuff out there, and it was messy, it wasn't great, but I was able to improve it as I went. That very first book has now gone through two additional rounds of professional editing. It's gotten a new book cover. We've added a Bible study guide to it for groups, and a facilitator guide. I mean, there's so many things that we did after the fact, but you got to get it out there. So that's the first thing. And the second thing is to really begin to understand who your target audience is. Now this can be, again, a paralysis of analysis, sticking point. I've been working with writers for over a decade, since 2010, and so I know that this can be a sticking point. And if you don't feel like you have this figured out perfectly, sometimes it can get you stuck. So I don't want it to get you stuck. I want you to get out there, start publishing things, start interacting, see what people are resonating with. But then who is the target audience? And that's where asking the Lord in prayer. We also have an entire lesson in Christian Book Academy on target audience. So it really walks you through the questions and the steps of really trying to narrow down of like, who is the target audience of my book? A lot of people will say everyone. And of course, we want everyone to read it. And the message might be able to impact everyone, but. But marketing advice says if you speak to everyone, you'll actually speak to no one. So as you're marketing, as you're doing things, knowing who your target audience is going to help you to speak to them in a way that attracts them like a magnet. Right. But also to know where are they hanging out, whether it's online or offline. So, you know, there might be groups that meet in your particular town. For instance, I published a book, it was an art book on brush lettering, which is a modern form of calligraphy. And so I was able to get some speaking engagements with some local art groups. One was a calligraphy group, a lettering group. And the other was a watercolor group. Perfect audience for my book, right? And I was able to develop relationships. And, you know, several people purchased my book or signed up for my email list or took my art classes. So that was just another example of a type of book that I had. And I found people in person and I went to those groups. So whether it's online, you find out like, where is your audience hanging out online? I had a person approach me years ago and he said, shelly, I want to start a podcast. And so we had a one on one coaching call. And I said, first of all, who's your target audience? And we really narrowed it down and it was retirees, so older people. And I said, do you think your audience are listening to podcasts? He's like, you know, I don't really think they are. And we really started to dig into it and his time would be better spent creating other type of content or connecting with other kinds of groups. There might be Facebook groups for his audience. There might be different businesses that specifically reach out to retirees, or there might be ministries in a church specifically for seed seniors. So, you know, finding out like, okay, who is my target audience? And then where are they hanging out online? Or what kind of groups or places can I connect with them offline, like in person in your community? And again, we have that lesson in Christian Book Academy all about target audience that can help you really get started in this step. So the first one was just start clicking publish, start getting content out there, start serving the people you want to serve. See what happens. Sometimes opportunities just open up as you put yourself out there. I've noticed that myself. Number two is to really do a little more research on your target audience. Don't let it stop you. But this information, it will evolve as you go. And then number three, to attract new readers. There are several things that you can do. So one is SEO search engine optimization. This is something you can do on your blog, if you have a blog on Pinterest or YouTube. So those are the social media platforms that are specifically geared towards people searching for different phrases. Amazon can be a search engine. So you could publish a short Kindle ebook specifically around certain phrases people are looking for and offer it free many times. Or you could even through the KDP select program, or you could even have it perma free. And that's a whole other strategy. I don't have time to go into here, but there's many different ways you can do SEO search engine optimization. That means somebody's searching for your topic, they're already interested in it and they find you either through a Google search, a YouTube search, Amazon search. You, you know, there's many different ways to see that happen. That's really how I first built my business was through SEO. Another option is ads. So for books, I highly recommend Amazon ads. And if you want just a introductory training on Amazon ads and paid ads in general, check out the book launch conference, the book launch edition of our Kingdom Writers Conference. You can still get access and I did a specific training on that. So you can go to kingdomwritersconference.com.

And there you'll be able to get free access to the conference and listen to that training. And then there's collaborations. So collaborations could be getting featured on podcast interviews. It could be joining together with other writers and doing a group promotion. It could be solo email swaps. I mean there's so many ways that you can do this and I really done this many, many times over the years. This was also another catalyst in our business of just reaching out and hooking arms with other people and seeing what God will do. So there are so many things you can do to market a book. I really don't want you to get overwhelmed. That's why we recommend business meetings with God. Having those business meetings every week that you can really get insight from him. Think Then you also need the practical step by step training. And that's what we offer you inside ChristianBookAcademy.com so I love to work with you. I'd love to help you come join our community of Kingdom writers where we will help you to launch your book. So reach your first 100 readers through a book launch and then impact lives. So that phase of the Kingdom Writers path is all about reaching the first 1000 readers with your message. So. So I hope that this was helpful to you. It has some wheels turning and I pray that God uses your message and your book to reach many people's lives.