I put you in a group to prove to you what audience is.

Making more of your email lists.

Were you to ask me, “What’s your favorite game, Noah?” I’d say—hands down—charades.

Charades is a game where you play out a word or phrase with hand motions and gestures and are not allowed to speak. You win when the people who are watching guess what you’re trying to act out.

It’s easy for me to act out difficult concepts like evolution, space-time continuum, Declaration of Independence, and Will Smith.

I like it because writing good books and playing charades are about one big thing: audience.

When you understand your audience in charades, you understand what gestures make them think of what word. For me, I was acting in front of my siblings, so I knew my audience well.

I had to think like them.

Until you understand audience, you don’t know how to market. But don’t worry—I’ll show you what I mean.

Let’s look at an example.

Today,

Briar Albaugh

released a video that we did together. It’s incredible, we put a lot of work in, and I would love if other people watched it, so suppose I decide to promote it by using my Substack.

But very few people in my audience will want to watch this video, because they’ve got busy lives.

It’s like a fish. The fish has better things to do than to eat a hook. But let’s put a worm on that hook.

What bait works for audience?

It’s simple; audience craves one thing—what’s in it for me? It’s not that people are self-centered—but rather that they have busy lives and need to be resourceful with their time.

Let’s suppose that I wanted to promote this video, and let’s look at how I would do it differently based on my audience (you all, reading this right now).

I know my audience to be:

1. Fantasy authors.

2. MBTI nerds.

3. Women with children.

4. Crunch people.

5. My friends and family.

6. Men who are middle-aged and older.

7. People who love books.

That sums up almost all of my audience. You’re probably in one of those categories.

First, the plain facts we’re working with: Briar Albaugh and Noah Ballard did a collab video about DIY carbonated soda made from pine needles.

Now let’s see how to pitch those facts to the various people who follow my Substack:

1. Fantasy authors.

Put this homemade “bibe” in your next book.

This video will show authors how to make their fantasy world more immersive. They should click the video because they’ll probably be inspired and intrigued.

“Deather [to use one of my own characters] pushed into the strange pub.

He was guided to a table and, with less curtesy than a milk cow, the barkeeper slid him a tankard with liquid sloshing around the sides.

A strangely-familiar odor that Deather couldn’t identify filled his nostrils. He sipped a little, surprised to taste…”

And you could do just like that—only, what exactly is pine soda? And is it possible to have carbonated drinks in a realm where there is no machinery? Well, actually, you…. well, you should watch the video.

And, if you call it a bibe like I did, you’re practically inviting all of the Andrew Peterson fans over.

2. MBTI nerds.

How a Myers-Brigs golden pair couple team up to do what they’re passionate about.

It’s totally true. I’m ENFP and Briar’s INFJ. People are research golden pairs to see how they work—because perhaps they want to understand how Myers-Brigs affects people. It’s all some MBTI people need to know to watch the video.

3. Women with children.

You can make soda out of pine needles? 🤔

Of course! You just have to… well, watch the video to find out how. Let’s keep it simple and let the video speak for itself.

The emoji is there to show that you care.

4. Crunchy people.

Homemade pine soda.

No more is needed than that, because these people are the 100% percent perfect audience for this video. You have to convince hydrated people to drink water, but you don’t have to convince the hot, sweaty dad that he needs water! He already knows!

Homemade is also a bit of a buzzword.

5. My friends and family.

Do you mind checking this out?

All I need to do is tell my friends and family, because they’re already jumping to support me.

It’s very important to be clear about how they can help. People don’t mind doing things for you—watching a video is easy—but don’t send a riddle. You did all the thinking and all should have to do is just watch and enjoy.

6. Men who are middle-aged and older.

ALL of your friends will be impressed by THIS.

Okay—admit it—you have to know how to do this now, because you want to impress the guys.

It’s easy; t’s an awesome party trick. All you need is a pine tree and a few household ingredients. This is so simple, but so cool that it’s actually mind blowing. It’s kind of like using semicolons.

My emphasizing this is memorable and humorous because, in order to read the title aloud with accuracy, each man will have to admit to failures to impress people in the past!

7. People who love books.

This story could be great inspiration for your next book!

It’s easy to show people you care about story by showing them you can write. If you can write, use it to your advantage. A stranger may care nothing about a video until you show him or her an excerpt like this one…

“Should we open them?” Briar asked.

Noah Ballard still hadn’t managed to stop smiling and merriment was clearly present in his features, though he was still looking nervous about something…

“Oh my goodness—oh—it’s exploding!!” Briar gave a shriek in playful horror.

All of those titles are true—but they’re geared to show different audiences what’s in it for me.

You don’t have to twist arms to interest people with your creative work. You just have to show them why it’s worth it.

Do you understand audience more now? I hope so.

What do you think? Tell me about yourself in a Note if you’re not in one of those groups and I’ll tell you why you should watch the video we made. 🤝 But remember—I have to know who you are in order to market to you—that’s what marketing is.

And here’s a poll, because polls are fun.

“Now,”—you’re asking me— ”Since all of those options are viable because you have all of those people in your audience—how would you market the video to all of them?” Well, if I were doing that, I’d take the one thing I know about my audience—that they all want to know more about audience and writing—and I’d use that to get them to pay attention, just so that I could tell them why each of them should watch our video. What can I say? It was fun!