How Many People Are You Writing To?

Every piece of marketing you write will be aimed at someone.

There are times when that will be one specific person and others when it will be for a large audience.

If you’re writing to one specific person (a rarity, but it can happen), you immediately know their likes and dislikes so it creating persuasive copy should be fairly straightforward.

But happens when you’re writing for a wide audience that could be made up from those who are highly educated, highflying executives, busy mums, or just normal everyday people?

How can you possibly write to a diverse audience like that?

OK, let’s go back a step.

What are you selling?

Burglar alarms.

OK. Think about how your product benefits them.

They don’t seem quite so diverse now, do they?

They all want to keep their families and possessions safe.

None of them want to feel the agony of the loss of sentimental or valuable items.

None of them want to experience the violation of having someone break into their home.

Now you have identified the pain points you have something to work with.

So what language should you use?

My view is, regardless of the level of someone’s education, they are still a person who experiences real emotions.

That means one thing – simple language.

I don’t care how many degrees they have or whether or not they passed their 11+, by keeping your language simple and to the point, your persuasiveness will be heightened.

Talk to them (yes, that means using a conversational tone) about their problems and fears and tell them you have the answer that will help them sleep soundly at night, or be able to enjoy their holiday without worrying about whether everything is hunky-dory at home.

Even if you’re addressing an audience of 1000s, each of them are listening to only one person – you.

As far as they’re concerned your writing is aimed directly at them.

So, for every piece of writing create a persona for your ideal reader. Think about who they are, what they do, what keeps them awake at night, that sort of thing. Then convince them yours is the company that’s going to make everything better.

Author – Sally Ormond, Briar Copywriting Ltd