Writing is easy. Writing for the right people? Not so much.
A long, long time ago, in a city not so far away, I was enrolled in my first technical writing course as a bright-eyed, much younger college student. I had just switched majors from Graphic Design to Technical Communication, as I realized drawing dinosaurs in Adobe Illustrator at 2 AM was not my destiny. Writing was, and I was finally willing to accept it.
I was expecting my first class to focus on grammar, punctuation, all that fun stuff. However, as I opened my book and started reading the first chapter, highlighter in hand, my hypothesis was thrown straight out the window. Sure, this was an editing class, but you can't truly analyze your writing until you understand your audience. That's the first step before anything else.
I read that chapter twice, completely mesmerized. After all, I loved writing. I spent most of my spare time in middle and high school either reading or writing. But it wasn't until that moment that I realized the truth...
I wrote for the sake of writing, but did I think about who I was writing for? Was my writing addressing the right people, at the right time, with the right information?
Probably not. That was a hard pill to swallow.
That's why I'm here today - to help you rethink your writing strategy by analyzing your audience. Let's review a few key questions you should always ask before you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard.
Who is likely to read your content?
Who is most likely to benefit?
Who do you need to understand before you start writing anything?
Who may resist reading your content?
What is the mission or purpose of your writing?
What is your audience's background - do they know a little or a lot about your topic?
What can you do to bring a variety of people to your writing?
What information will they care about as they read your writing?
What emotional state may they be in?
What thoughts or questions will run through their mind as they read?
What length is ideal for your audience and message?
What can you do to keep your writing as clear and concise as possible?
Why should the audience care about your message, purpose, or content?
Why should they be interested or change their way of thinking?
Why does or should this piece exist?
How will you keep your audience engaged?
How will you adjust your writing style or expectations to meet your audience's needs?
How will you blend logic and emotion in a way that still retains yourself and your writing style?
How will you keep people coming back?
How will you evaluate the effectiveness of your writing and/or message?
Where will people find or access your writing?
Where will people go to retrieve it again in the future?
Where can people share their perspectives and feedback?
Where can people engage with you?
All of this ties back to five key words - WHO, WHAT, WHY, HOW, and WHERE.
You don't have to answer every question right away, but you should look at the questions in the callout boxes as a good starting point.
Do you have to learn everything about your audience? Absolutely not. You should know who will care, and how you can make them care more. Anticipate their questions, concerns, and needs before they linger in your audience's mind. Understand how they may feel about a topic before and during the reading, and write in a way that respects their thoughts and emotions. You don't have to change yourself as a writer; you need to adapt accordingly.
I'd love to hear what questions you ask yourself as you start writing. If you're reading this via email, come to the website and leave a comment! Let's get a conversation going!
