My number one writing tip

My number one writing tip is “know your audience.”  In fact, this is so often my sermon that I can’t believe I haven’t written about it sooner!  I preach it from the beginning of any class I teach.  I go over it with clients.  It is the key to successful writing.  Here’s why.

Before putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard as is most likely these days), before beginning to research, before even developing a solid focus for a piece, you must know who will be reading it.  For example, I may have a general topic idea I find interesting.  Let’s use dog training for this scenario.  Before I get too far and figure out how I want to cover dog training, I must determine who will be reading it.  I pull out the old Writer’s Market (a listing of nearly every magazine in print) and come up with a target magazine.  For this, I’ll pick a women’s magazine geared to working mothers ages 25 to 45.   With that in mind, I can now pick a focus for the article.  This audience wouldn’t be as interested in the history of dog training.  They don’t have time for that.  They want helpful tips for how to manage their dogs behavior alongside their children.  They need quick tips that can be done over the course of a couple of nights a week for a month rather than more involved tips that take hours a day to perfect.

It’s all about knowing the audience.  If I take that same dog training idea and apply it to a magazine geared to people raising service animals, I’ll use totally different tips, different sources and a different angle completely.  It’s all about who is reading the article.

The same is true for any other written word.  If I’m putting together a press release for a client, I need to know what sort of publications the client wants to reach.  If the client is looking at traditional, daily newspapers, I will write the release in a traditional journalism style in strict Associated Press style.  If the client wants to target alternative weekly magazines, I’ll change the tone to be a bit more laidback.  You’ve got to give the people what they want.

And, because I could really go on about this for days, let me summarize a few key reasons why knowing your audience is so important:

• Today’s readers are busier than ever.  They don’t waste time reading something that doesn’t pertain to or interest them.
• Editors will only publish material that relates to their readers.  A men’s magazine doesn’t run general press releases about a new lipstick color being released.
• Advertising material or business letters are only effective if they are read.  They are only read if they are appealing and of interest to the target audience.  Otherwise, you’ve wasted time and money.
• Today’s readers are bombarded with things vying for their attention.  Knowing what they’re looking for gives your message a better chance of getting through the clutter.