Know Your audience, Pin their Interests

By Racheal Kizza

We all know good writing when we see it, and we cringe when we see terrible writing.

Effective business writing skills can help you win that million dollar contract, earn a promotion, resolve a dispute, or generate a significant increase in new business leads. Poor business writing, on the other hand, can never be undone; it can cause you to lose business to your competition and could even cost you your job.

Professional writing is the use of clear language to convey information in a way that is easily understood by the intended audience; the audience in this case could be a group of people or person.  The audience in any form of writing is crucial because it enables the writer know who they are writing to and what style of writing to use.

Before you write a word of copy, make sure you know who your target audience is and what specific result you want to achieve. Take a few minutes to visualize yourself in the shoes of the recipient and to imagine what this person’s world is like.  What does his typical day look like? What are his unique needs, goals, and challenges? What problem is keeping him up at night? The more thought and research you invest in defining your target audience and how you can help them, the more powerful your written communications will become.

There are three kinds of audiences: primary, secondary and intermediate .Primary audiences are people who make decisions on the basis of the document. Secondary audiences are people who will be affected by the actions the primary audiences are going to take in response to the document. Intermediate audiences are responsible for evaluating the document and passing it on to the right people.

There are false assumptions made regarding audiences for example that the person who will first read or edit the document is the audience, audience is a group of specialists in their field, audience is familiar with the subject of the document, and audience has time to read and also has a strong interest in the subject of the document. The writers must do away with these assumptions and write something that people can readily understand. As they write, there is need to edit and also ask for a professional opinion.

Even if you are writing a marketing communications piece that will be read by several thousand potential readers, make your writing as inviting and personal as possible. Write as though you are having a conversation with one specific person—your ideal customer. Keep this one person in mind and you will positively engage thousands of readers who will feel that you are writing directly to them!

Punctuation too in any form of writing is crucial because not only does it add meaning to statements but also it must be used appropriately. Don’t rely on on-screen editing. Print out your document and read it aloud. If you encounter any awkwardness in speech you need to rewrite your piece to make it more conversational and to flow better. By reading your document aloud, you will also be able to spot typos and errors that your computer spelling and grammar check program might not have detected, for example, “echo friendly” when you really meant “eco friendly.”

Therefore basic professional writing skills must be learned by all people so that one is not good at speaking and an amateur at writing .  These are skills  which can be learnt and there is always room to add on a particular skill.