How to write… by not writing

I never set myself up as a marketer.  First and foremost I’m a writer.  But it’s difficult not to think about marketing whenever I write because…

to write effectively you have to think about who you’re writing to.  Like me writing this blog.  I have absolutely no idea who you are.  I don’t know if you’re in business, thinking about writing a book, trying to write an essay or one of a hundred other reasons to write.

Now that makes it difficult and the  only way I can do this and hope what I write is useful to you is to put forward some principles of writing that will apply to anything you write.

I’ve written about this before and I’m sure I’ll write about it again and make no apologies for that.  Because it’s fundamental to writing successfully(whatever you write) and it’s one of the major points that my clients don’t think about.  And one of the reasons I have to think about marketing.

A few years ago a client came to me with a project.  To write some flyers for her business.  The first question I asked her was “who are your target audience?”.  She reeled off five sets of people she wanted to reach.

So that’ll be five flyers at least was my reply.  “Oh can’t you do it all on the same flyer?” she said thinking about the cost.  Rather than answer her with a blunt negative, we talked through the groups of people she was aiming at.  By the time we’d finished she realised that though the service she offered was the same and she could probably deliver it in the same way, the motivations for buying it were quite separate.

Which meant we had to use different language for each group and appeal to different emotions.

So if you have to write something the first thing to do is not write.  Think about your audience.  What they need.  What result they want.  And how you can attract their attention.

Once you’re clear about your audience, then you’ll write clearly.