Write for less, and be seen by more.
Here are three simple steps to make everything you write have more impact.
Write for one reader
Write for the circumstance your reader is in
Watch your assumptions
It’s typical day for you. You’re at your laptop pecking away at responding to emails, building slide decks, crafting proposals, tweaking your website, posting on social. You’ve done this a thousand times. You’re pretty damn good at writing.
You hit send and anxiously wait for feedback. It’s nothing, but crickets. Routine, right?
Time for more engagement. Let’s make some changes.
Start by writing for one reader.
Most people want to write for the crowd. For the masses. You’re scared that you’ll miss someone. The bad thing is, the crowd brings exceptions, less impact, and watered down ideas. To deliver a message with impact, you need to write for one reader.
If you write for many, you write for no one. Zero.
To help me focus on writing for one, I start by naming the person I’m writing for. Not a persona, but a single person. This helps me stay laser focused on keeping my message clear. It also gives me permission to write in a friendly and straightforward manner.
Today, I’m writing for my friend, Hugh. Hi, Hugh. 👋
Your writing is asking readers to do something. Walk through a door. Click a button. Sign up for your service. Update their profile. Complete that intake form. Whatever your desired action is, write specifically for the person you named.
If you’re struggling to craft your message because you have many different types of readers on the other end, you need to find the link between those people. Look for where their interests intersect. Like a Venn diagram. Target that reader.
Think. You’d never write the same content for a hockey fan as you would a baseball fan. But, if they’re both your audience, you need to find the intersection of their interests. Picture that Venn diagram again. Maybe you write about their shared love of sport. Or team play. Or the ridiculous salaries that professional athletes make.
Here are a few others examples:
Your audiences are a micro-brewery and a dental practice → a shared interest is small business growth ideas
Your audiences are an oil & gas client and an environmental consultant → a shared interest is regulatory compliance
Your audiences are martial arts studios and school counsellors → a shared interest is building confidence in children
For people to take action, you need one reader.
Work hard to find that overlap. When you can’t find the intersection, split your message into two separate pieces.
Did you know the average person’s brain makes 35,000 decisions each day? That’s 2.46 decisions EVERY SINGLE SECOND. Don’t make people think hard about the message you’re trying to deliver. And, with a little effort, you can make that only 34,499 decisions each day for your readers. We thank you in advance. :)
Write for the circumstance your reader is in.
Too often we confuse people by writing for them as if they already know the details. I ask myself, does Hugh have any clue about what’s to come?
I’m not afraid to follow Eugene Schwartz’s five stages of customer awareness (we'll dive much deeper into this next week). Before I start writing, I list what stage of awareness my reader is at.
This framework fits writing for customers perfectly, but I even use it as a guide for any communication.
The awareness stages are:
Unaware - the reader knows nothing about what you’re writing about. You’re bringing them up to speed. You’re educating.
Pain aware - the reader knows they have a pain or need, but maybe haven’t identified it. You’ll answer more questions at this stage. These are questions about the problem they’re learning exists.
Solution aware - the reader knows there’s a product (or service) out there to fix the problem, but they don’t know any details. For internal communication, they know there’s a project and an effort to do something.
Product aware - the reader knows of a product to fix their pain. Maybe it’s your product, maybe it’s not. You have built some trust, and can make recommendations.
Most aware - the reader is likely a user of your product or service. You can make “asks” to get them over the edge. Fully engage incentives, discounts, or deals to make it happen.
I’m writing this post thinking you’re in the unaware stage. I don’t expect that any of you’ve heard of the five stages of awareness, or conversion copywriting.
Think of the last email you sent to your team or a prospect. I bet you were overly complicated and didn’t help the reader understand the whole message. Then, you became frustrated because people didn’t answer all of your questions, or worse yet, they didn’t respond at all.
As you move up each stage, you can write with more detail and make bigger asks.
When you match your reader’s stage of awareness, you deliver a more direct message and see more people take action.
Keep an eye on your assumptions.
Fight the curse of knowledge (also known as the curse of expertise). Damn right, you’re an expert. So, even you need to be careful here.
I see this a lot. People want to write using complex terms, acronyms, and that awful corporate speak.
Don’t assume that the people you’re writing for have the same level of understanding that you do.
Add simple self-checks to your writing:
Are you using impractical language for already complex topics? Skip the acronyms.
Are there clumsy transitions between related topics, making the connection between them blurred?
Do you use “zombie” nouns, instead of verbs or adjectives (verb + ization). For example, “We’re setting up the operationalization (← zombie noun) of our logistics team.” Yikes.
Are you easily communicating ideas from external sources? You might be confusing your readers more.
I always remind myself that the simpler you say it, the better it lands. Big words don’t make you smarter.
So, as you dive into your next piece of content, start with these tips:
Write for one reader. Name the person in your head.
Write for the correct stage of awareness.
Drop the complexity. Skip that curse of knowledge.
That’s all for this week.
🔗 Take a deeper dive. 5 helpful links related to this post.
↪ Amanda Reill, “A Simple Way to Make Better Decisions”, Harvard Business Publishing, December 05, 2023, https://hbr.org/2023/12/a-simple-way-to-make-better-decisions
↪ Copyhackers, https://copyhackers.com
↪ Dan Pilat and Dr. Sekoul Krastev, “Curse of Knowledge”, The Decision Lab, https://thedecisionlab.com/reference-guide/management/curse-of-knowledge
↪ Dean Mackenzie, “The 5 Stages of Customer Awareness and How to Create Content For Each”, Outbrain Inc., https://www.outbrain.com/blog/the-5-stages-of-customer-awareness-and-how-to-create-content-for-each/
↪ Helen Sword, “Zombie Nouns”, The New York Times, July 23, 2012, https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/23/zombie-nouns