What’s the most important part of writing? Right. The reader.

You’re writing for a purpose, which we looked at closely in the last post. Now we’ll look at the next step in the four-part GRIP process: the reader, or audience.

Before you start writing your document, whatever its purpose or type, think about who you’re writing to. Who is your reader? What do they need? What do they want?

Ask yourself why they should care about what you have to say. What’s in it for them? How can you make their lives or work easier or better? Why should they spend time reading or watching or listening to you, when they could be paying attention to so many other things?

To answer those questions, you need to know as much about them as you can:

• demographics – age, sex, education, income, where they live
• occupation: what do they spend their working lives doing?
• their needs: at work, at home, or where they’ll be reading your words
• desires: some are common: food, shelter, sex, belonging; but more are specific to each reader’s job, life and circumstances
• predispositions and attitudes
• perceptions—how will they react to particular words?

Sometimes, that last one predictable: some people respond in a particular way to words like “media,” “capitalism,” “pipelines.” We probably can all make reasonable assumptions about how the different political parties will react to those words.

What that means is that your knowledge of the audience should help determine the words you choose. You can use common social media slang for a teen audience, but it won’t make any sense to seniors. That’s obvious. You’ll have to work much harder than that, however, when it comes to your own specific communications.

When you’ve drawn a detailed picture of your readers or potential readers, connect it to your purpose (Goal, the G in GRIP): why should your readers do what you want them to do? To answer this, you need to have clarified your own goal. See the previous post.

For instance, if you want your audience to buy your product or service, what benefit will they get from it? Is that benefit enough to motivate them to get over the inertia required to make the change from what they’re doing (or not doing) right now?

For example: your boss
What are they motivated by? Interested in? Biggest challenge right now? What have they responded to before?

If you want to get his/her approval on a new initiative, such as installing a wireless network in the office, first answer “Why should they?” How will that action make their life/job easier? What about the proposed purchase is similar to decisions they have made in the past?

Be concrete. “A wireless network will allow us to extend the network without running more cabling, saving $1,200 in installation costs. It will also make all employees more productive.”

Maybe the boss doesn’t care about saving a small part of his/her budget, but wants to get connected to email NOW. “Once installed, a wireless network allows you to be instantly connected no matter where you are in the building.”

What motivates your audience?

There are thousands of books and other resources looking into that question. I’ll leave it with this rule: the more you know about your audience or readers, the better you can shape messages that motivate them. Your research does not have to be that complicated, however. Just talk to people. Find out what they like, what they don’t like. And remember, every reader is an individual.

Fiction

What do fiction readers want? The biggest publishers wish they knew.

Do they want more of the same? Sometimes; multiple sequels and copycats of Harry Potter show that. How many book series about sexy vampires clog the bookshelves these days?

But the breakaway best-sellers, the trend-setters, are books and stories that touch their readers’ emotions deeply. There’s no secret that Stephanie Meyer’s work resonates with young women. Something about her characters and their struggles reaches those readers. I don’t have space, time, or inclination to go into that, here. The point is that these writers have, intuitively or otherwise, given their readers something they want. That something is motivating enough to get millions of people to go to a bookstore (physical or electronic) and pay 15 bucks or so for a copy.

Your challenge

Take out something you are working on right now. Then, on screen or on paper, write down answers to these two questions:

1. Whom are you writing this for? Specifically: your boss? Your sister? Describe what motivates that person. What does he or she like, dislike, need, avoid
2. What do you want that reader to do? Make this concrete. What specific action do you want your reader to do after he or she finishes reading your document?

Then, put that in the Comments section and I’ll respond.