The topic is never the topic; the reader is always the topic
How to appeal to your target audience | |
 | How to be relevant on social media Are you informing? Or meforming? It’s all about you: Whether you’re writing for Facebook, Twitter or other social networks, writing about your readers increases followers and engagement. |
 | How to write a press release headline that targets readers Write about the reader, not ‘us and our stuff’ Aim for the reader: Take a tip from these Silver Anvil winners: Call out to the reader in your PR headline. |
 | How to persuade like Dale Carnegie Writing tips from the author of How to Win Friends and Influence People The art of persuasion: Dale Carnegie taught hundreds of thousands of folks — from the highest executive to the lowest car salesman — the psychology of persuasion. Pro tip: It’s all about the reader … |
 | Top organizations focus messages on their target audiences High performers think like their readers 71% of the time — IABC UK study Reader first: Top companies 60% more likely to focus on reader needs, twice as likely to engage readers emotionally. |
Try writing in second person | |
 | Try imperative voice in blog posts, status updates Write to and about the reader Save time, avoid effort: Imperative voice gets clicked, opened, read and shared. Here are three ways to get the imperative voice into your messages. |
 | Second person writing works for all audiences Use you in marketing, employee comms — even PR It’s all about you: Focus all your communications on the reader and the reader’s needs. |
 | Engage readers by writing in the second person Lead with you in media relations pieces Hey, y’all: Here’s how six PR pros made the reader the topic in their PRSA Silver Anvil Award-winning campaigns. |
Avoid writing in first person | |
 | To reach readers, avoid writing in the first person Stop We-We-ing on the reader You above all: Write to and about your readers, not about you and your stuff. |
 | How to write in first person: Don’t Avoid Institutional Narcissism You’re so vain, you probably think this piece is about you: Don’t go We, we, we all the way home — without the contract. |
 | Avoid writing in first person plural Enough already with the ‘At XX, we …’ construction It’s not about you: Can we agree to drop the ‘At xx, we …’ construction? |
More on writing to reach your target audience | |
 | Quotes on reaching your target audience What writers and others say “Remember: Your organization isn’t the topic. Your products and services aren’t the topic. The topic isn’t the topic. The reader is the topic.” — Ann Wylie, president, Wylie Communications |