The topic is never the topic; the reader is always the topic
How to appeal to your target audience | |
 | Write to and about your reader Are you trying to reach your reader by writing about us and our stuff? |
 | 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. |
![Try second person for press release leads [Examples!]](https://9uogs1033zi2b47wk4ck73yp-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/writing-in-second-person-150.png "Try second person for press release leads [Examples!]") | Try second person for press release leads [Examples!] 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 “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 |