Whether you’re creating a sales letter, brochure, data sheet, newsletter, or Web site, you must know your readers well if you want the piece to be read. Remember: this isn’t entertainment.
This is your business.
You’re writing to inform, attract business, or both. And in difficult economic times, with direct mail and ad response rates for even the best collateral dropping through the floor, your clients depend upon you to deliver powerful, compelling messages. It’s even worse in commodity businesses, such as software, communications services, or Web hosting. You have to give the reader a reason for sticking around beyond low pricing.
The two keys to getting any piece read are product knowledge and a detailed reader profile. I wrote about knowing your client’s business in a recent column, and will cover more of that territory in months to come. It’s the reader profile we’re building today.
What is a Reader Profile?
While your marketing copy isn’t a work of fiction (you hope!), you can learn a lot from one of the techniques used by novelists to give realism to their work: the character sketch. Turn that sketch around and you have the reader profile.
A reader profile is a sketch of the typical person who will be reading your copy. It’s more than a demographic description, though you’ll include such information in it. It’s a social and psychological profile of the person to whom your piece is targeted.
Most writers never go this far. But the best ones do, and they get better results time after time. The key is getting the profile right. That means you have to do a lot of digging. You have to work with the people who can describe that customer to you.
Building a good reader profile requires research, brainstorming with marketing and customer services staff, and persistence. You can often bring added value to your clients’ businesses by taking them through the process of creating the reader profile. There isn’t a marketing team who won’t benefit from better knowledge of its target customer, and you’ll come off smelling like a rose.
The Components of a Reader Profile
While you will ultimately create your own template for a reader profile, there are elements common to all such profiles. Your reader profile must contain the information you need to step into the reader’s shoes, to imagine being that reader. This can be one of the most interesting and most challenging parts of the business.
Build the profile of your typical reader using the following tips to guide you:
* Describe the reader’s business and occupation.
* Describe the reader’s typical workday.
* Describe the problem that the reader has, and why solving that problem is so important. What does having this problem do to the reader emotionally, socially, financially, professionally?
* What keeps the reader awake at night?
* Is reader gender relevant?
* Sketch the reader’s private life. Why? Because people are busy, and they have a dozen things on their minds at any given moment. Your work is competing with the boss, a deadline, an argument with the spouse, sick children, sore feet, and upcoming vacations. Imagine the reader as a real person, not a demographic, and your copy will reflect the difference.
* If you know someone who happens represents your target audience, you have an opportunity to put a face on the reader profile. The more clearly you see the ideal reader, the more focused your copy will be.
Spend the time it takes to build a three-dimensional profile. Not only will your work reflect your efforts, but your clients will undoubtedly benefit because their clients will become more than demographics in a report.
They’ll become real people. And real people are the foundation of all good businesses.
Copyright (c) 2003 by Michael Knowles. All Rights Reserved.
Michael Knowles is a writer, business communications coach, and marketing specialist who helps small businesses and professionals increase profits and better serve their customers and clients. Michael publishes WriteThinking (http://www.WriteThinking.net/) and is author of the highly praised ebook “You CAN Take Credit Cards Online!” youcantakecreditcardsonline.com. For a no-cost personal consultation, e-mail coach@mwknowles.com.
