It is by far the simplest, and by far the most easily forgotten, rule of great charity writing.
It’s not about you!
That’s right. No matter how much you care about your issue, how clever you think your writing is, or how much you want others to care, your writing will not work if it does not connect directly with your audience: their needs, their motivations, their interests.
The most important person in every piece of charity communications is not the communicator or the writer, it is the person you are trying to connect with.
That means writing for the right audiences, at the right time, in the right way, and using the right language.
Whether trying to raise funds, change minds or influence behaviour, to be effective you have to stop writing about you, your organisation and what you’re doing, and focus every single word you write on your target audience.
Decide who your audiences ARE…
How many times have I heard: ‘we want to reach everyone/the general public/the world’. That’s nice, but simply can’t be effective. Try to talk to everyone at once, and you’ll talk to no-one at all.
To really work, your writing must be as targeted as possible. Give some thought to who your key audiences are, and write specifically for them every time. Your key audiences are those who are most likely to do what you want them to do (donate, volunteer, Like you on Facebook), or those you most need to change their behaviour (MPs, smokers, voters).
Build a profile
Go to a catalogue, or use the Google Images tool, to find a picture of someone as close as possible to your target audience and stick it in the middle of a sheet of paper. They should be the same age, gender, social background and life situation as the audience you’re trying to reach. Now give them a name, an occupation, hobbies, children (or not), interests, hopes and desires.
Stick your audience member above your desk and every time you write, write for that one person alone. Imagine you are writing them a letter or speaking to them. Forget that you’re writing for a number of people, and concentrate on addressing your new found friend directly. It may feel silly to start with, but your writing will be much better targeted as a result.
Research their reading
Once you’ve identified your target audience, consider what other publications, websites and media they use. What newspapers do they tend to read? What books, novels, subject matter are they likely to have by their bedside?
Try to adopt the same kind of language and tone as the publications they’re used to reading. If they read tabloids, your own copy should be short, punchy, a little sensational. If they read long non-fiction history books, consider writing in a slower, gentler but more incisive way.
The aim is to make the audience comfortable with what they’re reading. If they have to work to understand what you’re getting at, they’re less likely to read on.
Use their language and tone
Think about where your target audience is most likely to discuss the issue you’re writing about, with whom, and the language they might use. Is your subject matter the kind that partners might discuss over a family tea? Something blokes might joke about leaning up against a pub bar? A subject business people might sit around a long oak table to discuss?
In your copy, try to create the same atmosphere with the language and tone you use. Consider what actual words might be used (and what words avoided), the length of sentences and words, long paragraphs for more formal conversation – short ones for jokey, matey chat.
Keep a check on that jargon
We all have a laugh about over the top business and charity jargon, but did you know you and your team probably use your own jargon everyday and don’t even realise it?
In the charity sector, it’s very easy to fall into language that means something to us in our teams or organisation, but in the real world just doesn’t resonate with our target audiences.
Because we’re so used to it, we often fail to spot our own jargon creeping into our copy or we assume our audiences know what we mean, when they don’t.
There’s only one solution. Have your copy read and scribbled upon by someone (a partner, a friend, a shopkeeper) who knows nothing about your organisation or your subject matter. Ask them to highlight anything they didn’t easily and readily understand the first time they read it, or which made them stop reading even for a second.
My Golden Rule
It’s simply put and is so powerful it should be printed in gold leaf, framed and hung above your desk:
“Write about what your audience wants or needs to know, not what you want to say.”
