PERSUASIVE WRITING: Understanding Your Audience

By Paul Smith

There are three things you should think about if you want to your audience to be persuaded by what you have to say:

• the reader
• the result you want to achieve, and
• your messages

Let’s start with the reader. Just who are they? What’s their demographic, their interests and background?

Consider the reason they’re reading: is it for work, pleasure or education, and what do they feel about the subject you’re writing about?

Understanding these things about your reader will help you to write using language and cultural references that connects with them. 

Knowing if they are reading for work, pleasure or education also allows you to adapt your writing style to meet their needs:

• If it’s work, you want to be clear and concise to allow the reader to quickly take want they need from the prose and get on with their task. 
• If it’s pleasure, your copy should be interesting and entertaining. After all, the reader could be doing other things with their time!
• And if it’s for education, it should be comprehensive, for them to be able to learn. 

Next, think about the result.

Be clear about what you think is achievable with this one piece of writing. For example, do you want the reader to recognise a brand name or to understand why a product or service might be useful to them? Be realistic and focus your writing on that goal. 

Lastly, think about the messages – the information you use to convince the reader.

Choose a maximum of three pieces of information – readers rarely take on board more than three – then write them in a logical order on your page. They form the spine of your copy and you can write around them.

If you’re thinking about the reader, result and messages before you begin writing then you are in the best position to write persuasively. 

Click here for details of the Amber Group’s Persuasive Writing training.