Audience Identification - it’s not always who you think

Posted: September 22, 2005

Often when I hear writers talking about audience identification, I think how difficult this often is for broad marketing messages. If your audience only has one characteristic in common, writing towards just that one statistic makes it difficult to carry an interesting message that’s meant for everyone.

However, sometimes redefining the audience can be very effective.

I received a letter today; well, actually I didn’t, my Yorkshire Terrier did. The letter was written to my dog, and used my dog as the audience, in explaining to him the importance of getting checked every so often and what needs to be done.

I’ve received several of these letters in the past being addressed to my cats or dog, but these letters never carried the message all the way through that my pet is the intended audience. Nice small words, short sentences, and never breaking character as if the dog was actually reading the letter were used in this letter.

This was a great less in audience profiling. It caught my attention (I’m writing about it aren’t I?) as if I was reading a letter written for someone else, thinking what a good information that is, and how I need to take my pets back to the vet. The letter never addressed me in any way - fantastic.

When writing about your audience, do you always cater to a single characteristic, or is there another unique method you can use to identify with your readers?

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