The Copy Clinic: How do I write for all my different audiences?
Struggling with writing for your business? Whether it’s website worries, posting panic, or email errors, send your questions to beth@bethanyjoy.org and let our resident wordsmith clear up your copy conundrums!
———————————————
“I’ve got lots of different audiences for my business, as my products appeal to all kinds of people. So how do I write in a way that speaks to them all, when they’re so different?”
This is a question I get asked all the time, and I think it’s best answered in two parts…
The first thing it’s important to know is that your audiences probably aren’t quite as different as you think! Hooray. After all, whatever their age, background, or job, they all have at least one thing in common – they’re buying from you.
So try and find out where the common areas are in terms of why your products appeal to them. Is it about cost? How or where your products are made? The quality? The style? How your products fit into their life? You’re bound to find at least a few features/benefits that appeal to lots of people across the different groups. You can then focus key bits of writing on those.
But I also appreciate that sometimes a business does have very distinct audiences, who buy different products or services for very different reasons. So the second part of the answer is that it’s also about finding ways you can speak to each group separately.
Social media, for example, is great for this. Imagine you’re a yoga studio, running classes that cater to complete beginners, classes specifically for older people with health issues, and classes for pregnant women. That’s pretty diverse. But you could do a mini-series of blogs or posts based around ‘The 5 best yoga poses for… total beginners / improving health / mums-to-be’, etc.
So not every post will speak to everyone, but over the weeks and months you find ways to connect with them all in turn. No one expects every single thing you post to be 100% relevant to them, so as long as you mix it up regularly people will stick with you.
And even on something like your website, which might seem like it has to be all things to all people, you can find opportunities for people to self-select. So let’s say you’re a florist. Your homepage could have a call to action that says ‘I want some flowers that say…’ followed by different buttons like ‘I love you’ ‘I’m sorry for your loss’ ‘Just because’ ‘Happy birthday’, etc. Each leads to a page with different types of arrangements, which you can then write about in a way that’s focused on what that customer group is looking for.
Ultimately, it’s always a challenge to manage diverse audiences. But hopefully it seems less daunting when you remember that they all share a love of your products, and that you don’t have to speak to all of them all the time!
———————————————
Bethany Joy works with small businesses to help them find a writing style and voice that reflects their passion and personality, as well as creating gettable and irresistible copy for their marketing materials. You can find out more about her at bethanyjoy.org
We also partner with Beth to run regular workshops that empower independent businesses to write more clearly and confidently about what they have to offer – you can keep an eye out for those in our events calendar.
