Who are you writing for?

If you think you know enough about your audience, you are way in for a big surprise. You can never learn enough about your targeted audience. Remember this, as it is the most essential aspect of your writing project. Remember that these are the people you are trying to persuade to do "something", whatever that is, you need to ensure you captivate them with your carefully chosen words; otherwise your copy will fail its purpose at the first glance.

As you study your audience, it is important learn more about their needs, problems and interests. Remember you can never walk on anyone else's shoes but you can learn quite enough with thorough research. Once you have enough information, the next important question you need to ask is "how they make their buying desicions?". Here are a few tips:

• Read what your audience reads: Just about any business group today has Web sites, newsletters and other publications you can read. Find out what they are and go get them, see what your audience is interested in.
   
• Speak directly to your audience: Find out what they are about, what they are looking for and what their intersts are.
   
• Visit the blogs and forums: Blogs and forums capture the essennce of your audience's opinion, that is where they express themselves and voice their concerns, needs and goals.
   
• Visit seminars your audience visit: Many of these seminars are free, service providers often host these meetings to talk about how they can fulfill your audience's needs. They are an excellent source of the information you need.
   
• Visit job posting Web sites and study your audience's job requirements: Believe it or not, if you visit sites such as "monster.com" or "hotjobs.com" you will get terrific insight to your audience's needs. Remember that these job postings do hold the essence of what it is required, which is essentially the company's needs.

You will not always be able to get all the answers but you will be able to create a clear picture of who you are writing for. Even small differences can be very important to capture to distinguish between different sub-groups. You should know what these differences are so you can be ready to create your pitch on paper, or Web.