How to unlock your audience’s DNA
The Smithsonian’s human genome exhibit perfectly explains how good writers define their audiences
There’s this human genome experiment at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History I’ve been thinking about lately.
Aside from being fascinating in its own right—SCIENCE!–it features a display that perfectly illustrates what good writers and editors do to connect with their audiences.
Let me back up.
You’ll recall from high school that all living things are made up of DNA and that particular combinations of this genetic goop result in traits either dominant or recessive. Do you have attached earlobes or do they hang free? Does your hairline come to a point or is it flat? That kind of thing.
Well there’s this wall display in the Smithsonian exhibit that walks you through all that. You answer yes or no to a series of questions about five selected traits and follow the diagram all the way down to the group that shares your particular combination of code.
By the end of it, you find yourself looking at a group that has certain characteristics but is also very diverse. Mine was full of people who, like I, have detached earlobes, no dimples, pointed hairlines (woo!) and the ability to roll their tongues. But everyone had different skin tones, hair colors and other features.
It occurred to me that this kind of grouping is not unlike the different kinds of audiences profiles I’ve seen over the years: Despite their differences, members of a well defined audience share certain fundamental traits. Once you agree on what those are, you will find your writing makes much more of an impact when it is tailored to address readers on that level.
Understanding your audience is one of the most critically important steps in the writing process, but it is also one of the most overlooked. Whether you’re sitting down to write an online post, recommending a content mix for a client or drafting an email to your aunt in Iowa, you have to understand what the person reading your work is going to be looking for.
In this case, let’s take the professional route and assume you’re making a content recommendation for a client (sorry, Aunt Ida!). Said client will probably say they want to reach “influentials” or “C-suite” types. But what do those labels even mean, and are they helpful in guiding your decision-making process of writing? Honestly, no one knows and not really.
Instead, ask questions like the DNA display. And let your answers guide your next questions. In the end you’ll end up with something much more robust.
To illustrate the point: Is your audience a professional? Do they work in finance? Have they achieved supplementary degrees? Are they international? The answers to these questions bring you closer to a useful description of your audience’s DNA. Now, instead of writing for “C-suite” types, you are writing for international finance executives with MBAs.
Having a clearly defined audience in mind will necessarily inform decisions you make when it comes to elements of style (word choice, grammar, etc.) point of view (first, second or third person) and presentation (narrative, Q&A, etc.). It will make your writing better.
The benefit of all this, of course, is that audiences who connect with your writing on a fundamental level will be more likely to respond to it in the way that you want them to. In other words, the closer you can get to relating to your audience, the more likely they will be to respond to your call to action.
And that’s really all any good writer could ask for. Clients too!
Defining your audience is just one of the many things we think about for clients at Atlantic Media Strategies. Sign up for our weekly newsletter, the Digital Trends Index, and get in touch on Twitter.
