Who are your readers, and what is your goal when writing to them?

If you are sending an email to colleagues, writing a letter to potential customers or creating a presentation, Ann Kepler, publisher at Adams Press, offers direction.

“Start by identifying your target market. Why does it need or why would it be interested in your information,” Ann says. “Assume the role of the reader. Make sure your point is clear and engages the recipient with personal relevance and newsworthiness. Don’t make your reader work to learn why your writing is worth reading. You do the work, and the reader does the reading.”

Whether you copy an email to others or your recipient forwards it, your words and style may assume a life of their own…forever.

Thus, when writing, particularly in a business context, Ann reminds you to “speak in a consistent voice, check grammar and spelling, use transitions to guide readers through, and remember parallel construction. That is, parts of a sentence should be similar in form and style. My list of the instructions in the first sentence of this paragraph, for example, is parallel in construction.”

Another challenge may arise when you identify your reader. “When I work with physicians writing patient education materials, I often find two readers, a doctor and a patient,” says Ann. “The writing must be medically accurate to satisfy the doctor and also be accessible for the lay reader. This requires both a professional style and an informative voice.”

On the other hand, if you are writing to friends or family, or you are a columnist with a unique voice or perspective, you can communicate in your first person voice and style. Just keep writer/reader goals and interests in mind.

I have to remember this when writing a blog post. What do I want to share with readers, how do I want to say it, and do readers want to know it?

We’re always telling our story in one way or another. When we do, it’s in our voice, speaking or writing our own words.

Besides contributing to blogs and other social media, thousands of people also create videos to express themselves professionally or personally.

Sometimes they speak for themselves, and sometimes a “voice over” introduces them.

For example, once a book has been written, an author must market it, which often includes a book trailer such as those produced by Reno Lovison, AuthorsBroadcast.com. “Our book trailer videos, one minute or less, are narrated by someone other than the author,” Reno explains.

“Using a ‘third person voice’ offers another perspective,” he says. “Like movie trailers, book video trailers are intended to quickly acquaint readers with an author and the content of a book you might like to read.” The narrator in a movie trailer is not the script writer, actor or director. We see scenes or clips as the voice over artist engages us in the movie. “Voice over book trailers are similar,” Reno adds, “and more energetic because someone else discusses the book and lets the author be the author.”

It is understandable that writers or others who are accustomed to speaking for themselves might wonder about a third person voice over. “Wouldn’t it be more authentic with my voice,” one might ask. “After all, I wrote it and now they can hear me discuss it.”

On the other hand, many authors find the voice over approach liberating. The narrator is heard but not seen, and the focus remains on the book’s content and the author’s words, which can lead to potential sales.

Voice over can be an opportunity to introduce another perspective while remaining true to your voice.

Good times or changing times, it is important to regularly SWOT your professional and personal potential.

If you have ever developed a marketing plan, then you know it begins with the Current Situation or a SWOT analysis: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.

Your current situation, which is based on research, experience and objectivity, answers these questions:
• What does your company do and for how long? Or, what are your Five Ws: who, what, when, where and why…and how?
• What is your competition? How do your consumers and publics distinguish you from your competition? How do you know this?
• What are your marketplace problems and challenges?
• What are your opportunities and strengths?
• Who are your current consumer groups and publics? Public is a group of people (three or more individuals) with something in common.
• As a result of your research and a better understanding of your situation, who are your target consumers and publics: new markets, more of your current consumers or both?

You can restate your Current Situation as a SWOT analysis by using the templates and guidelines in these links.

► www.businessballs.com/swotanalysisfreetemplate.htm
► http://articles.mplans.com/how-to-perform-a-swot-analysis. Article by Tim Berry
► www.jmorganmarketing.com/using-swot-for-social-media-strategy. Article by Jacob Morgan

When using a SWOT analysis to clarify your personal and professional situation and goals, it’s critical that you think as objectively as possible. Interview knowledgeable people, explore resources you had never considered, and ask others for feedback about your personal and professional qualities, skills and perceived brand (personal or professional). Surveys and focus groups of family, friends, colleagues and customers can offer invaluable insights. Are you running “on automatic” or an approach that is no longer working for you?

Once you have evaluated your situation, it’s time to establish your measurable goals (you will do what by when?), your strategies/tactics for achieving these goals, and your timeline for turning challenges into opportunities and uncovering your potential.

SWOT is self-discovery.