Know Your Audience

July 2nd, 2008 at 05:09pm Bill Swick

When doing any type of communication for your organization, it’s a good idea to think about who its intended audience will be. Often in our careers we develop an understanding of our trades or skills that may not be shared by the general public. This is especially evident in user manuals – you could easily spend so much time reading the manuals for your home electronics, computers, or cars that you may not ever have the time to actually use them.

As a general rule, it’s OK to be an expert when you’re writing for your business and marketing communications, but you may want to think twice about the jargon. It may be tempting to use big words or demonstrate technical acumen, but the ultimate goal of any communication is to get your message across.

When communicating with current and potential customers, you should use a straightforward tone and get to the point. Save the technical stuff for the questions that may come later.

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