How knowing your audience can lead to success - Women's Agenda

How knowing your audience can lead to success

I have just completed the process of teaching a group of motivated and enthusiastic women to write for magazines. It’s a short course that I have been delivering at the Sydney Writer’s Centre for some time, in my spare time.

Although there are days when I am emotionally exhausted from a hectic day in the world of digital media, I find that when I walk into the classroom and see those women the stress of the day dissipates.

My key message is about identifying and understanding the audience. You can’t write a great story unless you’re writing for someone. An idea is only a good idea if there is an audience for it. Just as you can’t run a business unless you clearly understand who it is that wants what you are selling. Similarly, if you want to progress in your career then you need to know who it is you need to impress.

Magazine editors are especially good at focusing on a reader because they have to be. The differentiation between your product and a competitor’s may not be about demographics, but rather about personal style or special interest. So you need to know who they are and what they would think in a given situation.

I am always reminded of that brilliant documentary on the making of UK Marie Claire magazine during the 1990s, featuring launch editor Glenda Bailey. The cameras followed Glenda around, fly-on the-wall style. As Glenda passed the subbing desk she stopped and quizzed the relevance of a headline.

“Is that what our reader would say?” she asked, before moving on to the next area of concern.

With each of the magazines that I edited there was a typical reader in the minds of my team that we could refer to when considering a story, a photoshoot or even a headline. We would ask the same question that Glenda was asking.

I ask that question of my writing students. It focuses their thinking every time. A simple exercise to help your thinking is to consider the difference in approach of the magazines Belle and Better Homes and Garden. If you want to read about decorating your home office, you will choose the magazine that shares your approach to this subject. A do-it-yourself person will go for Better Homes and Gardens but if you want to find an interior designer to do this for you, then you’d be heading straight for Belle.

I launched Australian Good Taste around the simple premise that there was a new type of reader who was primarily female and first generation career-focused, with a mother who was of the first-generation of women who worked. As her mother was busy with work during her teenage years our reader was also of the first generation of women who were not taught cooking skills in the home. As a result she lacked confidence in the kitchen. Our focus, therefore, was to basically teach her to cook with a level of confidence. That deep understanding of our reader, her skills, limitations and needs was critical to the success of the publication.

By the completion of the five-week course the students of Writing for Magazines know how important it is to be able to think about a reader and her key areas of interest before they embark on a story. To my mind, it’s the most important tool they have paid for because it offers a lesson for many other areas of communication in their career and personal life.

Have you achieved career success from a better understanding of the needs of your leadership team?

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