Always Write for your Client’s Boss

Remember a few weeks ago how we talked about KYA / Know Your Audience? Writing for your client’s boss is why this is critical. Sometimes your audience isn’t actually the person you’re delivering a preso to, or sending an email to, or even talking to. 

The real audience is their boss. The people with the power to make a decision, assign budgets, renew a contract, or even just acknowledge progress. These people are the ones who make-or-break your information. 

In order to write for them, you need to know what their drivers are, what they are looking for and ideally what turns them on (in a business sense). How do you find this out? By talking to your client! Find out what your client’s KPIs are, what makes their boss happy, what kind of content their boss likes and how they like to be talked to. I’ve seen so many clients rolls their eyes at reporting or comms because it just doesn’t talk to them. They metaphorically shove it in the drawer.

Once you’ve found out what your client’s boss wants, laser target your reporting and comms to that style. Short and snappy? Image-driven? Long-form writing? Data tables? All different styles of writing with very different outcomes. This is something we always try to do with our Analytics and Performance reporting.

The end results of writing for your client’s boss? Well, they are multiple: 

  • happy client, who has info they can share directly with their boss; 
  • happy boss, who gets useful relevant info that’s well-presented; 
  • happy you, who has once-again nailed the challenge of distilling complex information into a readable package that your audience loves. 
  • Win, win win! :-) 

Once you’ve mastered this technique, it is only a short hop, skip and a jump to understanding how to tailor content to your prospective, but unknown clients, through understanding the search user journey, search user personas, and creating sales / informational content which is immediately useful, and immediately resonates with the target audience.

All of a sudden more leads, more calls, more sales, just from Knowing Your Audience and writing for your client’s boss.

Simples, eh?