Stop writing like a robot: the importance of creating content for your audience

I’m sure you’ve read something recently that you had to pause, rewind, and have another go at. It was probably full of complex words, written in a passive voice (we’ll get to this in a minute), or just hard to get your head around. Chances are whoever wrote it wasn’t thinking about you when they bashed out those paragraphs. They were most likely writing because they thought the content was needed, but they weren’t sure why or what they were trying to achieve.

In an age of time-poor stakeholders dealing with engagement overload, it’s more important than ever to create content that speaks to your audience, not at them. This blog looks at the dos and don’ts of writing stakeholder communications. These can be applied to everything from an email to a colleague, to go-live comms’ for a system implementation.

What is stakeholder communications?

Stakeholder communications is creating content for the people who are reading it. This might sound obvious but how many times have you been forced to read a project update, for example, that seemed to serve no other purpose than making the project feel good about what it’d been up to that week? 

A stakeholder-centric view of this content would see the author put themselves in the readers’ shoes and ask, ‘what do I need to hear from the project this week?’. If the answer is nothing, then the author can save everyone some time by holding out until there was an actual need for content. 

Why is stakeholder communications important?

We’re spending more time in front of screens consuming content than ever before. Think about your inbox, the number of tabs you have open in your browser, and the number of applications that are running in your taskbar. They’re all vying for your attention, along with everything outside of work – and you’re not alone. 

Stakeholder communications is about empathising with the audience and engaging with them when they need something from you, or you need something from them. It’s about making sure people get something out of reading your content each time they engage with it. This builds trust with your audience and reduces the risk of your content being ignored later down the line.  

How do you create stakeholder communications?

 1.    Know what you’re talking about and why

You can’t create content that meets your stakeholders’ needs if you don’t understand the topic or the outcome it’s aiming to achieve yourself. Before you start writing, make sure you:

Know the outcome

If you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve by creating content, then don’t! We’re all busy and there’s nothing worse than taking time out of your day to read something that served no purpose. The outcome you’re aiming for doesn’t need to be life-altering – just make sure you know what you’re working to achieve.

Understand the topic

It’s much easier to explain a concept or help your audience understand what’s happening if you understand it yourself. You don’t need to become a subject matter expert, but you might need to engage with the topic and spend time reading background materials before you dive into creating content.

2.    Understand who you’re talking to

The better you know who you’re talking to, the more clearly you can communicate with them. Before you start writing, think about who the audience is and what they need to get them to the outcome you’re after.

This is all about being stakeholder-centric and having empathy for the people who will be reading your content. As a guide, to understand your audience, you’ll need to think about:

  • Who they are? (i.e. how many of them are there, where are they based, what do they do, what do they care about?)

  • What will and won’t work for them? (i.e. are they data-driven, or do they want to see anecdotes and pretty pictures?).

3.    Use a channel that will reach them

It’s not just what you say, it’s where you say it. The best-crafted message is useless if you can’t get it in front of the audience.

In considering what channel, or mix of channels you’ll use to deliver your content, ask:

  • Is the message formal, or informal?

  • Do I have heaps to say, or can it be short and sweet?

  • Am I going for one or two-way communication (i.e. do I want people to be able to ask questions easily?)

 These basic questions, and your knowledge of your outcome and audience, should paint a clear picture of what channel(s) you have to choose from, and what’s going to work. 

 4.    Say it in a way they’ll understand

Now you understand what you need to say, who needs to hear it, and how they’ll receive the message, it’s time to actually write the content. It’s important to get your message across simply and clearly. You can do this by:

Keeping it simple and using plain English.

Plain English is just using simpler and more direct language. It’s not about ‘dumbing down’ information – it’s just writing with your reader in mind and using the right tone of voice that is clear and concise.

It is also faster to write, quicker to read, and gets your message across. So, remember to:

  • Keep sentences short: 15-20 words is about right

  • Be personal: speak to the reader, not about them

  • User everyday words: don’t use a big one, when a little one will do

  • Think about structure: people are more likely to scan content, so big blocks of text might not be the way to go.  

Writing in an active voice. 

The active voice makes for much better writing, not just because it sounds confident, but because the subject comes at the beginning, making the sentence easier to understand. 

Here are some examples:

  • Passive: The moon was jumped over by the cow

  • Active: The cow jumped over the moon.

Always watch out for the passive voice when self-editing. It’s not hard to switch around a few words and turn the sentence into an active one. 

Always reading what you’ve written.

It’s fine to write garbage, as long as you edit brilliantly! If you try to make your first pass perfect, keeping track of everything will distract you and some good ideas might fall through the cracks. 

When you’re reading over your content, think about:

  • Whether it will resonate with the audience

  • If it will achieve your outcome

  • If the spelling/grammar are sorted

  • Whether there are unnecessary words.

What else can you do to improve your writing?

Like anything, practice makes perfect. Everything we’ve just covered can be applied to basic writing tasks like emails and even text messages! The more you apply it to your writing, the more natural it will become.

You don’t need to go it alone though. So, before you get writing make sure you check out the following resources:

  • Grammarly: it’s free and it checks your writing for spelling mistakes, unclear wording and heaps more.

  • Hemmingway: Similar to Grammarly but doesn’t require you to download anything. Just copy and paste your content into the tool, and have passive voice, complex sentences, and mistakes highlighted for you.  

Better yet, why not get in touch with Levant if you have any questions or want to talk about stakeholder communications in your business!

 
Raphael May