Monday Mastery: Reviewers count as an audience too

Why you should think about who reads your writing BEFORE you publish it

Welcome to Monday Mastery, a series designed to shift your perspective, teach you new techniques, and help you become a more effective writer, one tip at a time.

Photo by Masjid Pogung Dalangan on Unsplash

I often harp on knowing your audience for a piece of writing.

What we don’t often think about is knowing our audience of reviewers, however.

I’ve seen it happen inside companies quite a bit, where a draft gets sent around for feedback from different groups of stakeholders. Of course, each stakeholder group has their own agenda — none of which match up with the agenda of the intended reader audience. So when the writer is tasked with collating all the feedback and incorporating it into the draft — the draft gets messy. It loses the focus it had. And then … it often gets published that way. 🤦‍♀️

But I encountered this issue of “misaligned reviewer audience” with my personal writing recently, and I realized this is something every writer needs to be thinking about — not just writers inside companies.

Here’s what happened …

I was feeling really worked up about an issue I’ve been seeing in technology marketing, so I started writing an essay to collect my thoughts. I started out with what I thought was a clear thesis and compelling supporting points. I included screenshots of real-world examples. I brought it home with a call to arms, begging technology companies to do a better job caring for their customers.

But by the end of the piece, I had doubts. Did my logic hold? Did the content get confusing anywhere? Or boring?

So I sent a copy of the draft to a mastermind group I’m part of, asking them to answer those questions for me.

The feedback I got … wasn’t great.

In fact, they didn’t understand it at all.

Luckily, they asked me good questions, and as I tried to better articulate my thinking in my answers back, it became clear what the problem was:

I wrote the article for my copywriting and content strategy audience at Horizon Peak Consulting — an audience of technology founders and marketers.

But my reviewers were small business owners.

Of course they didn’t understand it! I had assumed the reader had certain knowledge — because my target readers would — but my reviewers didn’t have that same knowledge.

It was like asking a plumber what they think about leading tour groups at Alcatraz.

So my writing tip for you today is short, sweet and simple:

When you ask for feedback on your writing, ask people who are likely to share your target audience’s understanding of the subject.