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What separates a beginner from the pros? Amateur writers write just to write. While this may create tons of negligible content, (or offer them private enjoyment), it does nothing to help them get noticed, increase business, or move their audience to take action.

So what is the goal of great writing? Professional writers have one main goal in mind with their writing: to change their audience. Great writers try hard to help their audience see through different eyes, act differently, and change the way they interact with the world.

Just about anyone who’s made it past the 4th grade can slap a few words together and a complete sentence. (Need proof? Look at most blogs out there.) If you really want to have power in your writing, you have to write for impact. This is what separates educational from influential. Powerful writing can be had in three easy steps: 1) writing for a specific audience, 2) using the right medium, and 3) choosing the correct conversion.

Targeted Audience

To get in touch with your reader, it’s critical that you understand them. You must get out of your way of seeing things and write from their point of view. Whenever I write, the first thing I do is define the specific audience I’m trying to reach. I look at things like age, income, gender, hobbies, interests, education level, and on and on.

Once I’ve nailed down the exact audience I’m trying to reach, and identified their characteristics, I craft a message specifically for them. Younger readers respond to words like revolutionary, cutting-edge, fresh, or innovative. Someone in the 60+ age category will be turned off immediately by such wording. They prefer safe, effective, and proven.

Right Medium

Right medium means the location of your message. There are many different places you can publish, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. You can use magazines, newspapers, books, journals, even radio and TV. There are also blogs, websites, ezines and other online mediums, as well. Which medium you use is determined largely by your audience.

As an example, if I’m targeting economists and writing an article on economic policy, most online methods would fail, whereas an academic journal would have much credibility. An article of that nature requires huge blocks of detailed text; something most people cannot read on a computer screen.

A newspaper or magazine would not generally work in this instance either. There’s simply not enough space. However, if I am covering a topic that is short and sweet, it makes perfect sense to use newspapers.

The typical reader will skim over the words looking for things that catch their eye, especially when reading online. But if you were to publish in another medium – one more suitable to your readers expectations – they are far more likely to slow down and read. Choose the medium that best fits your topic and your audience.

Appropriate Conversion

Conversion can come in three main forms: knowing, feeling, and doing. The know form is when your article is looking to inform the reader of something new. It can also be something they already know, but you are casting in a different light. The point is when they finish reading they know something. A feeling piece is just what it says – you’re trying to invoke a feeling or emotional response from the reader. And when you write for doing, you’re trying to get the reader to do something, to take some kind of action.

Amateurs look at this and try to do all three (When they even recognize it at all.) Professionals focus on only one, because doing so affects the others. How do you want the readers life to change because they read your message? What do you want to see occur in them? Do you primarily want them to know, feel, or do something? Pick one – yes, just one – and carry it out well, and the others will take care of themselves.

Maximum impact only occurs when you seek to change your audience in some way. Identify your reader, and then choose the correct medium to reach them. Focus on one conversion style and then write well. If you do that, your reader will change in some way, and I believe change is the only writing worth reading.