Hello, Enneagram 3 here.

That’s right, I’m a bit of an over-achiever/workaholic, and I want people to KNOW it.

In all seriousness, my driven personality impacts my perception motivates my actions and is a really big part of who I am.

As a former psych major, I also know that psychologists no longer really view personalities as “types,” and they tend to focus on where everyone falls on some major traits (aka the Big Five model).

But, as a writer, I’ve learned how important it is to cater to your audience.

Newsflash, your audience is filled with people with many different personalities. Whether you prefer Myers-Briggs, The Enneagram, the color personality typing system, or the Big Five, it’s safe to say that there are lots of different personalities out there that all want to get something different out of your writing.

That’s why the ultimate goal of your writing should be to inform, entertain, and inspire every single personality in your target audience.

People with different traits have different preferences

Our personalities are not fixed, they are adaptable. Both genetics and environment influence our personalities, and even though personalities are changeable, they are very powerful. According to the American Psychological Association, “personality refers to individual differences in characteristic patterns of thinking, feeling and behaving.”

Our individual differences affect how we perceive and respond to information. Information like, say, written copy. People with different personality traits will have different preferences and responses to writing. You, as the master writer, are responsible for reaching as many of them as possible.

But how??

Writing for personality types

When you write to your target audience’s personality, you can connect with them on a much deeper level. This connection is more powerful than any other marketing strategy and will increase the chances of a positive response.

Let’s get the obvious out of the way, it is impossible to please everyone. That’s right, I’m telling you how to write for every personality type by telling you that you can’t. However, you can still make sure that your writing is effective for people with numerous personality types.

Some tips for writing copy for different personalities include:

Your English teacher may not want you to hear this, but writing is about so much more than word choice, grammar, and semantics. Writing is about sharing a message. It is a medium to positively impact and persuade others. Next time you write anything, think about how you can connect with all of the different people in your target audience.

Image by ElisaRiva from Pixabay

Originally published at https://contentcucumber.com on June 15, 2020.

Also published at https://medium.com/publishing-well/writing-copy-for-different-personalities-d95c81d0ae27