How to Talk to People You’ll Never Meet

If 90% of communication is non-verbal, how on earth do you make sure someone you can't see - or aren't even in the same building as - understands your message?

It's a weird feeling knowing that millions of people saw something you made. When I worked in television it happened on a regular basis, and I never got used to it. Broadcasting, for all its current challenges, has astonishing reach.

But the audience?

Always invisible.

You never meet them. You can't watch their faces to see what lands, what confuses, what makes them laugh - or reach for the remote.

It's an unsettling way to work.

And the truth is, most messages - whether it's a trailer, a piece of web copy, or something that lands in someone's inbox on a Monday morning - are sent into the void.

Here are three things the void taught me.

1 Know your audience

If you don't, you're guessing.

Gather as many details as you can: age, expectations, where they are, what they're looking for, when they're likely to switch off. If you have no idea who they are or what they care about, all you're doing is having a (potentially expensive) gamble.

Inside organisations, the same principle applies. Different groups, different pressures, different priorities. A message that resonates with one team may glide past another unless you tailor it. One size fits nobody.

2 Clarity is an act of care

People are busy. Attention is short. If your message isn't clear within seconds, they'll scroll on, delete or ignore it.

Clarity doesn't just make writing better. It shows respect for people's time. It makes people feel reassured and more confident in what they're reading. In an organisation, this translates into better alignment and smoother working days.

3 People remember stories, not instructions

Some of the most complicated campaigns I worked on involved explaining unfamiliar subjects, new formats or sensitive topics. Story structure helped them land.

Humans absorb information more easily when it has a spine - a beginning that orientates, a middle that explains, and an end that reassures or motivates.

No one absorbs everything at once. Give them a path, not a brain teaser.

There's a piece of copywriting advice that says to write like you're having a conversation with the reader.

Good copy (or messaging) isn't a one-way thing. It's not an autocratic monologue. It's one half of a dialogue; a relationship.

By knowing your audience and communicating clearly you'll show them that you understand them; that you have something valuable to tell them. Then they'll have a reason to listen to you.

That's the invisible part of communication.

And if you can get that right, the message lands. Even in the dark.