Newspapers and magazines figured something out a long time ago. Not everyone reads the same way. To keep every subscriber happy, publishers write for three kinds of readers at once:

  • Skimmers glance at the headlines and captions, and they’re gone.
  • Readers dig a little deeper: subheads, opening paragraphs, summaries, pull quotes, and charts.
  • Examiners read every word.

So publishers break stories into pieces. Skimmers get the gist, readers learn a bit more, and examiners get everything. One article, three audiences, all satisfied.

Business content works the same way. Most companies just don’t write for it.

Who’s skimming your content

When I ran Interplay, I noticed that our own buyers fell into the same three groups:

  • The chief marketing officer cared about building the brand, engaging customers, supporting sales, and getting a return on every dollar, so they could win market share and impress the CEO and the board.
  • The vice president or director of marketing cared about getting the right message to the right audience, keeping their team productive, delivering leads to sales, and looking good to the CMO.
  • The marketing manager cared about delivering the right thing, on time, and impressing their boss.

These people don’t read the same way. The CMO has no time, so they skim. If the headline and captions speak to what they care about, they pass the document down. The director reads the introduction and sidebars, likes what they see, and hands it to a manager to check the claims. The manager examines every detail. If it holds up, the recommendation travels back up the chain.

It works in any direction. Whoever finds the document first, each person gets what they need from the part they actually read.

Put each message where each reader looks

The trick is simple: put the CMO’s priorities in the headlines and captions, the director’s priorities in the introductions, sidebars, and pull quotes, and the manager’s priorities in the body.

When we applied this to our own white papers, CMOs saw how we saved money and stretched budgets. Directors saw how we improved productivity across a team. Managers learned exactly how we did it. Everyone came to the same conclusion, from a single document.

That also cuts costs. Instead of writing three versions of the same piece, you write one that works for all three.

How to do it

  1. Write the body first, for the person who checks the details. This is your full argument: the solution, how it works, and the evidence. Then set it aside.
  2. List everything your buyers get from you. Not what your product does, but how it improves their work, their results, and their standing. Short phrases work best.
  3. Sort your buyers into three levels, from the senior decision-maker to the hands-on evaluator. If you already have buyer personas, start there.
  4. Assign each phrase from step 2 to the level that cares about it most.
  5. Check your search terms. This exercise usually turns up words and phrases your buyers actually use. Add the best ones to each level’s list.
  6. Weave it in. Put the senior phrases in the headlines, captions, and summary. Put the middle phrases in the introductions, sidebars, and pull quotes. Make sure the body uses the language the hands-on evaluator cares about.

Then publish it.

The newest skimmer isn’t human

Since I first wrote this, a fourth reader has shown up: AI. More and more people ask an AI assistant before they ever open your page, and that assistant pulls out whatever it can understand quickly and trust.

The same layers help it, too. Clear headlines, plain summaries, and specific claims backed by detail are exactly what make content easy to find, quote, and believe, whether the reader is a busy executive or a machine. Writing in layers was good publishing practice in the newspaper era. It’s even better practice now.