What Does Your Audience Need?
Communications Lessons from the Oracle of Omaha’s Latest Shareholder Letter
Deep Dive: How Does Warren Buffett Stay Hyper-Focused on His Audience?
Understanding the specific needs of your audience is, of course, mission critical. An extraordinary example of this practice is found in Warren Buffett's approach to communicating with Berkshire Hathaway's shareholders through his famous annual Shareholder Letter.
The annual letters are not just financial reports; they are masterclasses in audience-centric communication. By dissecting Buffett’s recently released letter, where he embeds his communications philosophy, we see how he hyper-focuses on the needs of his audience:
Establish a Clear Writing Goal:
“To the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.: Berkshire has more than three million shareholder accounts. I am charged with writing a letter every year that will be useful to this diverse and ever-changing group of owners, many of whom wish to learn more about their investment.”
Know your exact audience: (EO Note: It can’t be “everyone.” No, it can’t be.)
“Writers find it useful to picture the reader they seek … At Berkshire, we have a more limited target: investors who trust Berkshire with their savings without any expectation of resale.”
Find your Bertie:
“In visualizing the owners that Berkshire seeks, I am lucky to have the perfect mental model, my sister, Bertie. Let me introduce her. … In short, she is nobody’s fool. So, what would interest Bertie this year?”
Ensure transparent and clear disclosures from all levels of the organization:
“We cherish their presence and believe they are entitled to hear every year both the good and bad news, delivered directly from their CEO and not from an investor-relations officer or communications consultant forever serving up optimism and syrupy mush.”
(I’ll save analysis on the “syrupy mush” comment for another day!)
Buffett tailors his message to meet the shareholders’ unique interests, concerns, and levels of expertise. This approach is not by accident but a deliberate effort to ensure that his communications are not only informative but also engaging, relatable, and accessible to each shareholder.
Read this year’s Berkshire Hathaway Annual Letter and every letter since 1977.