The Five Things You NEED to Know About Your Target Audience
When we think about communications, we usually go right into the tactics—press coverage, social media campaigns, fundraisers and newsletters. While tactics are always exciting, they’re only successful when they are rooted in strategy.
Before you dive right into pitching The New York Times (I understand it’s tempting!), be sure you are engaging with the right audiences, using the right messaging.
When you know what audiences value about your work and their barriers to accessing your services, you can make smart, informed communications decisions.
Ideal audience profiles enable you to speak to your audiences' unique values, address their pain points and share information on channels they frequently use.
Here are the five things we tackle when building audience profiles at Forthright.
Demographics
Demographics scratch the surface on who your audiences are by providing basic information such as their age, income level, occupation, marital status and gender. For example, different messaging will resonate with a 60-year-old, married female educator with grandchildren, as compared to a 15-year-old, single, nonbinary student.
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Goals & Values
Understanding your audiences' values and goals helps you learn more about what they want and why they do what they do. Below are some questions to help you discover what matters to them the most:
What do they want for themselves and the people around them? Why do they want this?
What core values resonate with them most?
Who do they aspire to be? Do your audiences want to be nurturing parents, effective leaders, or future policymakers? Reflect on how they might see their future selves.
What do they hope to achieve in the next five, 10, 15 years?
Challenges & Pain Points
Your organization seeks to address a specific problem in your audiences' lives. Understanding their challenges and frustrations ensures you are meeting their need(s). Consider these questions:
What frustrates your ideal audience?
What are definite deal breakers that would prevent them from working with you?
What challenges are they currently facing that your services could help them solve?
What keeps them up at night?
Barriers
Knowing your audiences' barriers to working with you empowers you as a communicator with essential and valuable information about their concerns, needs and fears. You can address most barriers with a simple reframing process that puts the issue into perspective without accidentally reinforcing what they fear most. Here are some questions to ask yourself:
Are they the primary decision makers, or do they need approval?
What concerns might they have about your programs, services or organization?
Is time, money or any other resource an issue?
Why would they choose NOT to engage with/access your services? Why would they choose a competitor?
Sources of Information
Knowing what platforms your audiences use to gain information—from which social media outlets they love to what publications they read—empowers you to focus your valuable time and resources on the right communication tools.
Reflect on these questions:
What kinds of social media platforms do they use?
What do your audiences read (specific websites, trade magazines, local newspapers, etc.)?
What experts or influencers do your audiences follow?
What events or conferences do your audiences attend?
What are their favorite newsletters?
Are there any communities or groups (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Groups) that your audiences follow/join?
What kind of tone do they prefer?
Now that you have the context and knowledge to think about your organization’s ideal audiences, try filling out blank profiles through our free worksheet!
