Do You Know Your Audience?

When communicating for your business, whether it is with prospects, customers or employees, the key to effectiveness starts with one basic tenet - know and understand your audience. Rather that just jumping right in and tapping out a message on your website, your marketing collateral or your employee newsletter, it's critical to carefully consider your audience. This consideration, in turn, should dictate the tone, style and depth of your message. Here's how:


Tips for Writing for Your Specific Audience

• Determine their current level of knowledge on the subject. If they know very little, start your message with the basics. If they know a lot, construct a more sophisticated message.



• Determine their interest level. If they are already a captive audience, draw them in further with the bells and whistles. If they are a tentative audience, compellingly show them how your product or service solves their problem.



• Make sure you understand what their problem/issue that you, as a business person, are trying to solve. They will only choose your solution if they believe you truly understand what they are facing and have developed a product or service that resolves it.



• If you are delivering a message that could be met with objections, consider what those objections could be ahead of time and try to address them head on within your message.

The bottom line is this. In today's world, the people in your target audience have information coming at them from every direction and from endless sources. In order to make your message rise to the top, you've got to personalize it and customize it to your audience as much as possible. Does this take time? Absolutely. But consider this - the only thing sending out a slapdash message does is waste your valuable time.