analyze know your audience
Contents
Have you ever sat in a meeting with someone who gives you a presentation that has clearly been given to other audiences before? CEO and Co-Founder of the Latimer Corporation Dean Brenner explains that there are some telltale signs: "A generic set of benefits, little anticipation of objections, a lack of details that speak to your specific situation.
Chances are that you tuned out somewhere along the way because you didn't feel connected to what that presenter was telling you. Connecting with your audience is a key part of persuading them."
So, how do we connect with our audiences and create an impactful delivery? The first step to writing an impactful document or delivering a successful presentation is to understand your audience. Who are they? What do they need to know? How will the information make them feel? What should they do after they read the report or email or watch the presentation?
who is my audience?
When planning your communication, avoid the it's-all-about-me syndrome. Professional communication is never about you. It’s about your audience.
Think of a time when you asked a friend for a restaurant recommendation and they started listing nothing but local pizza joints . . . but you’d had pizza four times in the last week. Your friend’s unconscious assumption was that you'd like whatever they like.
Psychologists call this the false consensus effect. We assume other people see the world the way we see it and have preferences like ours. This thinking gets us into trouble, especially when communicating.
To avoid this audience-alienating consequence, before you send an email, write a report, or deliver a presentation, get to know your audiences—primary and secondary.
A minimum of two people are involved in all communication: a sender (you) and a receiver (your audience). Researchers sometimes refer to these parties as the encoder, who crafts thoughts and feelings into visual, written, or spoken language; and the decoder, who sees or hears the message and makes sense of it. The process is diagrammed below.
The drawback of this model is that it illustrates communication as a linear, one-way process. It implies a clear-cut start and finish to the communication process in which the roles of the encoder and decoder are clearly defined.
While the model is useful as you consider communicating with one person, consider that in the digital age, your communication can spread far and wide, beyond the boundaries of a one-on-one conversation. You can have virtual, simultaneous, and nebulous audiences, so carefully consider who might see or hear your message and how they might interpret it.
primary and secondary audiences
The primary audience, the main audience—that probably includes a decision maker—intended to read or hear your message, should be your focus.
However, keep in mind that myriad secondary audiences will interpret your message—unsending, retracting, and deleting are difficult in the digital age. You cannot shred electronic documents or recorded presentations
Be aware that ANYONE might read your business documents or see your business presentations. Plan carefully and craft consciously.
To encode your message for your primary audience, thoroughly analyze them so you can tailor the content of your message to their wants, needs, and level of understanding. Avoid the natural tendency to share only the material you care about and think is interesting.
Second, encoding your knowledge into a clear message requires attention to style and format. Don’t be lazy; planning your message means organizing your thoughts, telling a relevant story, repeating key points, and minimizing distractions. Your audience should decode, but that does not mean decipher. The message should be easy for your audience to understand.
Get to know your audience
Ask what your audience needs to know, feel, and do.
What does my audience know?
What does my audience already know about my subject? Is my audience an expert or a novice? Is my audience a superior, peer, or subordinate? Do they know my qualifications?
Answering these questions can help you craft a message tailored to that audience. For example, if your audience is a subject-matter expert in your field, feel free to use acronyms and industry jargon. However, never use words in an attempt to impress. Even highly sophisticated audiences appreciate a simple message, which is not dumbed down but stripped to its core parts.
If you are writing or presenting to superiors, the atmosphere might be more formal, so you should probably avoid slang and stick with more formal language. However, if you are reporting to a team of peers with whom you are comfortable, you can probably use more conversational language.
The less you know about your audience—the higher the level of formality should be. Never choose slang, idiom, cliché, or jargon with unknown external audiences.
How does my audience feel?
Will my audience have positive, negative, or neutral feelings about my message? How should I address those feelings? Understanding audience predisposition or skepticism can help you tailor a more successful email, report, or presentation.
If you know your audience will not agree with you, establish common ground. Find commonalities between your message and the audience’s interests or values.
Anticipate and address potential objections. By acknowledging their doubts and providing compelling counterarguments, you will build credibility, thereby increasing your chances for success.
Avoid jargon, technical terms, or complex language that may confuse or further alienate the audience. Simple, straightforward language is universally appreciated.
Be open to addressing your audience’s concerns. After delivering an email, report, or presentation, express willingness to further engage with your audience by addressing their objections or questions. Always close your correspondence, reports, and presentations on a forward-looking note that implies further communication.
Test your message
To avoid the curse of knowledge, create a mental picture of your audience before you write. When world-famous investor Warren Buffett composes Berkshire Hathaway's annual report, he writes with his sisters in mind. Doing so helps him to avoid jargon because he writes as if he were talking to them and tries to explain concepts in terms they can understand. He informs by using plain English. If, however, he were sharing the same information with one of his colleagues, his approach would reflect their shared knowledge.
In Conclusion
Crafting professional messages requires work, but the process is worth it. Being aware of your audience as you plan your work will turn potentially mushy, untidy, and costly messages into sharp and effective ones.
Learn More
Bold citations are referenced in the chapter text.
Articles
Buffett, Warren. “Preface.” In A Plain English Handbook: How to Create Clear SEC Disclosure Documents. Office of Investor Education and Assistance. Washington, DC: US Securities and Exchange Commission, 1998. Accessed August 2021.
Bradley, Diana. “Lessons from Sony Hack: Be Careful What You Email.” PR Week, December 19, 2014. Accessed August 2021.
Berkshire Hathaway Inc. “Berkshire Hathaway’s annual report.” (PDF File) 2020 ANNUAL REPORT. Accessed August 2021.
Camerer, Colin, George Loewenstein, and Martin Weber. 1989. “The Curse of Knowledge in Economic Settings: An Experimental Analysis.” Journal of Political Economy 97 (5): 1232–54.
Heath, Chip, and Dan Heath. “The Curse of Knowledge." Harvard Business Review, December 1, 2006.
Lerner, Jennifer S., Ye Li, Piercarlo Valdesolo, and Karim S. Kassam. 2015. “Emotion and Decision Making." Annual Review of Psychology66: 799–823. Accessed May 2022.
Ross, Lee, David Greene, and Pamela House. 1977. “The ‘False Consensus Effect’: An Egocentric Bias in Social Perception and Attribution Processes.” Journal of Experimental Social Psychology 13 (3): 279–301.
Schramm, W. “How Communication Works.” In W. Schramm (Ed.), The Process and Effects of Mass Communication. Urbana, Illinois: University of Illinois Press. 1954.
Sleek, Scott. “The Curse of Knowledge: Pinker Describes a Key Cause of Bad Writing.” Observer 28, no. 6 (2015). Accessed August 2021.
Wanat, Zosia. 2021. “Leaked email scandal engulfs Poland’s political elite.” Government officials confirm that they used private email accounts for public business, but blame Russia for the hack. . June 24, 2021. Accessed August 2021
Books
Canavor, Natalie. Business Writing in the Digital Age. Los Angeles: Sage Publications, 2012.
Garner, Bryan A. HBR Guide to Better Business Writing. Boston: Harvard Business School Publishing, 2012.
Gladwell, Malcom. David and Goliath: Underdogs, Misfits, and the Art of Battling Giants. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2013.
Lamb, Sandra E. Writing Well for Business Success. New York: St. Martin’s, 2015.
Pinker, Steven. The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing in the 21st Century. New York: Penguin Books, 2014.
Roman, Kenneth, and Joel Raphaelson. Writing That Works; How to Communicate Effectively In Business. New York: HarperCollins, 2000.
Ross, Lee and Richard Nisbett. The Person and the Situation: Perspectives of Social Psychology. London: Pinter & Martin Ltd, 2011.
Websites
Berkshire Hathaway. “Annual and Interim Reports.” Accessed August 2021.
Duarte, Nancy. “Audience Needs Map.” Accessed May 2022.