Deciding on the right content
A poorly informed content decision risks losing or confusing your audience. And it can undermine your chances of achieving your purpose and supporting your overall business outcome.
There is a lot you can do to understand your audience. However, there are three easy ways to understand your audience that will set you on a great path to make informed content decisions in order to create great comms:
- Needs, attitudes and wants
- Education or experience level
- Best media
Learn your audience’s needs, attitudes and wants
To understand why, let’s first look at each of these elements:
- Needs are what you must have before you can do something important for yourself.
- Attitude refers to your general outlook on a particular subject.
- Wants refer to something you would like to have but don’t need to have
Give’em what they need
An important part of using content in comms is knowing how to make it compelling. You want to keep it engaging so your audience gets your whole message. Most discussions around making your comms compelling centre on word choices, phrases, headings and glossy layouts. These are all valuable, but before you get to this point, there’s something else that makes it easy and powerful to create compelling content … give your audience what they need.
Take into account their attitude
Everyone has an attitude that influences how they will receive your message. If you fail to take that into account when delivering your message, you could set up a roadblock to your purpose straight away.
Map out your audience’s education or experience level
It’s also just as easy to mistakenly assume your audience doesn’t know pertinent information and then waste valuable time covering it in your comms. For example, explaining how to remove a power point to an experienced electrician is simply patronising them. Or providing too much background information to a busy executive who already knows the information wastes their time. You’ll lose authority and they’ll tune out from your message.
Find out your audience’s favourite media to consume messages
Remember that the “aim of the game” is for people to consume your message. Since people prefer certain media for getting their information, using their favourite medium increases your chance of delivering the message successfully.
How to understand your audience in order to make informed content decisions
When considering content for your communication, this is how you can understand your audience in order to make informed content decisions:
- Understand your audience’s needs, attitudes and wants
- Discover their education or experience level in the subject matter of your comms
- Find out what their favourite media for consuming messages
You can learn more about how to understand your audience in the Bullseye Method, which will help you make informed content decisions in order to create effective comms. Or explore consulting and coaching services to help improve your overall comms provided through Con Moto or Halls Global.
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