Getting to Know Your Audience

On Jan. 10, I attended the College Communicators Association (CCA) Winter 2020 Conference at Virginia State University. It was a great day of discussing issues in higher ed communications, but I kept thinking about a universal topic: How do you get to know your audience?

Know your audience is a well-known guideline for both writing and editing for good reason. If you understand your reader, you can tailor your messaging to make it relevant, valuable, and clear. Most organizations are writing for several audiences, which means content writers need to be even clearer on which message is meant for which specific audience.

Here are three ways to get to know your audience.

Spend time with them

There’s nothing more valuable than spending time face-to-face with your audience because it helps you get to know a whole person (and see the reader as a human being). Depending on your industry and audience, this may be challenging.

If you’re in higher ed writing to students, faculty, and college staff, then it’s easy: Spend time on campus. Go to events. Eat in the dining hall.

If you don’t have the luxury of your audience outside your office door, you may still have opportunities to talk in person. Membership-based organizations usually have an annual conference or other events: Is someone on the marketing, communications, and/or publishing staff in attendance?

Even focus groups can help. One session I attended at CCA was a live critique of admissions materials by students. I found it particularly interesting to hear which materials the students were likely to read themselves and which they were likely to give to their parents.

Eavesdrop online

One of the sessions at CCA was on digital ethnography, presented by Dean Browell from Feedback and Sarah Marshall Elliott from Capstone Brand Partners. Digital ethnography is the study and systematic recording of human cultures, and Browell used the example of Jane Goodall and the gorillas. The point is to watch and listen through a behavioral lens; avoid asking questions or interacting.

But you can learn a lot simply by observing. What questions are people asking about your organization? How are these questions being answered – or not answered – and by who? How do these questions change when you look at different audiences?

Once you have this information, you can make sure your messaging speaking to those questions and that the right messages are getting to the right audiences.

Of course, to have effective digital ethnography, you need to know where your audience members are spending time online. One website that Browell mentioned was CollegeConfidential.com, currently popular with prospective students and parents.

Share information internally

Your organization probably has some staff members, perhaps in other departments, or volunteers who interact with your audience in person (or at least through personal communication). Give them avenues to share their knowledge about your audience.

Jennifer Carmean and Jonsette Calloway from Virginia Commonwealth University talked about breaking bad news to people who use the parking facilities. They advised involving frontline employees in developing talking points. Frontline employees have direct interaction with customers (for example, anyone behind a front desk). They hear all the complaints, and hopefully some of the compliments, which is valuable information.

Do staff members who attend the annual conference report back on the conversations happening among members and nonmembers? Does your board of directors or alumni board share news from their site visits or time with prospectives? Allow for and encourage this kind of cross-communication, which will not only make your messaging more effective but also help get more buy-in from other departments and volunteers.