Developing Your Audience Profile

When I worked in radio as a teenager, one of my biggest obstacles was relating to my station’s target audience. It is hard to relate to a mother with a mortgage when you’re struggling with high school chemistry. Strategic Communications Plans face similar obstacles.

The best way to overcome the relationship problem is audience profiling. This exercise can be as complex as hiring a research firm, or doing the leg work yourself. Either way, you need specific information about your audience and its understanding of and attitude towards your subject.

By and large, audiences fall into three major groups:

• Insiders who understand the nuance, politics, and business of your industry. This group includes competitors, secondary supporting companies, trade journalists, etc.
• Intermediaries who have some understanding of your business or industry.  Customers, for example.
• Outsiders who have little idea what you do, how you do it, and how you speak about your industry. This group includes everyone else and is your lowest common denominator.

But where advertisers are slicing people into groups, either by demographics or psychographics, a Strategic Communication Plan wants to develop an audience profile first. For example, your plan may target First Responders such as police, fire, and hospital employees. The message you will deliver depends largely on how you view them. Are they insiders, intermediaries, or outsiders with respect to your business or organization? Your answer not only will drive the message but also the communication vehicles to reach them (which I will discuss later in this series).

The Ideal Audience

The first step in developing you audience profile is to create an ideal member of that audience. This can be largely demographic in nature (age, sex, marital status, dependents, education level, occupation, etc.). You also can include some psychographic information such as whether or not they are a user of your services or those of a rival.

What is this ideal audience member’s attitude towards your organization? Your services?

How will this audience member react to the information you provide? Do they see you as credible?

Do they have any clue about your topic? How much education will they need to get them synchronized?

Once you have developed “Suzy Q” or “Henry F,” you have a convenient shortcut that will aid you as you develop your plan, message, and delivery methods.

Here are other articles I have written on this topic:

• CBS Claims November Sweeps
• What Propels Intent to Purchase?
• New Campaign for Will County Health Department
• Seven Advertising Metrics You Should Know
• Network Upfront Ends; Prices Down
• Bid4Spots: The eBay of Media Buying?
• SEO: Is It Today’s Snake Oil?
• Is There Any Strategy in Your Strategic Plan?
• Choosing the Proper Lure for Your Audience
• Channeling Your Message