Stop Shouting into the Void
There are two things you need to know before you start communicating:
What you want to do: your goal
Who can help you do it: your audience
It never ceases to amaze me how little thought people put into who they are talking to and why, so strap in for a chat. Most of us have heard plenty about goal setting and its link to success—in business, in life, in finances—so I'll leave that subject to people who are far smarter than me (for now). Suffice it to say that before you say anything, you should know why you're saying it, but audience is a woefully neglected topic so it's time to share some thoughts.
Once you've figured out the goal of your message (or blog post, or email, or speech…and the list goes on because everything we do is communication), you need to know who will help you reach that goal. Because if you are talking to the wrong people, you might as well be shouting into the void. I mean, that's fun and all, but unless your goal is a sore throat, it's probably the wrong choice.
And before you even start, "the general public" is not. An. Audience. The general public=everyone. If you're trying to talk to everyone, you're talking to no one, and you can go back to shouting into the void in search of that elusive sore throat, because it will do you about that much good.
Any segment you can break out for your audience is good, so if you’re struggling, start with an obvious one from simple demographics:
Gender
Age
Location (you can think as broadly as country, as specific as postal code)
Income level
Marital status
Occupation
Once you start narrowing down into groups such as these, you'll probably start thinking of more specific characteristics that describe who you're talking to—which is exactly what you want to do!
The more specific you get when you think about your audience, the better you can communicate with them, because we don't all respond to the same messages and we aren't all hearing about things in the same places. Think of it like this: You don't talk to Great-Aunt Phyllis the same way you talk to your work bestie—from your word choice and tone of voice to when and how you share information (but if Great-Aunt Phyllis texts you memes all day, high five to both of you). The same principles apply to "corporate" communications, so if you know your audience well, chances are it will be easier to connect with them to reach those goals I assume you've so brilliantly set.
There may also be multiple audiences for the same goals, which means you probably need to adapt your messages and where you share them to reach those audiences. Again, I bet you're already instinctively doing this. If you need someone to clean the windows at your house, you would probably ask your partner differently than you'd ask the receptionist at the window-washing company. Same goal but different audience means different communication choices.
And never underestimate the power of a small, narrowly defined audience. It might be just one person! That doesn't mean your communication efforts have to focus just on direct communication with that person, though. You might get even better results by sharing information on a wider scale because you know that will get the results you need. Ask any politician about what happens when a news story breaks based on one of their decisions…
Then, once you’ve figured out who you’re talking to, make sure you put yourself in their shoes and communicate they way they want and need, not the way you want and need. Otherwise, all your goal setting and audience defining will be for naught. Audience before everything.
As always, if you need a little help defining your audience, or figuring out how to communicate with them better, get in touch, because I want to bring your good idea to the top!
