American businessman Nido Quebin spoke to the importance of identifying and targeting a specific audience when he said, “Nothing can add more power to your life than concentrating all your energies on a limited set of targets.” No company can satisfy everyone, and any that tries is likely to satisfy no one. Instead, you should target your audience in the following ways. Identify Your Target Audience
Image via Flickr by viZZZual.com
You cannot target your audience if you don’t know who your audience includes. That’s why Master of Communication Management graduates understand that identifying the target audience is one of the first steps in any effective communications plan.
Chuck Cohen, entrepreneurship writer for Forbes, says communication managers must determine three things to identify their target. First, determine the needs your product or service satisfies, such as the need to find affordable solutions, ones that pamper, or eco-friendly options. The types of people seeking to fulfill these needs are quite different, so answering this question should help clarify your target audience.
Next, Cohen suggests using a funnel approach, narrowing your audience by gender, age, and income level, for example, until you have a small focused target. Finally, consider your primary value propositions and how these relate to your target. You should refer back to these when crafting your communications. Surveys and focus groups can also help you get a clearer picture, which you can then use to target your audience.Adjust Your ToneCorporate communication may be a little different than the face-to-face communications we all engage with on a daily basis, but approaching them in a similar fashion can help you target your audience effectively. Sarah Eva Monroe, the senior creative director for website design firm mStoner, wrote in Gather Content that her company keeps data-informed personas in mind when creating corporate communication campaigns.
Rather than targeting a nebulous audience, she targets a persona representative of that audience, like a hipster student or a stay-at-home mother of three. She considers how her persona might react to the campaigns she creates and adjusts the tone for the best response. This practice is similar to the way you might adjust your tone for chatting with an intimate friend or a business acquaintance. Send Segmented EmailsSegmented emails are messages that speak to a targeted section of an email list. Marketing firm Smart Insights explains that segmented emails can target people of a specific gender, location, shopping frequency, and other variables. For example, an apparel firm may send an email advertising new season dresses to its female shoppers and the latest shirts to males.
Marketing email firm MailChimp reports that segmented emails have a click-through rate that’s nearly 60 percent higher than non-segmented campaigns. Abuse reports and unsubscribes are also more than 8 percent lower for segmented emails, which shows how well received they are. MailChimp believes segmented emails are such an effective way to target an audience because they deliver relevant information to potential customers.
With clear strategies for targeting your audience in place, you can improve the effectiveness of your communications efforts and boost your rate of return. Communication within an organization is essential. Knowing the target audience that you intend to communicate with is just as important. You can communicate until you're blue in the face, but if your message falls on deaf ears, then you're just wasting your time and energy. Business professionals who know their target audience can be more effective in getting their message across. ResearchOne way to ensure that you know your target audience in business communications is to thoroughly research your audience beforehand. This is typically important in business communications in which you may be providing a presentation to a group of people. Within an organization, you may need to research specific groups that you will be addressing. For instance, if you are presenting a budget proposal to upper-level management, you will need to know a little about each manager and what their hot buttons are that might make them act on your proposal. You may have to learn this from others within the organization who have already been in your shoes.
SpecificityResearching your target audience may yield varying results. Your research may leave you with the recognition that there are several different groups with which you will be communicating. This is when stakeholder analysis comes into the picture. You can know the audience within your organization by learning and identifying your specific goal while, at the same time, identifying those within the organization who will have a vested interest in your message. For instance, you will first need to identify those within the organization who have the most power and resources to help you. These are the individuals you will want to target first and with the most energy.
NeedYou can know about your audience, but if you don't know what they need to hear, you may be barking up the wrong tree with your message. Knowing your target audience involves knowing the specific needs of the audience and not just the message you want to convey. For instance, addressing a group of financial managers about the need for a new code of ethics may not necessarily yield you the best results. However, addressing that same audience with a report in hand that shows the correlation between company ethics and sustained profits might yield better results.
StrategyAddressing your target audience based on your research and its needs should allow you to develop a strategy that will help you to better communicate as well. First, you will need to determine the medium through which you will communicate. Not all communication within an organization necessarily comes through presentations. Instead, a cleverly crafted interoffice memo or the use of the company's social media platform may prove to be more effective, especially if addressing a wider audience within the organization. Also, consider your timing. Your message needs to be relevant to your company's current financial and organizational goals. For instance, if your company is working on an organizationwide debt elimination initiative, coming up with a proposal to take out a large loan to build new company facilities might not fly all that well.
Who is the target audience of the message in communication?
A target audience is the group of people you hope to influence with your message.
Which method is the best way to communicate?
Verbal communication makes the conveying of thoughts faster and easier and is the most successful method of communication.
|
