Choosing Your Audience
So you've decided to communicate with a broader audience. Here is the starting point to help you work out who you are targeting with your health communication.
Key Tips
EXPERTISE - Communicating to those who need your specialised expertise is a good place to start.
TARGET - Who within that broad audience, who do you want to reach the most?
INFLUENCES - Learning the systems people function in can help understand the influences on their lives and behaviours
SEGMENTING - This is a useful tool to gain a deeper understanding of your audience
Identifying Your Audience
A targeted approach is the most effective approach for most health interventions, including health communication.
Trying to reach everyone is not an effective way to communicate any subject, including health.
Think about what you are trying to achieve and who's behaviour you are trying to change.
1
The good place to start when choosing your audience is based on your expertise.
E.g. If you specialise in a particular condition your target is likely to be people with that condition or those most at risk of developing it.
2
Within that broad group, who do you most want to target?
E.g. People with a particular aspect or stage of that condition?
People who exhibit a certain behaviour you want to change?
People in a particular age bracket?, etc.
3
Learn and analyse the personal systems in which your target audience function to understand their influences, as outlined on the Understanding Your Audience page.
4
Use segmenting to help you gain a deeper understanding of your audience and their health behaviours.
You may determine that you want to target a few audiences or segments. These tools help you establish this and give you insights that will guide how you need to tailor your communication for each audience.
Where to next? - Understanding Your Audience or Building Trust & Credibility or to helpful resources linked below
Links & Resources
Population & demographic insights - https://home.id.com.au/demographic-resources/
Choose Your Audience downloadable template
Publications
Social Marketing & Advertising in the Age of Social Media (book) - by Parker, L. & Brennan, L. (eds) (2020)