Chapter 3

The WHO: Introduction to Audience Analysis 

As a business professional, you’re going to interact with different types of audiences. Audiences are the receivers of a message in any given situation. Tailoring business communications to each and every audience is crucial.  

When you tailor your messaging, you demonstrate that you've done your homework and understand the audience's unique perspectives. This fosters a sense of connection and credibility, making your message more impactful. It also shows that you respect their time and are invested in delivering value to them specifically. Audience-tailored presentations also increase the likelihood of achieving your intended outcomes. By addressing their specific concerns, challenges, or aspirations, you can provide solutions, insights, or opportunities that directly align with their interests. This increases the chances of buy-in, engagement, and positive outcomes from your presentation. 

Why, you may ask? People are egocentric. Egocentrism is the tendency of people to be concerned above all else with their own values, beliefs, and well-being (Lucas, 2007). As humans, we want to know why things that are important to us, or have things presented to us in a way that we understand. Seeking to understand your audience helps ensure that the message resonates with the specific group you're addressing. By understanding your audience's needs, interests, and knowledge level, you can customize your content, examples, and language to make it more relevant and engaging. By understanding the context that your audience is operating within, you can work to meet their expectations.  

Expectations influence perception. We often make assumptions about what others are communicating and connect the dots in ways that were not intended by the speaker. As a business communicator, your goal is to help the audience connect the dots in the way you intend while limiting alternative solutions that may confuse and divide the audience. Perceptions are also influenced by how we select, organize, and interpret words and ideas. By learning to observe, and acknowledging our own perceptions, we can avoid assumptions, expand our understanding, and improve our ability to communicate across cultures. We can also engage in perception checking, looking to clarify the validity of our perceptions by asking those we are making assumptions about to validate these perceptions. It is a useful tool inside and outside of the workplace.  

In this chapter, we'll look at types of audience analysis, internal vs. external audiences, as well as content and relational components of receiver analysis.