In the 25+ years I’ve worked in public relations, one of the biggest challenges I have in developing marketing or communications strategies is getting clients to understand that their audience isn’t everyone. While it may seem obvious to some, it’s a hard concept for many to embrace.
Here’s a typical conversation when I’m working with a client on developing a strategy. We need to be clear on who we’re focusing our efforts on for our marketing and/or communications. What are your top three audiences, being as specific as possible?
The answer – everyone. We serve a wide audience so we need to talk to everyone.
Me – internal sigh.
One size fits no one
I hate to break it to you, but everyone is not a person. In marketing and public relations, we often create ideal client avatars, flushing out the persona of our core audiences. Instead of saying we’re focusing on women ages 25-50 (which again is no one) we develop a persona for Stephanie. Stephanie is 46, university educated, passionate about the environment, is a single mom with two kids, in her leisure time volunteers at the school, has an income of $50,000…
The list goes on. The goal is to get clear on who we’re talking to so we can create messaging, visuals and refine our communications to meet their needs instead of being generic.
Tune in
By being clear, it helps ensure this audience will tune in to what we’re saying.
Have you ever watched a commercial with your spouse or kids? And they are laughing at the commercial while you’re rolling your eyes saying, that’s a stupid ad. Well, that’s because they were the audience, not you. The commercial was designed to connect with them, based on extensive research of the demographic.
Companies spend thousands of dollars getting clear on their audience, flushing out who they are and creating content that resonates with them.
Smaller application
Before you say – that’s great for companies with large budgets, but we’re just a small organization, hear me out. The idea of getting clear on your audience works for organizations of all sizes.
So how do you get started? It depends on your organization and what you’re trying to accomplish.
I recently conducted a workshop for a client as part of developing a communications and community engagement strategy. When we talked about audiences, the immediate response was – we serve everyone.
To help dig deeper I asked more questions. In this case it was tell me about the audiences you struggle the most in reaching. If you could see this person as someone sitting across the table from you, who are they? What’s their age, interests, education level, income, family situation?
By talking about this audience as a person we were able to move from a broad audience – men under 50 to men ages 25-30 with a university education, who are passionate about the environment, new in their career and wanting to give back.
For another client I was helping develop a road safety campaign. Once again, the client told me the audience was all drivers. Another internal sigh. I explained there’s a big difference between a mom driving her kids to school vs a shift worker coming off night shift vs a professional driver vs a new driver…the list goes on.
In this case I asked the client to dig into the research. What are the top accident intersections in the city? From there, what drivers were most often involved in these accidents?
Here’s the cool part. After digging into the data, the client discovered that men ages 18-23 driving pickup trucks were most likely to be involved in accidents at the top intersections.
Focus your efforts
Armed with this data we were able to create a public relations strategy for this audience. This meant using Tik Tok vs Facebook, buying ads on radio stations these men listen to, creating billboards with images and copy that got their attention.
Being clear on our audience saved us time and money. We were able to focus our efforts, use the tools and tell the stories that connected with our audience as well as spend our budget wisely.
While it can take some time to get clarity, I promise you it’s worth the investment.
If you’re working with a marketing or public relations company, they will likely help you refine your audience. But if you’re going it alone, don’t despair.
Rather, take the time to see your audience as a person you’re having coffee with. What’s their age, gender, interests, and more. Take the time to getting clear on them. This could be by having a team meeting to flush it out, reviewing data of who’s using your organization (or not), looking at the type of employee you want to hire and more.
By having a clear audience you’re also able to evaluate your public relations or marketing efforts and measure your success.
And if your audience truly is everyone (another internal sigh) then by breaking it down into realistic audiences, overtime you can speak to everyone.
Ultimately, by understanding that your audience isn’t everyone, you open the door to more effective communication, greater efficiency, and measurable success. So, the next time you’re tempted to cast a wide net, remember: it’s not about reaching everyone at once but about connecting deeply with those who matter most.