Adapting Your
Message
to Your
Audience
Module Two
©2014 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved
McGraw-Hill/Irwin Copyright © 2014 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
Audiences
Understanding your audience is fundamental to the success
of any message.
You need to adapt your message to fit the audience's goals,
interests, and needs.
customers have enough options to deal only with
companies that treat them respectfully.
Understanding What Your
Organization Wants
Succeeding in an organization depends first
on understanding what “counts” at your
organization.
Ask your boss, “What parts of my job are
most important? What’s the biggest thing I
could do to improve my work?”
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Who is my audience?
More people than you might think!
In an organizational setting, a message may
have five separate audiences.
• The primary audience
• The secondary audience
• The initial audience
• A gatekeeper
• A watchdog audience
The Audiences for a Marketing Plan
2-5
PAIBOC
P What are your purposes in writing?
A Who is (are) your audiences?
I What information must your message
include?
2-6
PAIBOC
B What reasons or reader benefits can you
use to support your position?
O What objections can you expect your
reader(s) to have?
C How will the context affect reader
response?
2-7
A Model of Two-Person
Communication with Feedback
Figure 2.3
2-8
The Communication Process
To communicate, a person must first
perceive a stimulus and then interpret
what has been perceived.
The person then chooses the information
he or she wishes to send and puts it into a
form for the audience. That action is called
encoding.
The Communication Process
The message is transmitted through a channel,
such as a memo, a phone call, or an e-mail
message.
The audience receives the message and decodes,
or makes sense, of it.
The Communication Process
At any stage of the process, noise may interfere
with communication. Noise can be physical, such
as illegible handwriting, or psychological, such as
the audience disliking the speaker.
The Communication Process
Perception: a person perceive a stimulus.
Interpretation: interpret what has been
perceived.
Choice/Selection: the person chooses the
information he or she wishes to send.
The Communication Process
Encoding: puts ideas into a form for the
audience.
The message is transmitted through a channel, such as
a memo, a phone call, or an e-mail message.
Decoding: extract meaning from the form.
The Communication Process
Channel overload occurs when the channel cannot
handle all the messages that are being sent.
A small business may have only two phone lines; no
one else can get through if both lines are in use.
Information overload occurs when more essagesare
transmitted than the human receiver can handle.
The Communication Process
Successful communication depends on the common
ground between you and your audience.
Choose information that your audience needs and will
find interesting.
The Communication Process
Encode your message in words and other symbols the
audience will understand.
Transmit the message along a channel that your
audience will attend to.
What do I need to know about my
audience(s)?
Everything that's relevant to what you're writing or
talking about.
In general, you need to use common sense and
empathy.
What do I need to know about
my audience(s)?
Empathy
the ability to put
yourself in someone
else’s shoes, to feel
with that person
requires not being
self-centered
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Audience Analysis Factors
There is no “one size fits all” approach to analyzing
audiences, but key factors are important
Knowledge: anticipate what audiences will need to
know.
Demographic Factors: include such measurable
features as age, gender, race, income, educational
level, and so on.
Audience Analysis Factors
Values and Beliefs: psychographics(the study of customers in
relation to their opinions, interests, and emotions: ) characteristics
include habits, hobbies, and lifestyles.
Personality: when your primary audience is just one
person, his or her personality is relevant.
Past Behavior: Studying how audiences have behaved
in the past may suggest how they will react in the
future.
Now that I have my analysis, what do I do
with it?
Use it to
plan strategy,
organization,
style,
document design, and
visuals
Now that I have my analysis, what do I do
with it?
Use it to
plan strategy,
• Make the action as easy as possible.
• Protect the reader's ego.
• Decide how to balance logic and emotion,
• Choose appeals and reader benefits that work for the
specific audience
Now that I have my analysis, what do I do
with it?
Use it to
organization,
• get to the point right away. The major exceptions are:
– When we must persuade a reluctant reader.
– When we have bad news and want to let the reader down
gradually.
Now that I have my analysis, what do I do
with it?
Use it to
style,
• For most audiences, use easy-to-understand words, a mixture of sentence
lengths, and paragraphs with topic .
• Avoid words that sound defensive or arrogant.
Now that I have my analysis, what do I do
with it?
Use it to
style,
• Avoid hot buttons or "red-flag" words to which some readers will have an
immediate negative reaction: criminal, un-American, crazy,
fundamentalist, liberal.
• Use the language(s) that your audience knows best.
• Use conversational, not "academic," language.
Now that I have my analysis, what do I do
with it?
Use it to
document design,
• Use lists, headings, and a mix of paragraph lengths to
create white space.
• Choices about format, footnotes, and visuals may be
determined by the organizational culture or the
discourse community.
Now that I have my analysis, what do I do
with it?
Use it to
Photographs and Visuals
• Use bias-free photographs.
• Photos and visuals can make a document look more
informal or more formal.
• Think of the difference between cartoons and photos of
"high art."
What if my audiences have different
needs?
When it is not possible to meet everyone's
needs, meet the needs of
gatekeepers and primary audiences first.
How do I reach my audience(s)?
Use you-attitude and positive emphasis.
Use visuals to clarify or emphasize material.
Specify what the audience should do.
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How do I reach my audiences?
Important messages may require multiple channels
Channels vary according to
Speed.
Accuracy of transmission.
Cost.
Number of messages carried.
Number of people reached.
Efficiency.
Written Messages
Written messages make it easier to:
Present many specific details.
Present extensive or complex data.
Minimize undesirable emotions.
Messages on paper are more formal than e-mail messages.
Oral Messages
Oral messages make it easier to
Answer questions, resolve conflicts, and build consensus
Use emotion to persuade.
Get immediate action or response.
Focus the audience’s attention.
Scheduled meetings and oral presentations are more formal
than phone calls or stopping someone in the hall.