The Importance of Audience Mapping

The secret to all successful communication is understanding your audience.  If you take the time to tap into their motivations and concerns, you can better tailor your message to what speaks to them and build understanding and trust. If you don’t, your audience can be confused or feel alienated.

Too often in business communications, there is not enough thought put into audience. A lot of times, communication will be tailored to all audiences and is not specific enough to each stakeholder to be meaningful. I see this a lot with presentations. A PowerPoint presentation used to present an idea to a specific team will be repurposed for other audiences who may not need to know the same information. They may get lost in specifics that don’t apply to them, or not understand how they fit in with the message.

On the other end of the spectrum, others may develop communication based solely on what the communicator wants to say without thought as to what the receiver wants to know. This may cause more confusion, and a feeling from your audience that you aren’t considering them or understanding their concerns.

“Audience mapping” can help ensure your message is clear and has meaning to your audience. Originally used as a marketing tool, audience mapping is also very important for internal communication. It helps you create tailored messaging that speaks to your audience instead of at them. This is especially important if you have complicated or controversial messages to communicate.

There are lots of templates that you can find on the internet related to audience mapping. But the time spent thinking about your audience is what’s most important. Here’s a simple rundown on what to consider while audience mapping:

1)    First, consider what audiences you should communicate to and why. If your answer is you want to communicate to everyone (which is a common first response), start breaking down “everyone” into more specific groups based on how they are affected and what you need from them.

 Example: A new project is being launched that is integral to the company strategy.

 Audience 1: Team directly working on the project

How they are affected: Will have to re-prioritize their work and will need to know specific details on what the project is about and what is expected of them so the project will be successful.

 Audience 2: Teams working with new project team

How they are affected: They may be expected to support the project team. They will most likely need fewer details than the project team, but will still need more details than others as they will be supporting.

 Audience 3: Managers and Leaders

How they are affected: They may be asked questions about this new project and why it is being done and its importance to the company. They may not need the technical details, but they do need to understand the overall goals and importance.

2. Rank the audiences in order of their importance – who needs to buy into the message the most to achieve what you want. This is also most likely the order you should communicate the message. The people you need buy-in from most will need to be told first and will need more follow-up communication. These are also your influencers … if they understand and support the message, they can help others understand.

3. For each audience, identify the biggest positives and biggest negatives that may be associated with the message. This requires getting into other people’s mindset. What motivates them? What concerns them? Using the example above, the positive may be how this project can improve the company’s success. The team working directly on the project may have the opportunity to make a big contribution towards this success, or to learn something new. The negative for the team may be finding the time to work on the project, or having to give up other projects they have invested in to re-prioritize. This will have to be considered before communicating so their concerns are mitigated.

4. Brainstorm Q and A for each audience. You may want to get help from HR or others to help you think of everything that may be asked. The more you can anticipate questions, the more you can alleviate people’s concerns and show that the subject of the message has been carefully considered and employee concerns respected. A comprehensive Q and A will also assure that questions are answered with consistency.

Audience mapping is vital to successful communication, especially when it relates to complicated or controversial messages. The time and effort invested will help speed up your audience’s ability to understand new information, accept change, and stay engaged.

For additional help with audience mapping, or more tips on how to better understand your audience, please contact me.