A Bi-Monthly Newsletter
Volume 6, Issue 2, March 2003
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Researching and Defining Your Audience

For many years, marketing professionals have made use of “psychographics” -qualitative characteristics such as values, beliefs, interests, and goals. These days, marketers rarely ever launch campaigns based solely on demographics; instead, they develop a well-rounded profile of their intended audience, based on a combination of objective and subjective characteristics. Once the audience profile is developed, a well-honed marketing campaign can be launched.

Technical communication has evolved beyond broad demographic definitions, too. Today’s readers can no longer be easily defined as laypeople, technicians, and experts. Rather, the Internet has facilitated an information revolution, and many people today read a wider variety of technical materials than ever before. Both the scientist and the layperson may be interested in the same subject, such as genetics. Both people can easily access the same information via the Web, including the information found in academic journals and medical treatises. Moreover, many readers move easily among all three categories, depending on their breadth of knowledge and interests. Within the old model, audiences were defined by their level of education: high school, some college, bachelor’s degree, or advanced degree. While these divisions still have merit, many readers no longer fit these standards. Some technical experts possess only an associate’s degree, while many lay readers have PhDs. Many successful business owners have a bachelor’s degree, yet are experts in their field. Rather than classify your readers according to their education or job titles, it would be better to define your audience based on their interest level and knowledge of the topic at hand.

Researching Your Audience

Surveys, interviews, and site visits are just a few of the methods used to gauge an audience. For instance, if you are developing a new software manual, you can e-mail surveys directly to your potential users. Or, you can interview some of the people directly. If this is impractical, try talking to marketing managers, support personnel, or anyone else with direct knowledge of your audience.

Site visits are extremely effective because they allow you to view your audience in action and understand exactly how they utilize technical information. If you are creating technical documents for users within your own company, it helps to listen in on phone calls to the technical support department. By doing so, you can find out if users are having problems with the documentation accompanying current, similar products. Perhaps an unclear procedure or confusing design is triggering many of your audiences’ phone calls and complaints.

If time and the company’s budget allow, commissioning a focus group may be an excellent means of getting the kind of detailed feedback you need. Actual user anecdotes and opinions often provide a good understanding of how your audience reads a document, when they read it, and why they read it. Applying focus group recommendations can help you refine your style and gear your document towards a specific audience.

Presenting Material To Three Different Audiences

For instance, your audience may turn out to be “general readers”, but what sort of general readers are they? The spectrum ranges from individuals with high school educations and no real interest in the topic, to highly educated individuals with a lot of interest in the topic, but no formal schooling in that particular area. Be sure to gear your writing style accordingly; do not “talk down” to your readers. Instead, try to gauge their interest level and decide how much detail they are willing to absorb. Write in a clear, direct style, using the active voice whenever possible. Be sure to provide sufficient background information, and define less familiar terms. Focus on only one topic per section, and consider your readers’ motivations: What do they hope to gain by reading your document? Also, be sure to make liberal use of graphics, such as photos, tables, graphs, and drawings. Clear, simple graphics effectively convey information to even the most disinterested reader.

The “middle” audience comprises the next major category. In this category, readers range from well-read individuals with a particular personal interest in the topic, to advanced users who need a better understanding to do their jobs. Moreover, even a technical expert with only a mild interest in the topic at hand could be considered a member of this middle audience. This audience can be very difficult to target, since readers differ so much in their knowledge and interests. Again, you should provide background information, but less than you would provide for the general audience. More detailed processes and formulas can be discussed, but use unfamiliar terms sparingly. Provide brief explanations for the unfamiliar terms you do use. Also, include more advanced graphics, such as charts, logic diagrams, intricate maps and flow charts.

The last major category, the “expert” audience, includes readers with extensive theoretical and practical knowledge. Usually, these individuals are highly interested in the subject, and do not need to be coaxed into reading the material. Little background information is needed. For this audience, use a clear, direct prose style, but provide detailed equations and formulas if appropriate. Present all of the data used to arrive at your conclusions, and only provide explanations for rare terms or processes. If possible, incorporate formal tables, complex line graphs, schematics, diagrams, and cross-section drawings in your document.

The “Combination” Audience

Many technical documents are read by a “combination” audience made up of people from all three of these categories. Know that some readers will only read a few sections, while others may read the whole document. By the same token, some readers will only skim or scan the document, while others will read most of it. At the very least, the introduction should provide a good synopsis of the entire document, since most readers will examine this section first.

To achieve a happy medium with a mixed audience, you should design a table of contents that clearly describes each section, so that readers can quickly find the parts that interest them. Different sections should appeal to different audiences. For example, in an Access^® software manual, the background discussion and step-by-step instructions should be geared toward the novice user, while the sections detailing advanced programming techniques using SQL and Visual Basic should be geared toward more advanced users.

Taking the time to define and understand your audience can mean the difference between creating technical documents that people read and ones they avoid. Marketers study their audiences and use the information they glean to sell products and ideas. Similarly, technical communicators should study their audiences and employ what they learn toward creating the best technical communication possible. In fact, both marketers and technical communicators ultimately work toward the same goal æ selling the “product”, and keeping the customer coming back for more.

Sources

Audience Analysis. 2003. Colorado State University. 04 Feb. 2003 http://www.writing.colostate.edu/references/processes/audmod/pop10g.cfm.
"How To Know Your Audience." Intercom. Nov. 2001: 18-20. STC Online Directory. 04 Feb. 2003. Keyword: Audience.

Teaching Audience in Technical Communication. 1993. Radford University. 04 Feb. 2003 http://www.stc.org/proceedings/ConfProceed/1993/PDFs/PG248251.PDF.

User Analysis. 04 Feb. 2002 http://www.teleactivities.com/guides/webdesign/planning-user_analysis.html.

Erica Coco is a graduate of the University of Illinois School of Communications. She is currently a student in the Technical Writing Certificate program at Portland Community College, and has recently become a member of STC. You can contact her at: scorpiogirl1171@yahoo.com.