Why Audience Analysis Is Essential in

Technical Writing
by Molly Carter

While understanding an audience is important in all types of writing when it comes to

technical writing, it’s essential to being successful. When you’re a technical writer, knowing
your audience determines what information you present, how you present it, and even how
you write about it. But how do you get to know your audience, and why is it so important to
do so?

Who Is Your Audience

Your audience is your intended reader, or who you’re writing for. In technical writing, your
audience is often going to fit into one of the following categories:

 Executives—Those who are funding the product

 Experts—Those who are coming up with ideas about the product
 Technicians—Those who are building the product
 Non-specialists—The end-user
Your document’s goal typically determines its audience. For instance, if you’re writing for
funding, your audience is going to be executives. If you’re writing an instruction manual,
your audience is going to be the end-user of the product.

This is important because the way you write your document is determined by the scope of
your audience. The general rule is the less the audience knows, the less technical your
document will be. So when a document is for the layman, it shouldn’t contain overly
technical language, should clearly define terms, and avoid technical jargon. Yet when the
audience consists of experts, the opposite is true, as the more expertise the audience has, the
more technical the document becomes.

When There’s More Than One Audience

Sometimes, you’ll have more than one audience. There will be your primary audience, who is
your targeted reader, but you may have a secondary, or even tertiary audience that you need
to keep in mind.

Here’s an example: you’re writing a Standard Operating Procedure for a specific job position.
Your target audience is the person who will hold that position. Yet, more than just that person
may read the document. A secondary audience may include the management and HR team,
who will use the job position occasionally during audits or reviews. A tertiary audience,
sometimes called the hidden or shadow audience, could be potential job applicants for the
position, who may have access to the document during the interview phase.

Without keeping the needs, goals, and interests of all of these people in mind when you write
your document, you could fail to communicate the necessary material, confuse the reader, or
worse, offend them.

But where does this information come from? And how do you learn about your audience?
The easiest and most effective way for the technical writer is through an in-depth audience
analysis.

What Is an Audience Analysis?

An audience analysis is a tool that allows the technical writer to gain a more complete
perspective of who the audience is and what their goals, interests, and needs are. Completing
an audience analysis is the first step in document preparation, and without it, you can’t
effectively plan the document or start writing.

Through an audience analysis, you learn:

 Who your audience is

 What their goals are
 Their background, knowledge, experience, training, etc.
 Their needs and interests
 Demographic characteristics
 Any culture and communication preferences
With the knowledge gained from an audience analysis, you’re able to best reach the
document’s goals, as well as your audience’s. It also allows you to adapt tone and style, as
well as the jargon you use, to match the expectations and understanding of the audience.

How to Complete an Audience Analysis

When completing an audience analysis, the more information you gather about your
audience, the better your analysis will be and the easier it will be to write your document.
Understanding the goals, needs, pains, and interests of your audience allows you to build a
document that is both persuasive and user-centered, characteristics that would be lacking
without an audience analysis.

Type of Information

It’s necessary to get as much relevant information about your audience as possible. To do so,
be sure that these key questions are included in your analysis:

 Who is the audience?

 What do they need?
 Where will they be reading?
 When will they be reading?
 Why will they be reading?
 How will they be reading?

Gathering the Information

But how do you get to know this information? That depends on your specific situation. If you
can, meet with members of your audience to discuss their needs and expectations. If you
can’t physically meet with them, observe them. Watch how they speak and interact to
determine their needs, values, and attitudes.

If neither of the above is possible or fails to produce enough specifics, here are more ways to
gain information for your audience analysis:

 Surveys and questionnaires

 Popular opinions and stereotypes
 Personal experience
 Brainstorming

How to Do an Audience Analysis

Click here to access this Guide in Arabic - ‫ انقر هنا‬،‫مراجعة هذا الدليل باللغة العربية‬

Click here to access this Guide in Portuguese - Guias em Português

An audience analysis is a process used to identify and understand the priority and
influencing audiences for a SBCC strategy. The priority and influencing audiences are those
people whose behavior must change in order to improve the health situation. A complete
audience analysis looks at:

 Socio-demographic characteristics such as sex, age, language and religion.

 Geographic characteristics like where the audience lives and how that might impact
behavior.
 Psychographic characteristics such as needs, hopes, concerns and aspirations.
 Audience thoughts, beliefs, knowledge and current actions related to the health or social
issue.
 Barriers and facilitators that prevent or encourage audience members to adopt the desired
behavior change.
 Gender and how it impacts audience members’ behavior and ability to change.
 Effective communication channels for reaching the audience.

Why Conduct an Audience Analysis?

An audience analysis informs the design of materials, messages, media selection and
activities of a SBCC strategy. It establishes a clear, detailed and realistic picture of the
audience. As a result, messages and activities are more likely to resonate with the audience
and lead to the desired change in behaviors.

Who Should Conduct an Audience Analysis?

A small, focused team should conduct the audience analysis. Members should include
communication staff, health/social service staff and, when available, research staff.

Stakeholders should also be involved throughout the process. Consider effective ways to
engage stakeholders to gain feedback and input, including: in-depth interviews, focus group
discussions, community dialogue, small group meetings, taskforce engagement and
participatory stakeholder workshops.

When Should Audience Analysis Be Conducted?

An audience analysis should be conducted at the beginning of a program or project, in

conjunction with a situation analysis and program analysis. The team should start thinking
about the audience during the desk review and fill in any gaps during the stakeholder
workshop. It is part of the Inquiry phase of the P Process.

Estimated Time Needed

Completing an audience analysis can take up to three to four weeks. When estimating time,
consider the existing audience-related data, what gaps need to be filled and whether
additional stakeholder or audience input is needed. Allow for additional time if formative
research is needed to fill in any gaps that may exist in the literature.

Learning Objectives
After completing the activities in the audience analysis guide, the team will:

 Determine the priority audience.

 Determine the influencing audience(s).
 Describe the priority and influencing audience(s).
 Develop an audience profile for each priority and influencing audience(s).

Prerequisites
 Situation Analysis

Steps
Step 1: Identify Potential Audience(s)

To address the problem statement and achieve the vision decided upon during the situation
analysis, brainstorm and list all potential audiences that are affected by or have control over
the health or social problem. For example, if the problem is high unmet need for family
planning, potential audiences may be:

Step 2: Select the Priority Audience

An effective SBCC strategy must focus on the most important audience. The priority
audience is not always the most affected audience, but is the group of people whose behavior
must change in order to improve the health situation. The number of priority audiences
depends mainly on the number of audiences whose practice of the behavior will significantly
impact the problem. For example, priority audiences may be:
To identify the priority audience(s), keep in mind the vision and health or social problem.
Then consider:

 Who is most affected

 How many people are in the audience
 How important it is that the audience change their behavior
 How likely it is that the audience will change their behavior
 Who controls the behavior or the resources required for a behavior change

Step 3: Identify Priority Audience Characteristics

Identify the socio-demographic, geographic and psychographic characteristics of each

priority audience. Include their communication preferences and other opportunities to reach
them.
Organize priority audience information in a table (see Audience Characteristics and
Behavioral Factors Template under templates).

Step 4: Identify Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices

Understand what the priority audience knows, thinks, feels and does about the problem in
order to determine the audiences’ stage of behavior change. This allows the program to tailor
messages and activities based on the audience’s knowledge, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors.

There are a number of ideational factors that commonly influence individual behavior and
should be considered when examining the audience’s knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and
behaviors.

The situation analysis, stakeholder workshop and any additional quantitative or qualitative
research will indicate what the priority audience currently does in reference to the problem
and what the audience knows, thinks and feels about the problem or desired behavior.
Keeping in mind the ideational factors, examine that research to understand each priority
audience. Ask questions such as:

 What does the priority audience already know (knowledge) about the problem?
 How does the priority audience feel about the problem (attitude)?
 How does the priority audience see their role with respect to the problem (self-image)?
 Does the priority audience feel at risk of having the problem? How at risk do they feel (risk
perception)?
 What are the community’s beliefs and attitudes toward the health problem (social norms)?
 How capable does the priority audience feel about being able to take action to address the
problem (self-efficacy)?
 What emotional reaction does the priority audience have towards the health problem
(emotions)?
 What level of support does the priority audience believe they would receive from family
members or the community (social support and influence)?
 How capable does the priority audience feel about discussing how to reduce the problem
(personal advocacy)?

Add this information to the table (see Audience Characteristics and Behavioral Factors
Template under templates).

Step 5: Identify Barriers and Facilitators

It is crucial to know what prevents or encourages the priority audience to practice the desired
behavior. Identify barriers and facilitators of change in the literature and list them in the table
(see Audience Characteristics and Behavioral Factors Template under templates).If the desk
review does not adequately identify behavioral factors, conduct additional qualitative
research (interviews, focus groups) with members of the priority audience. Some important
barriers to consider include:

 Habit: People are comfortable doing things the same way they have always done them.
 Fear: People expect change to bring negative consequences.
 Negative experience: Some audiences may have had a bad experience, such as with the
health care system, and thus may be cynical or resistant to change.
If the desired behavior requires adopting/utilizing products or services, consider issues of
availability, accessibility, affordability and acceptability.

Step 6: Consider Audience Segmentation

Audience segmentation is the process of dividing the priority audience into sub groups
according to at least one similar characteristic that will affect the success of the SBCC
effort. Look at the selected priority audience and decide if it is similar enough that it can be
effectively reached by the same set of channels, messages and interventions. Ask the
following questions about the priority audience to decide if segmentation is necessary:

 Are any audience members particularly difficult to reach, requiring a different set of
channels?
  Do any audience members have distinct views or concerns about the problem?
 Do any audience members require a different message to reach them effectively?
 Are any audience members at greater risk?

If yes, the audience may need to be segmented further. See the audience segmentation guide
for more information on how to identify and prioritize audiences so that messages and
interventions can be most effectively targeted.

Some urban women of reproductive age may have different concerns or views about family
planning. One group might be afraid of side effects while another group does not use family
planning because they do not know where family planning services are available. These
groups would require different messages and interventions and should be segmented if
resources allow.

Step 7: Identify Key Influencers

Based on the priority or segmented audience, identify the key influencers. Search the
situation analysis, stakeholder workshop and any qualitative research findings for
indications of who strongly influences the priority audience’s behavior (see Audience
Focused Literature Review Chart Template under templates). Influencers can be individuals
or groups. Their different roles – as friends, family, leaders, teachers, health providers and of
course, the media – often determine their level of influence. Consider the following factors to
help identify influencing audiences:

 Who has the most impact on the priority audience’s health-related behavior and what is
their relationship to the priority audience?
 Who makes or shapes the priority audience’s decisions in the problem area?
 Who influences the priority audience’s behavior positively and who influences it negatively?

Step 8: Organize Influencing Audience Information

For each influencing audience identified, search the literature to identify information about
them and their relationship to the priority audience. Look for:

 How strongly the group influences the priority audience

  What behaviors they encourage the priority audience to practice
 Why they would encourage or discourage the desired behavior
 How to reach them

Organize information on influencing audiences in another table for later use in the SBCC
strategy (see Influencing Audiences Template under templates):

Step 9: Develop Audience Profiles

Review the notes about each audience and try to tell the story of that person. Audience
profiles bring audience segments to life by telling the story of an imagined individual from
the audience.

The audience profile consists of a paragraph with details on current behaviors, motivation,
emotions, values and attitudes, as well as information such as age, income level, religion, sex
and where they live. The profile should reflect the primary barriers the audience faces in
adopting the desired behavior. Include a name and photo to help the creative team visualize
who the person is. Answers to the following questions can lead to insightful profiles that help
the team understand and reach audiences more effectively:
The audience profiles will feed directly into the creative brief process and will be an integral
part of the SBCC strategy. See the Samples section for an example of an audience profile.

Templates
Audience Characteristics and Behavioral Factors Template

Audience-Focused Literature Review Template

Influencing Audience Template

Samples
Sample Audience Profile

Tips & Recommendations

 Talk to audience members. Do not rely solely on the project team’s beliefs or what program
staff and health workers say or assume about the audiences.
 Put yourself in the audience’s shoes. To truly understand what audiences know, think and
feel, set aside assumptions and preconceived notions.
 Work in teams. The collaboration among team members (four or five people recommended)
will provide richer and deeper insights into the issues. If possible, include people who have
direct experience working or living in the community.
 Find other ways to gather information. It is important to recognize that some documents
may have information gaps that will require additional inquiries (formative research) to fully
understand the potential audience. Interviews with local experts (e.g. medical and public
health staff) can help explain the issue and identify those most at risk or affected by it.
  Incorporate the communication channels prioritized during the stakeholder workshop. Also
consider other opportunities to reach audiences, such as places (e.g., schools, clinics) and
events (e.g., health fairs, community events). SBCC strategies can take advantage of such
opportunities to connect with audience members about the topic.
 The priority audience’s perception about how the community views an issue may differ from
how the community actually views the issue. The perception of what the family/community
thinks often will be the deciding factor when it comes to taking a health action. This can
prevent the individual from taking the best action. Addressing the misperceptions with your
program or campaign could lead to a more successful behavior change intervention than
one that does not address misperceptions.
 Audience profiles should represent the experience of real people. This will help the program
team better understand the audiences they are trying to reach and ensure that audience
members see themselves in the messages developed for them.
 No two audience profiles should look the same; the best profiles use qualitative research as
a source. Profiles are living documents that should be updated when new information
becomes available.

Lessons Learned
 Designing messages and activities with shared characteristics in mind increases the
likelihood of audience members identifying with the issue and feeling able to address it.

Glossary & Concepts

 Priority audience refers to a group of people whose behavior must change in order to
improve the health situation. It is the most important group to address because they
have the power to make changes the SBCC campaign calls for. Sometimes this is also
referred to as the intended audience.
 An influencing audience is made up of those people who have the most significant
and direct influence (positive or negative) over the priority audience. The influencing
audience can exist at different levels: at the family level, community level (e.g. peers,
relatives, teachers, community or faith-based leaders) or national or regional level
(e.g. policy makers, media personnel, government leaders).
 Demographic information is statistical data (e.g. age, sex, education level, income
level, geographic location) relating to a population and specific sub-groups of that
population.
 Psychographics are the attributes that describe personality, attitudes, beliefs, values,
emotions and opinions. Psychographic characteristics or factors relate to the
psychology or behavior of the audience.
 Ideation refers to how new ways of thinking (or new behaviors) are diffused through
a community by means of communication and social interaction among individuals
and groups. Behavior is influenced by multiple social and psychological factors, as
well as skills and environmental conditions that facilitate behavior.
 Ideational factors are grouped into three categories: cognitive, emotional and social.
Cognitive factors address an individual’s beliefs, values and attitudes (such as risk
perceptions), as well as how an individual perceives what others think should be done
(subjective norms), what the individual thinks others are actually doing (social norms)
and how the individual thinks about him/herself (self-image). Emotional factors
include how an individual feels about the new behavior (positive or negative) as well
as how confident a person feels that they can perform the behavior (self-efficacy).
 Social factors consist of interpersonal interactions (such as support or pressure from
friends) that convince someone to behave in a certain way, as well as the effect on an
individual’s behavior from trying to persuade others to adopt the behavior as well
(personal advocacy).
 Gender refers to the socially and culturally constructed roles and responsibilities
deemed appropriate for men and women. Such constructions influence how males and
females behave. In many cases, the way a community defines gender roles and
expectations disadvantages women and girls. For example, if community norms
dictate that boys should eat meat and vegetables while girls get rice and porridge,
mothers will have difficulty ensuring that girls get enough of the right foods to be
healthy.
 Barriers to change prevent or make it difficult to adopt a behavior. Barriers come in
many forms – emotional, societal, structural, educational, familial, etc.
 Facilitators of change make it easier to adopt a behavior. As with barriers, they can
take many forms.