5 Best and Effective Ways to Conduct Audience Analysis

5 Best and Effective Ways to Conduct Audience Analysis

Knowing your audience is as much important as the content of the speech. Before delivering any speech, it is very important to know your audience because it helps you in targeting the right group of individuals. For this purpose, analyzing the audience is very helpful.

What is Audience Analysis?

According to dissertation writing services, audience analysis refers to the process of gathering information about the target audience. This information includes age, gender, educational level, norms, values, needs, and attitude. This information helps to choose the right content of the speech based on the targeted audience. When the speech is according to the type and demand of the audience, it helps to produce better results and response.

Importance of Audience Analysis

Analyzing the audience helps the speakers to know about their audience. It helps in getting the information that serves as a tool to link your words with audience thoughts. The right words are delivered to the right group only when you have done a deep analysis of your targeted audience.

Types of Audience Analysis:

Audience analysis can be of different types.

  1. Demographic Analysis
  2. Psychographic Analysis
  3. Situational Analysis
  4. Multicultural Analysis

When audience analysis is done based on demographic characteristics (age, gender, education, geographical location, religion, social status, marital status, occupation) it is called demographic analysis. The analysis is based on the attitude, behavior, values, norms, and beliefs of the individuals then it is called psychographic analysis of the audience. Situational analysis is based on the size of the audience, nature, type of event, and interest level of the audience. A multicultural analysis is done when you have a large audience with diverse cultural backgrounds. In multicultural analysis, cultural sensitivity and inclusivity are the main focus of the speaker.

Factors Affecting Audience Analysis

There are multiple factors on which audience analysis can be conducted.

Expectations of Audience:

Every type of audience has some expectations regarding the event, speech, and speaker. If a speaker ignores the expectations of the audience it can affect the effectiveness of the speech. When a speaker knows what his audience wants to listen to and in what manner then his speech is more effective and successful. Public speaking is all based on the demands of the audience. Politicians are the best example of this scenario. Their speech is always based on the type of audience they are dealing with.

Information and Knowledge about the Topic:

It is very important to know that how much knowledge and information your audience have about the theme or topic of your speech. For instance, if you are delivering the speech on effectiveness of technological designing but your audience does not what exactly technological designing is then your audience will not be able to understand your speech and it will go to waste. But if the speaker already knows that the audience is unfamiliar with technological designing then you will shape your speech in a way that will first explain in detail about the technological design and then move towards its effectiveness and benefits.

Similarly, if you are delivering the speech on the importance and benefits of pursuing higher education from an international university, and your audience is those students who are interesting and are trying to apply for student visa for admission in any international university then it will be easy for both the speaker and audience to follow each other. Secondly, the speaker must understand the way in which your targeted audience perceives about a specific topic. For example, the political and religious beliefs of every individual are different. So the speaker needs to be very selective and attentive in delivering the speech on such topic so that he may not hurt emotions or beliefs of any individual or group and does not provoke any dispute.

Audience’s Attitude:

When a speaker knows about the attitude of the audience towards the topic of speech he can better decide about the ways for achieving his goals. For example, if you are delivering the speech in a village on sending the girls to the school for education and you know your audience attitude that they do not consider female education important, then you will emphasize more on the benefits of females education.

But if you do background research before delivering the speech, and you come to know that the real issue behind not sending the females to school is the security concern then you will create the content of your speech according to the security measures and safety provided by the school administration and local district management for the safety of females.

Size of the Audience:

The format and type of speech also depend on the size of the audience. For a large group audience, the speech will be more formal as compared to a smaller group audience. You need to do sound arrangements for a large audience.

Demographics:

Demographic characteristics are very helpful for speaker for understanding the interest, behavior, preferences, and attitude of the audience. People beliefs, norms, and values also change with the change n geographical location. Similarly, the preferences also differ from male to female. Individuals with higher level of education have more understanding of process and procedures. People needs and demands also depend on their occupation, age, and marital status. So if the speaker knows about the audience based on the demographic characteristics it will help to deliver right content to the right audience.

Ways for Conducting Audience Analysis

Audience analysis can be done in different ways but the most effective ways of doing audience analysis are

  1. Direct Observation
  2. Interviews
  3. Surveys
  4. Focus Groups
  5. Using Existing Data about Your Audience

Direct Observation:

The first and most basic way for audience analysis is direct observation. It is considered the primary source of getting audience analysis. Through direct observation, you can get the information by observing the non-verbal behavior of the audience. This demands that the observer should know the skills for interpreting the behavior.

Interviews and Surveys:

Since your segment examination will be restricted to your most probable audience, your most precise approach to learn about them is to look for individual data through interviews and surveys. An interview is a one-on-one trade wherein you pose inquiries of a respondent, while a survey is a bunch of inquiries directed to a few—or, ideally, many—respondents. Interviews might be directed vis-à-vis, by telephone, or by composed methods, for example, messaging. They permit more inside and out conversation than surveys, and they are likewise additional tedious to direct.

Surveys are additionally now and then led vis-à-visor by telephone, however, online surveys are progressively normal. You may gather and classify survey results physically, or set up a computerized online survey through the free or membership entryways of locales. Utilizing an online survey gives the benefit of keeping reactions unknown, which may expand your audience individuals’ eagerness to take an interest and to respond to individual inquiries. Surveys are a productive method to gather data rapidly; notwithstanding, rather than interviews, they do not consider follow-up inquiries to assist you with understanding why your respondent offered a specific response.

Focus Groups:

Another way of doing audience analysis is choosing a specific group of people for getting feedback. Here specifically designed questions are used for getting information for understanding audience behavior and attitude. This group has a limited number of individuals for which you have to ensure that they understand the question and their discussion remains related to the question.

Using Existing Data about Your Audience:

Another way to do analysis is using the already existing data. Many times the required information about the audience is already available. You have to do an analysis based on it. For example, if your audience is a student, then you can easily get information about the students from the university management office.