Guide: Understanding audiences

Section:
Target Audiences


Introduction

An important part of any public engagement work is to think about the people you want to engage with. A common answer to this question is the ‘public’ – but who are the public and how can you ensure that you engage with them effectively? This guide helps you think through how to ensure your activity is appropriate and relevant to the people you hope to engage with. It also provides some suggestions re the different approaches to working with your audience.

Guidelines and approach

When trying to decide who you would like to work with, and whether they would like to engage with you, it is important to consider what you are hoping to achieve. This might range from disseminating the results of your research, to developing a research project in partnership with a local community group. It is clear that this will determine who you might work with and how you develop a relationship with them.

Often people talk about engaging with the public. The ‘public’ is everyone: your family and friends, your line manager, a school pupil, potential future funders or members of your local community. This wide ranging group is often broken down into different types based on categories such as age, gender, ethnicity, location and interests.

Examples include: 

  • schools and colleges (primary, secondary and further education)
  • families and children
  • young people (aged 18-25)
  • adults
  • local communities, community groups
  • business and industry
  • government and policy makers.

Understanding your audience

Once you have identified your audience, take time understanding their interests and lifestyles. Why might they be interested in taking part in your public engagement activity? The more you understand your audience the more successful your public engagement activity is likely to be. Here are some top tips for getting to know your audience.

  • Build a profile of your target group. Make a list of what they do, what they read, what they listen to, where they go, how they like to find out about events. You may have to make some assumptions but be wary of stereotyping
  • Work with an audience you feel you already know something about. Build on your own knowledge and further develop the profile of the group by asking relevant questions
  • Identify an audience champion. A partner from an organisation or venue associated with your target audience who could help develop the event and provide valuable insights, knowledge and contacts. Remember this relationship needs to be a mutually beneficial opportunity to learn together and develop an effective activity
  • Seek advice from the equality and diversity staff or various network groups within your institution, eg disability group or Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) group. Ideally, involve members of your targeted audience in your planning, as they will bring new perspectives and help ensure you develop an effective project
  • Why might your audience want to engage with you? What are their motivations and needs? How could you work with them to ensure that the activity you plan is useful and engaging for them?
  • Think about the audiences’ different learning styles. Make sure you include different types of activity to suit different preferences.
  • Consider barriers and what you can do to ensure that they don’t stop your target audience coming to your event. These can include:
  •  transport (availability and costs)
  •  disposable income
  • timing of the activity
  • interest
  • lack of trust in you and your organisation
  • perceived relevance of your research
  • accessibility and mobility (physical and cultural)
  • language (do you need to involve an interpreter?)
  • awareness of the event
  • childcare
  • diet and food (ensure that you provide refreshments that are appropriate for your audience).

Top Tips

  • Don’t be afraid to ask. Your audience champion can ensure that you develop an effective activity.
  • It can be hard to encourage audiences to engage with you. Therefore it can be sensible to run an event in a comfortable venue – like a community centre. Better still make your event part of an already established programme that already attracts the audience you want to engage with.

‘When we realised we wanted to engage with older adults, we thought that the local U3A would be a great partner. Amazingly they had a programme of talks – and could schedule a session with us really easily. They were grateful for the content, and we met an enthusiastic group of people who really wanted to find out about our research.’ Academic

  •  If you are invited to give a talk for a group – it can be helpful to go and meet the organiser before the event, or to talk through their expectations before the day. It can be tempting to think that they will have told you everything you need to know – but it doesn’t always work like that.

'I had prepared a really interactive event, but had failed to realise that some of the group members had specific mobility needs which meant the format needed to be changed quickly.  There were several things I could have planned to do differently had I known before the event. Academic

 

Other resources

We are currently developing guides for different audience groups to help you plan effective engagement activities.

Guide to working with community groups

In addition we have resource pages for the following:

Working with young people

Working with minority groups

Other external sites

For helpful information about learning styles: Inspiring Learning for All

Authors

This guide was adapted from the Engaging Researcher booklet, written by Suzanne Spicer from the Manchester Beacon and Sophie Duncan from the NCCPE.