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Writers need to understand their audience before even attempting to write something. Audience analysis might sound frivolous and often a bit over-rated. But audience analysis is an important component of the writing process. It simplifies a writer’s objective on writing an informatory article.
What is audience analysis? Audience analysis is analyzing the tastes and preferences of a target audience to which the writer is writing for. It includes a set of parameters on which the writer will base the article on. The article’s writing style, information design, and presentation will depend on the results derived from the audience analysis.
Here’s how to perform an audience analysis.
Classify the audience
Who is the audience? Are they doctors, lawyers, truckers, chemists, hustlers…?
Knowledge
How much does the audience know about the subject? Are they totally unaware about the subject or do they have an intermediate knowledge on it? Or are they experts on the subject?
Demographics
What is the average age group of the audience? Where are most of them located? Which language do most of them speak? What food and clothing do they wear? How educated are they?
Interest
Why do I need to write for them? How can this help them? How will they help themselves with this? Do they even need this?
Medium
How do they read information? Do they read online, on print, or do they read at all?
Objectives
What is the expectation of the audience from the information you are writing for them.
Tailoring
How would I need to customize the content to meet their needs?
