Why would your “well-thought-out, beautifully crafted” message fail in achieving your communication objective? You researched, you rehearsed the message well, yet you did not connect with the audience; neither did you achieve the result you desired. What went wrong?

It is very frustrating to spend time preparing a message, then on delivery (whether in writing or speech), realize that your audience remains unmoved, uninterested, or simply reject to your message. Worse still, the extreme opposite of your expectation could happen – what is called the boomerang effect; your message could reinforce your audience’s hostility to your idea rather win their support.

The solution lies in one term – audience-centeredness.  This simply means that your communication is built around your audience. Your audience should guide your topic selection, the content of your message, the style and method of delivery, the medium to use, and the time to communicate.

Your audiences are made of a complex interaction of interests, needs and expectations, cultural orientation, existing attitudes, existing knowledge, and experiences drawn from their environment.

Your communication message will have to confront all these dimensions of your audience, which largely determine your audience’s perspective. These dimensions serve as lenses through which your audiences view life and interpret the situations around them. Your ability to relate to the needs of your audience forms a key part of emotional intelligence.

Before engaging in any form of communication, therefore, you must seek to understand your audience – create your audience’s profile. This means that you outline all the important characteristics of your audience. As you prepare your communication, the following questions would be important to consider:

• Who is my target audience?
• What is their expectation?
• What message would be suitable for them in their current situation?
• What do they already know about the subject and how do they feel about it?
• What interest would they have in the subject?
• What objective do I wish to achieve through this communication?
• What and how much information would be suitable for my audience?
• How can I gain and sustain my audience’s attention?
• What method of organization and presentation would best suit my audience?
• What means should I use to communicate this message?
• What time would be most appropriate to communicate this message to my audience?

What audience-centeredness is not: Being audience- centered does not mean you tell your audience only what they want to hear, or that you should fabricate information simply to please them.

What audience-centeredness is: It means you adapt your communication to your audience’s characteristics in order to; encourage the audience to interact with your message, ensure they understand the message, and elicit desired outcome.

To get in touch with the author, send email to evah@evahnjauini.com