KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE essential presentation research

Knowing and understanding your audience before you deliver a presentation - whether a trade show or a corporate presentation - means that you have a better chance of establishing the critical rapport that you need for effective public speaking.  This month we look at some of the presentation techniques you can use to qualify the audience at your event.

Know your audience:

Considering all the other things on your mind when you plan your presentation your last consideration might be your audience.  But in fact it is the starting point for an effective presentation.  You might know your content inside out, but it is only going to be relevant to an audience if you have invested some time to establish relevancy.  And that begins with knowing your audience.

Your presentation venue, presentation subject or geographic location will all help in your understanding of an audience.  But, much better would be a request for an attendee or delegate list from the organisers.  This should include delegate names, job titles and organisations.  If this is your own event, then you are half-way there already.

You can analyse this data to establish an audience profile.  For example: 40% of the audience might have a marketing role, 50% have a general management role and 10% have a finance-related role.  Or, 20% might work in telecoms, 50% work in IT, 30% work in software and 10% are journalists.  This insight will lead to a better constructed and more effective presentation.  You have the opportunity to target your business presentation to the likely needs of an IT/ telecoms audience predominantly working in marketing and general management jobs.

Try to develop profile specific scenarios within your presentation to meet the anticipated needs of the audience.  These might be used in the main body of the presentation or perhaps, when you take questions.

This should not be too onerous but it might take some time before you start to commit serious effort to preparing the core of your presentation.