National EMSC Data Analysis Resource Center
National EMSC Data Analysis Resource Center
The reality is that time, money and other resources are limited...
Now you should have brainstormed several groups of people. This is your list of people that you would ideally like to communicate to, if you lived in a perfect world with unlimited resources. If you have the ability to communicate with all these people, great! All the better for you and your cause. The reality is that time, money, and other resources are limited, and most of us are going to have to prioritize.
Go through your list of people and put a priority number on the side of each listing according to how important of an audience they are to communicate to: a 1 if they are “most important,” a 2 if they are “moderately important,” and a 3 if they are “least important.”
Your list might look something like this:
Your list will probably look very different from this one depending on your subject matter, the audiences, and the priorities you gave each of them. This process helps you think critically about each audience and how critical their influence is to your message and/or cause.
The people with a priority of 1 are the ones you certainly will want to target in your communications and will likely require the most energy and time from you.
The people with a priority of 2 should also be targeted, although maybe not with the same amount of time and effort.
Finally, the people with a priority of 3 may need to be pursued only as time and resources allow; while still important, they may be more peripheral to your cause, and realistically you may need to prioritize elsewhere for the time being.
You may want to consult with others to see if you are forgetting any important groups and to see if you prioritizations seem appropriate. Keep in mind that project needs can change, so you may need to modify your priorities down the road. But your project will always benefit from good planning in advance.
Defining the Target Audience >>
rev. 08-Sep-2011
