Tailoring Your Messages to Your Audience

Communications is a two way street. Unless you’re just talking to yourself, communications is to
a large degree what shapes the relationship between the speaker or writer (the messenger) and
their audience. When you are the messenger, you are in effect building a relationship with your
audience. So it’s worth it to think about who your audience is before setting pen to paper.

Little kids learn early in life that certain things they say will work with Dad, but Mom needs to
hear a different message. In the grown up world it’s no different. As you develop a better
understanding of your different audiences, tailor your messaging for each one. Think about what
motivates them. And ask lots of questions:

• What kind of background do they have?

• Are they well educated?
• Do they know more or less about the subject than you do?
• What do they identify with?
• What are they sceptical about?
• What kind of actions do they take now?
• What would you like them to continue doing or change?
• What is their political point of view?
• Are they part of a professional group?
• What kind of language do they use?
• What tone and level of formality is best with each different audience?

Ask yourself as many questions you can think of about your audience so you have a deep
understanding of who they are.

Once you have a good understanding of your audiences, it’s easier to be strategic and clear about
the purpose behind your communications, the key messages you need to deliver, and the
channels that will get your message across best. Use a chart like the one below to help you
focus before you begin to create your communications.
 Audience Purpose Key Messages Channels

e.g. Dean of To develop • EWB has experience implementing Personally

Engineering curriculum national curriculum projects, with addressed
for global national office coordinating strategy and letter; follow-up
engineers resources for curriculum. phone call; face-
• Deans and faculty have commented on to-face meeting;
EWB’s sophisticated approach to meetings with
curriculum development (include quotes faculty
or testimonials). champions;
• EWB’s 350 overseas volunteers inform detailed
our strategy on the role of the global curriculum
engineer. proposals.
• EWB has a national network of 26
university chapters and 40,000
members to draw on for lessons
learned.
• EWB members are 50:50 male:female.
• EWB is the most active group on
campus, and the largest engineering
student group in Canada.
• EWB helps to attract and retain the best
and brightest emerging leaders and
students to engineering.
• What the dean can do to help develop
curriculum for global engineers

Key Audiences

To help get you started, we’ve grouped the various audiences that EWB interacts with into five
categories. The descriptions below are general sketches of who the audiences are, the purpose of
communicating with them, some key messages, and channels. You can create your own
descriptions for your specific audiences; most fall roughly into one of these five groups.

1. People with an affinity to EWB (e.g. donors, members, volunteers, family)

Audience: These are people who have some familiarity with EWB, and they sympathize with our
cause. Many of them are engineers, or have close relations who are engineers. Their
understanding about who we are, what we do, and why we do it ranges from a little knowledge
to a deep understanding.

Purpose: Communications with this group doesn’t need to convince people about the value that
EWB brings. But it never hurts to reinforce our credibility and the value of their friendship with
the organization by telling some of our success stories. We want them to continue to feel good
about their association with EWB so that they stay involved and keep supporting us.

Key messages: In addition to hearing our success stories, this audience will also appreciate and
“insider’s” perspective about EWB, because it will make them feel even closer to the
organization than they already are. So you can communicate to this audience about the deeper,
more complex issues surrounding EWB’s work.

Channels: Personal letters, face to face conversations, insider reports, press clippings, blogs,
newsletters, emails, websites, and phone calls are all good ways to reach these audiences.

2. General public (e.g. high school students, non-members, public outreach

contacts)

Audience: This group has no, or very little, familiarity with EWB. There are a lot of diverse
points of view among this group.

Purpose: The best outcome of communications with the general public is to increase their
familiarity with EWB so that they know about us. With some members of the general public, our
communications can inspire them to find out more about EWB.

Key Messages: Communications with this group needs to begin at the beginning, by explaining
the basics of EWB, who we are, what we do, and why we do it.

Channels: The best channels for reaching the general public are through school outreach, public
outreach, posters, the internet, and the media.

3. Media (e.g. local media, national media, print and broadcast media [radio, TV,
film], online media, social media)

Audience: The media are professional communicators. The whole reason they exist is to deliver
information to various audiences. Mass media, like national TV stations, try to reach as many
people as possible, while other media, like specialty magazines and local papers, focus on more
narrow audiences. When communicating with the media, you need to be aware of the journalist
as a person with particular interests and motivations, while also thinking about the audience
who will be getting your messages once the media publishes the journalist’s work.

Purpose: When you need to reach a large number of people, to publicize events, for example, the
media is a good option.

Key Messages: Your message to the media needs to be newsworthy in order for them to pick it
up. (See the box below for what is newsworthy.) They are often bombarded with press releases.
To cut through the clutter on the news desk, the first step is to develop relationships with media
contacts who are interested in the same things that EWB is interested in. Look for reporters who
are writing or talking about international development, engineering, campus life, and social
change. The next step is to contact media when something newsworthy is going on.

What is newsworthy? If you are wondering what’s newsworthy, read or watch the media that
you want to send your message through, and analyze what stories they cover. For example, local
media will sometimes pick up on local events and they can be a good medium for EWB’s chapter
outreach activities.

National media tend to report on major events like national and international politics, wars,
disasters, high profile people, high profile crimes, the economy, major health and science
discoveries, the environment, technology, major sports leagues, and the arts. If you think you
have a story that ties into something that’s newsworthy on a national level, please
contact the national office.

Channels: Channels most commonly used to reach the media are phone calls, press advisories,
press releases, and press conferences. The press conference is an efficient way to deal with
media when many of them want to cover your story; this would be rare for EWB. Generally, it’s
more efficient to send out a press release to your media contacts.

What’s different about social media? Social media, like Facebook or Twitter, is a bit
different. It provides a more direct link to online audiences; we can all be authors in that
medium. The main advantage of this kind of media is that it’s democratic and allows for anyone
to participate in an online dialogue. It’s good for posting announcements, ideas, and opinions.

4. Sophisticated development experts (partner organizations, development

practitioners, academics)

Audience: These experts are able to engage deeply with complex issues around international
development. They will likely know as much as, if not more than you about development. For
the most part, this audience will engage with people at the national office or overseas, rather
than at chapters, so you’ll rarely have to think about them.

Purpose: A relationship with these experts can bring a lot of strength to EWB at a strategic level,
by drawing on their expertise to inform our work and by establishing alliances with key
influencers.

Key Messages: What this audience wants to know is what makes EWB unique. You can assume
that they already know why EWB does what it does, and you don’t need to convince them why
it’s important. But they may scrutinize our approach more than the first level of audience, who
has a sympathetic affinity to EWB. You need to do your homework before communicating with
the experts. Anticipate their questions and be ready to respond convincingly about what EWB
has to bring to the table.

Channels: Reports, presentations, conference papers, letters, emails, phone calls, and face-to-
face meetings would be the typical channels of communication for this audience.
5. Sophisticated business and engineering experts (corporate executives, deans)

Audience: Although this audience may not share the same knowledge and perspectives as the
development experts, they do have strong analytical skills and will likely scrutinize any proposal
to invest their time or money in EWB.

Purpose: At chapters, the most common purpose for engaging with this group would be to
convince faculty members and deans to support EWB, either financially or through curriculum
enhancement.

Key Messages: A relationship with this group is likely to be a financial one, so messages about
financial accountability and transparency are important. These people are generally pressed for
time, and they tend to appreciate messages that are brief and to the point. One of the best ways
to build a relationship with this audience is to pose problems, ask questions, and get them to
share their expertise and advice about the work we do. Don’t forget to bring your passion and
energy into it—EWB’s youthful energy is one of the things that makes us so unique. Tell some
inspiring stories, get to the heart of the matter, and be natural.

Channels: Corporate executives would almost always engage with EWB through the
national office or professional chapter members. University chapters engage with deans
through face-to-face communications and personal letters or emails.