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In order to write effective, user-centered content, you must first understand as much about the individuals who are reading your material as possible. Your audience may include people with varying requirements and objectives. In other words, you may have a complicated audience throughout your document’s lifecycle—from the development stage to the action stage.

One way to think about your audience is to segment them into different groups, or personas. A persona is “a composite sketch of a key segment of your customer or user base.” Creating personas helps you focus on the needs of a specific type of reader, rather than thinking about your audience as a whole.

When creating personas, consider the following:

– Who are they? Include as many demographics as possible.

– What do they do? Consider their job title, role within their company, and any other relevant information.

– What do they need to know? Be specific about the information they need in order to complete their task.

– When do they need to know it? Consider the timeline for their task.

– Where do they go for information? Do they prefer certain channels or types of content?

Creating user personas is just one step in the audience analysis process. To learn more, check out our complete guide: How to Conduct an Audience Analysis (The 8-Step Process).

After you’ve created your personas, you can move on to conducting a needs analysis. This will help you understand the specific information requirements of each persona and how best to meet those needs.

A needs analysis involves four steps:

1. Define the goal of your content.

2. Identify the informational requirements of your persona.

3. Match the requirements to the content you already have.

4. Develop a plan for creating new content.

You can learn more about conducting a needs analysis in our complete guide: How to Conduct a Needs Analysis (The 4-Step Process).

You should have a solid understanding of your readers and what they want from you after you’ve completed your audience and need analysis. This data will be important as you begin to create your content strategy.

CREATING STAGE

• The first author (you)
• Secondary author (a technical specialist inside your company)
• Secondary author (a cost expert within your company)
• Your company’s security policy states that you should inform your supervisor whenever a user is granted or denied access to any portion of the network.

READING STAGE

• The first audience is the decision-maker, the primary point of contact, project lead, and so on.
• Technical expert in the audience’s company
• You can also use a blind copy (e.g., borrowed phone) to provide anonymity to your messages.

ACTION STAGE

• Stakeholders (those who may read your message, but more importantly those who will be affected by the decisions based on the information you provide)

Make sure you’re keeping track of the different stages in your document’s life cycle. Documents do not always go through a clear, three-step procedure. Instead, the lifecycle of your communication may be made up of several phases of development. Close collaboration is required between those who are writing the documents, those who will read and utilize them, and individuals who may be affected by their contents.