Is the information built around the needs of the audience?

People Vary Greatly In Terms Of Needs And Capabilities
People vary greatly in their needs and capabilities

People vary greatly in terms of their needs and capabilities: providers need to have a clear understanding of what these are if their information is to be effective. Successful information provision depends on a good understanding of the 'user situation'⁷.

Your knowledge of the audience and their needs will inform everything from what it will look like, what it will include, how it will be presented, and how it can be disseminated.

There’s a need to understand the audience's knowledge and capability, and their ability to absorb the information and act upon it. The nature of the issues they face and their likely impact will affect the content and the way it is presented. Stress levels and self-confidence will affect the tone and degree of support given.

Precision in tailoring and targeting is crucial. It is tempting to try to reach more than one distinct audience with the same piece of information but this will never be very successful - members of the public and advisers, for example, will have very different information needs.

Provider view or user view?

This order form on a contact lens website must lead to many mistakes.
The position of the eyes is reversed. It is the optician's view.

Social Marketing

Social marketing is using commercial marketing techniques to achieve social change. In the UK, its use has been promoted by the National Social Marketing Centre, which has developed social marketing approaches within the Health Service.

Social marketing focuses on getting people to act. The ‘Five a Day’ campaign to get people to eat more fruit and vegetable is a famous example of successful social marketing. The same approach could be used to get people to make a will, for example.

The approach focuses on specific groups of people. It stresses the need to understand the target audience through research and intelligence gathering. It requires clear insights into why people behave as they do, including the influences on their behaviour and how they think, feel, and believe.

Social marketing puts strong emphasis on what it calls the exchange: what is offered to the audience and its benefits, against the cost to the audience in terms of money, time, effort, and consequences. It aims to maximise the offer and its value to the audience while minimising the barriers.

For more on social marketing see: National Social Marketing Centre

The best information is often that which is produced in dialogue with the target audience - and with those who work with them.

A review⁸ of published resources for the Legal Services Commission clearly showed that many of the most effective providers of information have a close relationship with their client base. They know them well through advice or other interactive services, and are well placed to understand their needs. Their interactive services mean that they are also able to get continual feedback on how the information works in practice.

Organisations which are remote from their intended audience face a problem in knowing whether their audience’s needs are being met. These types of organisations would benefit from developing mechanisms to ensure that they get feedback on the use of their materials. For example, by developing partnerships with those who are in close contact with their audience, particularly community based agencies.

‘Who is it for?’ provides practical help with these issues.

The needs of the audience and the needs of the organisation

Every organisation wants to put the needs of its users first, but policy priorities and internal processes can get in the way. As a result, the information produced often tells you more about the organisation than it does about the intended audience.

A look at the process of producing information can show how the focus on the needs of the audience can be lost. The production process will often involve a range of people within an organisation: lawyers who want to ensure that information is legally accurate and complete; policy staff who want to make sure that the material reflects current policy; communications staff who check that the material meets corporate presentation standards; fundraisers who may want to ensure that their message is included. All of these players are well placed to ensure their voice is heard - but who speaks for the user?

There is a need for processes to ensure the voice of users is heard. It helps enormously if the purpose of the publication is clear and that all participants understand their role. The role of editors in championing the user's view needs to be understood.

Readers groups and pilot testing with users provide a very useful counterbalance to the views of experts and are an excellent way of ensuring that the audience's voice is heard.

⁷ _{Evaluating ASA Advicenow Guides p15.}
⁸ _{‘Reviewing and scoring information resources’, ASA Advicenow’s research of available information resources for the Legal Services Commission, January 2007.}