Audience is the people who will listen your presentation. In other words, your presentation is made to be presented in front of your audience. Here, you need to make them happy with your presentation. If it’s boring, then your audience will be busy with themselves, maybe with their gadget or whatsoever.
So, you need to deal with your audience. How? By knowing them, understanding them. If you do, then they will listen to you. It’s very important to adjust your presentation with your audience. Not only in constructing content, but also with the slides, the entire design of the presentation itself.
It’s Very Important to Recognizing Your Audience
The key to create and deliver a great presentation is understanding your audience. You cannot offer something interesting to your audience unless you know who they are. You have to know what they need and want from your presentation.
It’s not easy to expect an effective communication process if you don’t know their point of view when they are listening to you. As a presenter, if you will find it difficult to relate yourself with them, then your audience will also have difficulties to understand you.
It can create a situation that will leads to frustration: You are frustrated because you can not make them understand, and they are frustrated because it is difficult to understand you.
The only way is you have to know your audience well. Your job will be easier, because you know exactly what they want. You can choose which information should get across and which one is not necessary. By knowing your audience, you will convincing them easier, too because you understand what factors that influences them to take action.
Knowing or recognizing your audience means you know their name, their position, their interests, their group of society, what decision they make, what they need from your presentation, and why they come to listen to you.
Of course, it’s hard to remember each name of your audience. But, you can use the nametag. Ask them to write down their name on it.
The most important thing to do is to identifying your audience. Use the valuable information to design a relevant and effective presentation. Every communication or every presentation is unique. If you design your presentation just for your unique audience, then your presentation will be more effective.
Who Is Your Audience?
Find out about who will attend your presentation before preparing it. Every information about your audience will help your readiness to act on stage. Like Sun Tzu said, “He who knows his enemy and himself well will not be defeated in a hundred battles. He who doesn’t know himself and his enemy is bound to suffer defeat in all battles.”
Your presentation is your battle, your battlefield of communication. You want them to accept and understand your message as good as possible.
So, once again, you have to know your audience. How are you supposed to do that? By gathering all information about your audience, such as:
- Who will present to your presentation?
- What is their position in the organization?
- What is their educational background, or their job?
- What is their level of knowledge about the topic you will deliver?
- What is their learning style?
- What they like to hear and what they don’t?
- What is their purpose in listening to your presentation?
- Why they need to listen to you?
By knowing those information, you can prepare or create a right presentation for them. By knowing your audience, it will help you a lot in creating content and designing the most appropriate communication for them.
