How to Incorporate Your Audience Into Your Story
While you may have many ideas for audience-centered communications, your audience likely has a few of their own.
Our marketing team recently asked if we had any social impact communications “hot takes.” It was an interview question for a series we’d roll out as part of our digital launch. The answer was clear: many communication strategies used by well-established brands are outdated and do not connect with audiences.
It’s hard to drive your mission home when you aren’t connecting with your audience. You might face obstacles like messaging that raises more questions than it answers about what your organization stands for, or an audience that doesn’t see itself in the story.
These challenges are real, and you need a communications strategy that addresses them while honoring your mission and connecting you with your audience.
The keys to tailored messaging
To incorporate your audience into your brand story, start with a few key ideas: highlight your mission, identify the audience(s) you want to reach, and clarify how you’ll center their voices in your messaging.
Many of our clients come to us after auditing their communications strategy and noticing a gap between their messages and the impact they want on their audience. The reasons messages don’t connect with an audience vary by organization. Once they adopt tailored practices, they gain the same value.
In our experience, organizations that focus on their mission and audience when planning communications can more easily create and contribute to the impact they seek.
A real-world example of audience-centered communication
What does it actually look like to focus on your audience’s point of view? For one organization, the answer was as simple as giving its audience a platform to speak.
The Skillman Foundation is a private foundation that helps Detroit youth design bold destinies. The organization focuses on strengthening K-12 education through policy and systems change.
After its youth council members called on civic and corporate leaders to better engage Generation Z in strategic planning, The Skillman Foundation partnered with the city’s youth to host the Gen Z Design Sessions, a series of consulting forums that connected Gen Z strategists with community organizers.
The Skillman Foundation knew that these conversations shouldn’t exist inside a container. Every message the organization and its partners shared reinforced its commitment to youth and to expanding their influence.
This led to another thought: who could help The Skillman Foundation share the vast wisdom and organic connections born through each conversation?
With a long-standing relationship with the organization, The Skillman Foundation recognized Keener and Company as the communications partner to thoughtfully capture and translate the depth of dialogue, ideas, and relationships from the Gen Z Design Sessions. Over several months, we attended each conversation and kept detailed records of the insights shared.
We transformed those insights into a content storytelling library, giving The Skillman Foundation communication tools that guided purposeful planning for the future. Through our partnership, The Skillman Foundation gained lasting communications assets that informed blogs, future content initiatives, and strategic planning, including a branded Gen Z Design Sessions landing page that told the initiative’s story.
Applying communication principles to your brand
This isn’t an isolated success story specific to one organization. You can achieve similar wins by keeping promises to your audience.
An audience-centered communications strategy helps your organization share real human perspectives and stay current with ideas relevant to your audience. Each practice keeps you rooted in that commitment.
If you are considering how a similar approach might serve your organization’s mission, explore our latest case study, which shows how these principles can create impact. We’re your communications partners — here to connect you with those who matter most.