The most vital element of content strategy is knowing your audience - who they are, what they do, what they think they want, what they actually need…
Sometimes we already have this information. Other times we need to carry out new research to get the insights we need. But wherever that data comes from, the next question should always be “how do we use this information?”
There are many ways to interpret audience insights, and many ways to collate and display that information to others - but how do we decide what’s best? In this workshop we’ll look at different ways of presenting audience insights, and - importantly - how we make them useful and usable to everyone in our institution.
Audience personas are incredibly useful, but they’re not always the best choice in every situation. The audience insights we gather can be used to produce so much more, and when working on content strategy we should always take some time to explore other options.
We’ll look at different options for interpreting audience insights, explore how these outputs can be used for different purposes, and even have a go at producing some ourselves in the session.
We’ll look at how to decide whether we want to use our information to build things such as tribal personas, mental models, user journeys, or a range of other things - and which ones work best when we bring them together.
We’ll also consider the end purpose of these materials - if we’re going to make them valuable, we want people in roles around the institution to be able to pick them up and use them. How do we make that happen? Given the diverse and disparate nature of audiences for different parts of universities and colleges, is that even possible? Let’s find out!
What we’ll cover
How to decide which audience outputs to use for different purposes
What to ask to fill in the gaps in our audience knowledge
How to establish a collaborative approach to audience insight work across an organisation
This is a ContentEd+ member’s only workshop.
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About Robert Perry, your session host
Robert Perry is Director of Research at Pickle Jar Communications. He primarily works on behalf of clients in the education and charity sectors, where he is responsible for all aspects of information-gathering, audience research, user testing, and anything else related to content or customer insights.
He has worked with schools, colleges, universities, membership organisations, charities, and education sector bodies. Whatever the work and whoever the client, Robert likes to find the connections between the driving forces of a project and the needs of the audience, with the aim of being able to satisfy both at the same time. He wants to know about the journeys that people make in relation to clients’ offerings, because the only way to truly deliver the right content to the right audience is to understand the context behind that journey. That’s why his favourite answer to any question is “it depends”.
He has a particular interest in student influencers and widening participation efforts, and has worked with clients such as UCL, Aston University, Leeds Beckett University, and United World Colleges on projects that focus on these areas. Robert also represents Pickle Jar Communications at education sector events, speaking on aspects of audience research and digital communications at conferences organised by groups such as CASE and UUK.
Before joining Pickle Jar, Robert worked on content creation and digital communications in the aviation industry. He studied communications and English literature at Newcastle University, and now lives in Newcastle.