Tailor your remarks to your audience

When remarks are tailored to a specific audience, your listeners will better understand your content, be persuaded of your point of view, and share it with their sphere of influence.

Take your key messages, your draft speech, and your Question & Answer document and look at them critically through the eyes (and ears) of your audience. Have you chosen words that will resonate? Is there a possibility to alienate your audience with your choice of words? Is your speech heavy on technical jargon that will fly over the head of your listeners?

Let’s say we are talking about “people.” Off the top of my head, I can think of about fifty different terms for people, like: people, men, women, children, kids, seniors, youth, older adults, immigrants, new Canadians, voters, the population, individuals, workers, neighbours, community members, Vancouverites, Canadians, Newfoundlanders, students, investors, customers, consumers.

With your audience in mind, test a couple of synonyms for key words in your speech. If you’re unfamiliar with your audience, do a bit of research to ensure that your language of choice is appealing and compelling.

A careful choice of words can make the difference between a highly effective communications activity, and one that falls flat, or worse, offends your listener.

Do you need help making your message resonate? Contact me and we can work together to accomplish your communications goals.