What is Audience Analysis and how can it help you land a job?

By Christina Ripley

Interested in hearing the most important concept I learned in my Professional Writing classes? I credit learning this concept with helping me land 4 different internships and graduate with a 3.8 cumulative GPA. No, this has nothing to do with memorizing a truckload of grammar rules. It is about a concept called “audience analysis.”

Audience analysis involves understanding exactly who you are writing for, and shaping your language and arguments to fit the audience to make your writing relatable. It’s a really important skill to learn. Up until now, most students are used to writing for a specific type of audience: namely a teacher. After graduation, that audience is going to become completely different, so you need to be prepared.

How can audience analysis be used to land a job? Well, consider this: when creating a cover letter for a job, first research the company. Take note of the way the company employees write on the website. Do they use formal language? Informal? What are the goals of the company? If you had to guess, what type of person would be their ideal employee? An IBM employee would communicate in a completely different way than an Apple employee. And the style of communication may change based on a department within the company. So do your research!

Now, when writing your cover letter, write with this audience in mind. Use the same type of language and focus on the same skills that the company prides itself on.

A piece of writing that doesn’t consider the audience is not persuasive, memorable or effective. Worst of all, the reader won’t care about what you writing about. So next time you create a blog post, article or even a tweet, think about who you are communicating with and shape your writing to fit their needs.