How this will help you: More understanding about the audience segments with whom you engage will help you prioritize, plan and invest more appropriately.

Hats off to you if you’ve completed the Audience Identifier we posted previously. That assignment can leave you tired just looking at all the audiences you communicate and build relationships with for your school. If you haven’t done that exercise, go back and complete that before you tackle this worksheet. You’ll be transferring data from the Identifier sheet to this Organizer sheet.

Clients often ask us how to establish priorities for engaging each of their myriad audiences. Here’s a way you might think about establishing priorities for making choices and building budgets.

Your greatest priority should lie with your primary audience. Peter Drucker reminded us that your primary audience includes the people your mission statement is written for. For most colleges and universities that includes students, faculty and staff. Your investments in marketing with your primary audience will pay highest dividends. Ensure that you are making rabid fans.

In Chapter 5 of Coherence: How Telling the Truth Will Advance Your Cause (and Save the World), I use the analogy of a golf ball to describe your primary audience. A golf ball has a hard rubber core (your students), surrounded by a layer of resins designed to drive the ball further (your teaching faculty), and these two are protected by a tough outer layer intended to take the hits (administrators and staff). You’ll see a cutaway version of that golf ball analogy on the accompanying worksheet.

To download the worksheet