More on Audience for Business Documents

In a previous entry, I talked about how the first two things one needs to consider in writing a business document include identifying the audience, or the “who needs to know,” and identifying the nature of what it is that audience needs to know. 

In this entry, I’m going to talk a bit about the likely nature of your audience in what in my soon-to-be-released e-book I call the “who needs to know” element of the audience.

As a general rule, you will deal with individual or team roles in planning out your business document.

So, what roles are you likely to encounter?

Here are the most common roles you’re likely to encounter:

• Stakeholders
• Decisionmakers
• Prospects
• Regulators
• Customers (Internal and External)
• The Public

Stakeholders and decisionmakers overlap somewhat, and indeed, prospects can factor into that overlap as well.

But, when you set about planning your document, you may want to consider these types of role as to just who makes up your audience, and in that role(s) just what their need is from your document.

This will allow you to make an effective document plan that will afford you good results from your final document.