Why is audience insight so important? Well, because as we all know effective communications have excellent audience-centred research at their heart. Insight helps create new understanding around issues that are important to our audiences, and helps to clarify decisions, actions and ways forward. Insights also help bring our work to life.
However, as we plunge deeper into the cost of living crisis, many charities do not have the capacity or budget to conduct new research or begin new streams of information gathering. That’s why it’s important for charities to consider what they already have and work with their existing data and information to gain insight.
Our seminar, on Understanding your audience: gathering and applying insight, had some great takeaways to help inform your thinking and help get you started with your insight journey…
Be clear about what your research objectives are
It can be difficult for organisations to identify what they are trying to achieve with research, especially when it comes to better understanding who their audiences are. This is where the importance of clarity comes in, says nfpResearch’s Tim Harrison-Byrne. Tim’s advice is that when starting audience research, it is important to clarify exactly what problem you are trying to solve. And that means considering the following:
- Who is your audience? Every charity has multiple audiences
- Don’t be afraid to address uncomfortable truths
- Be open to collateral insight
Secil Erden Muderrisoglu from the Wellcome Trust echoed the importance of having clarity around the aims of your research, highlighting the need to implement frameworks whilst gathering research which allows the organisation to measure impact.
Make the most of your existing data
When it comes to sharing insights and data, there are many common challenges charities face when gathering and using data such as lack of time, not acting on data and lack of forward thinking. One way to combat this would be to make systems and processes easy to follow. Nayna Tarver from Canal & River Trust suggests some things that could be actioned within your organisation to manage information better. They include:
- Standardising evaluation measures and Eventbrite templates so everyone can work with the same assets
- Consistency in survey questions
- Making friends with the CRM Team/ IT Team and anyone responsible for your data warehouse information
Make the most of other people’s existing data
Another way to maximize on existing data is to use existing external data sources, such as IMD Heatmaps (CDRD), Public Health England or NOMIS.
Public opinion polls are very useful in understanding audience for example. Charlotte Smith, client engagement manager at YouGov, demonstrated this by giving insight into the main findings from a recent survey, conducted alongside CharityComms, which looked at how the cost of living impacted charity audiences. Results showed that:
- 74% of GB adults have done at least one charitable activity in the last three months
- People aged 18-24 were more likely to volunteer
- 58% of those polled think that charities should share info and advice on how to combat the effects of the cost of living crisis while
- But 21% of those are donating less than usual because of the rising costs
Ensure things are actionable – ask can the insight you have be used to inform decisions and change?
One thing all the speakers from the Understanding your audience: gathering and applying insight event agreed on is that you’ve always got to keep in mind whether what you are doing will help lead to action and change.
As Tim and Nayna both stress there is a real need for actionable audience insight, emphasising that the way we can all achieve this is through well designed research. And as Secil puts it; to create actionable insights and have that ‘sweet spot, data needs to be collected across mixed methods.’
Finally, think strategy and leadership
Make sure your senior team/trustees are on board.
Not only is it important to aim for audience insight that is actionable, but it must also be within an organisation that is ready to act on any research findings that emerge. For the results from the findings to have a real impact then senior leaders need to value an insight driven approach, see how it supports organisational strategy and be ready to give the green light on projects as a result. It’s not just an academic exercise, it should have a practical outcome too.
As Nayna notes there needs to be ‘an organisation belief that evidence-based decision making is key to the strategy of your organisation’.
More resources
If you want know more about audience insight, you can find plenty of information on our Who Cares? hub.
Or, if you missed out on anything, keep an eye out for this event on demand soon. Everyone who registered for either the live event, or signs up to access the on-demand recording, will also receive a delegate bag full of useful resources to enjoy.
Also, we collated all the #CCAudienceInsight Twitter action for you below and if you would like more inspiration these blogs may be of interest:
- Applying insight to be agile and responsive in a cost-of-living crisis
- Turning TikToks into insights: how can charities harness the power of TikTok?
- How to find and use insights
Banner image: Keren Fedida on Unsplash