Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Identifying your target audience

The training process within an organization begins with determining the purpose of training (which we covered in an earlier post). Just as important is determining the target audience. To maximize the results of the training program, it is essential to identify the target audience and tailor the training delivery accordingly. When it comes to the target audience there are three key aspects that need to be considered namely: the type or classification of the target audience, the expertise level of the audience and lastly the complexity of the subject matter that the target audience needs to be trained on.


First, let us consider the type or classification of the audience. For example, employees, customers and partners could be a possible classification of the target audience. Employees and partners might need different kinds of training even if the subject matter was the same. Similarly, the training material developed for partners may not be suitable for customers.