For brand storytellers, one of our most crucial skills is truly understanding the audience we are addressing.

If we don't have a clear picture of who we are talking with, it's very easy for our storytelling to become broad and rambling.

I like going though an audience definition exercise before I begin because it helps me visualize the type of person I hope to connect with. Once I visualize that person, it becomes much easier to imagine a conversation.  And that can improve my ability to deliver relevant and meaningful storytelling.

I like to break the process into 3 steps:e

1. Who are they? This gets at the demographics of your audience.
2. How do they think? This documents the psychographic profile of your audience.
3. How do they act? This step looks at the key behaviors of your audience. 

This is a good audience definition worksheet to help start your process for documenting the 3 areas and to start visualizing that person you hope to reach.

The worksheet is a good first step to lay the foundation for your thinking.  Of course, on bigger efforts, you may want to get into research and full personas to help bring your audiences into focus. It just depends on the size of your project.

Additionally, the audience definition document gives you a touchstone to judge the appropriateness of ideas when you're collaborating with someone.

As a final note, I have skipped the audience definition exercise from time to time, thinking that I already had a clear picture of my audience. Invariably, I find myself going back to the exercise because of its ability to clarify my thinking and focus my efforts.

Needless to say, I keep the worksheet close at hand.  I hope it helps you.