How do you tailor your research communication to diverse audiences?

1 Know your audience

Before you start crafting your research communication, you need to identify and understand your target audience. Who are they? What are their goals and challenges? What are their existing knowledge and attitudes towards your research topic? How do they prefer to receive and process information? By answering these questions, you can tailor your research communication to suit their level of expertise, relevance, and engagement.

2 Choose your format

Depending on your audience and your communication objective, you may need to use different formats to present your research. For example, you may use a peer-reviewed journal article to communicate your research to other academics, a policy brief to inform and influence policymakers, a blog post to raise awareness and interest among the media and the public, or a webinar to demonstrate and explain your research methods and results to practitioners. Each format has its own conventions, expectations, and limitations, so you need to adapt your research communication accordingly.

3 Simplify your language

One of the biggest challenges in research communication is to make your research understandable and accessible to non-expert audiences, without oversimplifying or distorting your research. To achieve this, you need to use clear, concise, and plain language, avoiding jargon, acronyms, and technical terms as much as possible. If you need to use them, make sure to define them or provide examples. You also need to use active voice, short sentences, and transitional words to make your research communication more readable and coherent.

4 Highlight your key messages

Another challenge in research communication is to capture and retain the attention of your audience, who may have limited time and interest in your research. To overcome this, you need to highlight your key messages and main findings, using catchy headlines, summaries, or bullet points. You also need to emphasize the relevance and implications of your research for your audience, showing how your research addresses their problems, needs, or interests. You can also use stories, anecdotes, or quotes to illustrate your points and make your research more relatable and memorable.

5 Use visuals and multimedia

A picture is worth a thousand words, and a video is worth even more. Visuals and multimedia can enhance your research communication by making it more attractive, engaging, and persuasive. You can use graphs, charts, tables, maps, or infographics to display your data and findings in a clear and appealing way. You can also use photos, videos, podcasts, or animations to showcase your research process, context, or impact. However, you need to make sure that your visuals and multimedia are relevant, accurate, and consistent with your research communication.

6 Seek feedback and evaluation

Finally, you need to seek feedback and evaluation from your audience and other sources to measure the effectiveness and impact of your research communication. You can use surveys, interviews, focus groups, or analytics to collect and analyze feedback and evaluation data. You can also use social media, newsletters, or forums to interact and engage with your audience, answering their questions, addressing their concerns, or inviting their comments. By doing so, you can improve your research communication skills and strategies, as well as build trust and credibility with your audience.

7 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?