Today’s lesson on neurodiversity and marketing psychology: thinking about audience

Years ago at a friend’s house—a friend whom I’ve known since I was in seventh grade—I got the clearest reading on my place in the world—crystal clear, mountain-stream clear, single-pane-of-glass clear, as clear as it gets. Said friend’s mom, whom I’ve known only slightly less long, turned to me while we were cleaning vegetables with: “You’re different, you know? Not bad or anything. You just think … different.”

At the time I’m almost sure I replied with “Yes, I am aware” while grappling with a stubborn peeler and an even-more-stubborn carrot.

Because I am.

Trust me when I tell you the neurodivergent in your sphere(s) of influence are beyond well aware that they think differently—odd angles to the neuronorm, flips in POVs, reactions that seem oh-so-right to them but oh-so-wrong when read with traditional culture insights.

We’re aware, and we’ve been studying y’all for years: how you react, how you respond, how you feel in those instances where we tend to read things oh-so-culturally wrong. It’s how we survive. The neurodiverse have been taking note of—to quote Peter O’Toole from “How to Steal a Million”—normal human reaction for most of our lives.

We do it to understand better. We do it to fit in better. We do it to play the job game, and we do it to play the social game—not win, mind you, just to get into the game. We’ve played out various scenarios in our heads with various results and most likely outcomes given changes in responses a million times before we even say a single word.

But we know we still stand out. We’re aware.

Still, even if we haven’t perfected our adaptations, we’ve learned a whole lot. And that heaping helping of amateur psychological study can be tapped into when you’re considering a content build.

Today’s lesson from the world of different thinking: reading the room (audience thinking vs. audience + channel thinking).

I know y’all all know to keep your audience in mind when making things. That’s probably been drilled into you since high school English. But, how are you doing that? Perhaps you’re saying to yourself, “So, what do I want to tell ‘X title at said company + similar title at other companies’ about our product?” (Some marketing peeps call this developing personas.)

It seems like smart strategy on the surface, but let’s dig in more. Is that the best way to tap your audience, or would it be a better approach to ask “What does ‘X title at said company + similar title at other companies’ want to hear?”

Now we flipped this focus from a static, self-focused build that is still all about us to an open-ended, potentially SEO-positive approach that may bring us a wider audience.

Here’s the kicker: both have their place. Neither are bad approaches, what you have to do is read the room (or, in simple terms, know how the same audience will react differently in different channels).

What do I want to tell this audience is perfect for an assumed, already-interested “captive” (so to speak) reader. Data sheets are a perfect example. People coming to data sheets are already invested in your product and looking for pure, direct info.

What does this audience want to hear is where content that moves via keyword or campaign comes in. It’s when what someone is typing into Google, for example, is your first focus on moving this content. So, blogs and social channels content fit here.

But the lesson is: Even if your audience is the same—our ‘X title at said company + similar title at other companies’—the channel should dictate your POV on the content.

Too often, we assume just knowing the audience is all we need to help us craft the right content. But, it’s just not that simple in the end. You have to pair knowing your audience with knowing how they typically respond at the various channel crossroads along the way from top-of-the-funnel to that final sale.

To use me as an example: It’s not enough to know Kathleen. You need to think about what Kathleen likes and responds to on Twitter if you want to craft content that entices Kathleen to retweet you.