Communicating with diverse audiences

When developing a communications strategy or designing stakeholder engagement, we often talk about segmenting your audience—defining who they are, their demographics, needs, challenges, and pain points. This segmentation is supposed to help us tailor our communication so it resonates more effectively, ensuring our messages cut through the noise.

However, defining your audience is just the first step. It’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking that simply segmenting your audience equates to effective communication. You’ve done the research, mapped out the demographics, and maybe even created detailed personas—so the hard work is done, right? But here’s the catch: if you don’t bridge the gap between understanding your audience and crafting specific tactics and assets that speak to them directly, all that effort becomes redundant.

This issue becomes even more critical when communicating with diverse audiences. It’s great to identify groups like CALD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) communities or LGBTQIA+ populations as key target audiences in a strategy. But if you then proceed to apply generic tactics without considering the unique attributes of these groups, you’re essentially erasing the very distinctions you acknowledged in the first place.

When I think about diverse audiences, I often picture my grandparents. They migrated from Greece to Australia several years ago, and while their English has improved, there is still a significant language barrier. Over the years, I have watched my parents act as translators for them. Simple things like going to the doctor or ordering at a restaurant. I reflect on situations like COVID-19, and how frustrating it would have been not to be able to understand the news. It’s more than just language; it is culture and traditions, too. In TV commercials or Facebook ads, they rarely see people who look like them or have similar cultural values and practices. I imagine that for them, it can feel isolating. For me, it reiterates the importance of being intentional in your communications efforts. If you want to target a specific community, ensure that your strategy meets their needs.

This train of thought led me to do some research on communicating with multicultural and diverse audiences. There are excellent resources out there, and in situations like these, it can be challenging to admit that you may not know all the answers – but that is okay! Here are some of my key takeaways:

They aren’t one homogenous group.

It’s crucial to recognise that within a broad group such as CALD communities, there’s a spectrum of sub-audiences, each with distinct languages, traditions, customs, and communication preferences. A one-size-fits-all approach will inevitably miss the mark for many within these groups. This even applies to audience groups like “Australian Government” – think about all the different departments, divisions, education levels and ages that exist within that category.

Co-creation and consultation are key.

Engaging with representatives from the communities you’re targeting isn’t just beneficial—it’s necessary. Co-creating communication strategies with these audiences ensures your tactics are culturally relevant and resonate more deeply. You can read more about multicultural consultation in this Ethnolink blog.

Readability is essential for inclusivity.

While readability is often emphasised for CALD communities, it’s equally vital for all audiences. Within the community, there are varying levels of literacy and people with accessibility requirements. Research found that almost 80% of the Australian population has a lower literacy level. This means that even if you hadn’t identified low literacy as a characteristic of your audience group, it likely is one. People need information that is easy to understand. As communicators, we play a key role in simplifying complex messaging into accessible and inclusive communication.

Nuanced understanding leads to better communication

Keep digging and researching to understand and accurately identify the key characteristics of your audience that matter for your communication. Tailored messaging, delivered in the formats and channels that your specific audience engages with, builds trust and fosters deeper connections. The Australian Bureau of Statistics Census data is a great place to start for some desktop research. There is also the Multicultural Media Review and Policy Report 2023 from the NSW Government, which has some interesting data on channel consumption behaviours of NSW multicultural audiences.

Imagery matters

I hadn’t really considered this before watching this webinar from Ethnolink, but now it is really noticeable to me. The visual elements of your communication should reflect the diversity of your audience. When people see themselves represented in the imagery, they’re more likely to engage with the content, have higher brand favourability, and feel connected to the message.

Building trust with communities starts with recognising that every audience is inherently diverse, no matter how it’s labelled. Effective communication isn’t just about identifying your audience—it’s about crafting your strategy to genuinely reflect and respect that diversity. By moving beyond surface-level segmentation and truly understanding the nuances of your audiences, you can create communication that doesn’t just reach people but resonates with them.