The Commons · Rising › Know

Naming your intended audience

Here's the thing: when you try to speak to everyone, you reach almost no one. But when you name the specific people you're trying to reach, every future decision about content, tone, and channels gets clearer. The work here is getting specific enough for that name to really earn its keep.

Auto-saving as you go

Specific is the whole game. "Young families" is a category, and it tells you nothing about what to say or where to say it. The goal here is a description so specific you could almost picture one real person. That person becomes your compass for everything Rising teaches next.

One

Your first instinct

Before we sharpen anything, write your gut answer. Who do you think your church is trying to reach? One quick sentence. We'll come back to this.

Two

Sharpen it through five lenses

Each lens adds detail. You don't need all five, but the more you can answer specifically, the more useful your final picture becomes.

Vague vs. specific
"Young families."
"Parents of school-age kids who are spiritually curious but wary of organized religion, and want their children to grow up with something deeper than they had."
Life stage
Where are they in life? New parents, empty nesters, students, retirees, newly single, newly arrived?
Felt needs
What are they actually longing for or worried about? Belonging, meaning, community for their kids, a place to grieve, a fresh start?
Spiritual & cultural context
What's their relationship to faith and church right now? Skeptical, deconstructing, returning, never been, raised religious but drifted?
Geography
Where are they? A specific neighborhood, the new developments on the edge of town, the blocks around your building?
Demographics (lightly)
Any broad strokes worth noting? Age range, household type. Hold these loosely; the needs above matter more.
Three

Primary and secondary

Both matter, but your primary audience drives strategy. When a decision is close, you decide in favor of the primary. Pull from the lenses above to write each one as a specific, real-feeling description.

One specific description. Specific enough that you could almost picture one real person who fits it.
A real second group worth serving, named just as specifically. Optional.
The payoff

Your intended audience

See how far you traveled from your first instinct to a description you can actually use. Keep this somewhere you'll see it. Every content decision in Rising gets easier when you know exactly who you're talking to. Revisit it once a year, since your community changes.

Where you started
Your first instinct appears here.
Where you landed
Your sharpened primary appears here.
Your audience statement
Your statement assembles here as you work through the lenses.

Copied to your clipboard.