This is an Eval Central archive copy, find the original at freshspectrum.com.
Your report is NOT the problem.
This is probably not the argument you would expect to hear from someone who has spent the better part of a decade teaching people how to design better reports, tell better data stories, and create better charts. But here’s the thing, you can create the most interesting, visually stunning, engaging, and insightful report, but there is still no guarantee that anybody will read it.
I have seen fantastic reports languish on dusty shelves and inside low-traffic resource libraries. Not because of what they are but how we share them.
Putting on a Show
To understand the problem, you have to understand the status quo.
Most of the time, dissemination is performative.
Last century, when our current default was being established, we didn’t have the same tools at our disposal. The roots of how we report today start well before the rise of the web. Before social media. Before Google. Before email. Before the internet.
For most organizations, the idea of delivering reports directly to a large of group of people was not feasible. It would take way too much time and cost way too much money.
So you create your report for a small group of people. If you have more time and money, you make it pretty and engaging. You might also print more copies and share them at meetings, conferences, and other event.
Even with all our fancy new tools, this is still how we report.
The hope is that if you put on a great show, people will show up. It’s why we tend to evaluate our reports with simplistic metrics like number of downloads. Like how you would evaluate the success of a show by how many people showed up to watch.
And while things have changed a bit in the last couple of decades, the essence is still the same. You build the report, try it make it engaging by thinking about potential audiences, and then market on your website and over social media.
It’s report first, audience later. Which is a lousy way to disseminate information.
What is Direct Dissemination?
My dissemination approach is inspired by the split between brand marketing and direct marketing. I won’t go into details on that one so if you’re interested just ask Google or your AI of choice.
But the idea behind the direct dissemination approach is to start with the people, not the report. I could probably write a whole book on this, but let’s start simple.
Here are the steps.
Step 1. Name and Frame your Audience.
When I say name, I mean it. You should be able to name members of your audience. You should know at least some of them as people, not arbitrary groupings or categories or avatars.
How many other people exist that share the same general characteristics as the ones you can name? Seriously, give me a number. That’s your frame.
Step 2. Now Build your Audience.
If you already have all of your audience’s email addresses, this step is easy.
If you don’t, this is going to take a bit of work but it’s important. You have to forge a personal connection with your audience members. You need to be able to reach them directly. That’s the point.
This is something you should do at the very beginning of any project that will culminate in a report.
Step 3. Layer your Content based on REAL Audience needs.
Report content doesn’t have to be a long PDF, data dashboard, interactive website, or fancy infographic. It can be a simple email, or series of emails. It could be a series of blog posts, an Excel spreadsheet, or a set of PowerPoint slides.
This all comes down to what your audience actually needs, which you’ll know if you know your audience. And if you don’t know your audience, this is an opportunity for you to learn more about their needs. It might involve conversations or perhaps some little experiments.
Step 4. Evaluate, Evaluate, Evaluate.
If you do this right, here are some of the things you should know or be able to find out.
- The percentage of your audience you actually reach.
- The percentage of those reached who actually engage with your information.
- The specific pieces of information people engage with the most.
- The ways individual people stumble up on your work.
- How important web search, social media, or other channels are to connecting people with your reporting content.
- The things your audience members don’t actually care about.
- Which content delivers the most value to your audience.
- How many people visited specific pages of your website.
- How many people downloaded your pdf.
Want more information on my approach?
If you want me to elaborate more in future posts, let me know in the comments. If you want to learn how I help you implement your own organization’s direct dissemination strategy, schedule a chat.