How to Do Presentation Audience Analysis [Practical Guide]
- Ink Narrates | The Presentation Design Agency
- Aug 3, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: Jan 20
Josh, one of our clients, asked us something last week that hit the nail right on the head.
“How do I know what my audience actually wants to hear before I start building the slides?”
Our Creative Director replied without missing a beat,
“You don’t guess. You find out.”
As a presentation design agency, we work on audience analysis for presentations all year round. Product launches, investor pitches, quarterly updates, internal trainings—you name it. And across these formats, we’ve noticed one recurring blind spot: most presenters are more focused on what they want to say than what the audience needs to hear.
So in this blog, we’ll talk about how to shift that mindset and actually do the work of understanding your audience before a single slide is made.
Because if you skip this part, you're building a house without checking if the ground can even hold it.
In case you didn't know, we specialize in only one thing: making presentations. We can help you by designing your slides and writing your content too.
Why Audience Analysis Is Where Every Presentation Should Start
Most people prep for a presentation by opening PowerPoint.
They start building slides, throwing in charts, bullet points, maybe a bold quote or two. It feels like progress—but it’s not. It’s like putting paint on a wall you haven’t even built yet.
Here’s the problem: too many presentations are designed before the presenter has taken even five minutes to understand who they’re talking to. And without audience analysis, every decision you make—what to say, how much to say, what to emphasize—is just a shot in the dark.
We’ve worked on decks where the speaker had amazing content, but none of it resonated. Why?
Because they made assumptions. They assumed the audience knew the context. They assumed people cared about the same things they did. They assumed everyone understood the problem the same way.
Turns out, they didn’t.
Audience analysis is not a checklist. It’s not a form you fill out for the sake of it. It’s the only way to make sure what you’re saying actually matters to the people listening.
When it’s missing, the feedback is vague. “It was okay.” “Interesting stuff.” “We’ll get back to you.” But when it’s done right, you hear things like “That’s exactly what we needed” or “This makes complete sense.”
And that difference (between polite silence and real engagement) starts with knowing your audience better than they expect you to.
On a side note: If you’re exploring audience analysis, it’s worth understanding what a speculative presentation is as well.
How to Do Presentation Audience Analysis
Let’s strip away the fluff and talk about how audience analysis actually works. Not in theory. In practice. Because if you’re going to do it, you might as well do it properly—and no, Googling your audience’s job titles isn’t enough.
We do this day in and day out while building high-stakes decks for clients—sales pitches, investor presentations, town halls, board meetings, the works. And every time we skip audience analysis (which we don’t anymore), the results suffer. Every single time.
So let’s walk through exactly how to do audience analysis for a presentation in a way that’s practical, usable, and doesn’t feel like a corporate strategy workshop.
1. Identify Who’s in the Room (Beyond Titles and Roles)
You can’t speak to people you don’t understand. The first step is to map out who you’re talking to.
And we’re not talking about “CEO, CTO, CFO” labels. That tells you their seating chart, not their mindset.
You need to know:
What kind of decisions do they make?
What pressures are they under?
What do they care about when they’re not sitting in front of you?
What’s at stake for them in this conversation?
If you’re presenting to a potential client, their VP of Sales isn’t just a title. She’s probably under pressure to hit quarterly targets, beat competitors, justify her budget, and prove ROI on every dollar.
That’s who you’re talking to.
The more real your mental picture of the audience, the better your content will match their expectations.
If you’re not sure who’s attending, ask. Clients usually appreciate when presenters are thoughtful enough to ask, “Can you tell me a bit about who will be in the room?” It signals that you’re not just showing up to talk—you’re showing up to connect.
2. Understand Their Level of Context
This is where a lot of smart people get it wrong. They assume the audience knows what they know. But unless you’re speaking to your mirror, they don’t.
Before you prepare a single slide, ask yourself:
Are they familiar with this topic, or is this their first exposure?
Do they know the background or do I need to lay the foundation?
Have they heard competing perspectives before?
We’ve worked on investor decks where founders jumped straight into their solution—brilliant, by the way—but didn’t explain the problem clearly. The investors were left trying to connect dots that should’ve already been drawn.
Knowing how much the audience already knows helps you decide how deep to go. Go too shallow and you sound condescending. Go too deep and you lose them halfway through. Audience analysis helps you find the sweet spot.
3. Identify What They Care About (Not Just What You Want to Say)
Here’s a harsh truth: no one really cares about your product, your update, or your model unless it solves a problem they care about.
Your job is not to impress them with what you’ve done. Your job is to connect what you’ve done to what they care about.
This requires stepping out of your own narrative for a second. Ask:
What does success look like for them?
What are they measured on?
What risks are they trying to avoid?
What kind of language do they respond to—numbers, emotions, vision, strategy?
A CFO wants to see numbers, forecasts, financial logic. A Head of Design wants to understand user impact. A skeptical client wants proof. A strategic investor wants to know your long-term game plan.
If you say everything, you say nothing. The best presentations don’t try to cover all bases—they double down on relevance. And you can’t be relevant if you don’t know what your audience values.
4. Find Out What Their Objections Might Be
Great presenters aren’t just persuasive—they’re preemptive.
If you’ve done proper audience analysis, you’ll have a good idea of what might trigger doubt, resistance, or even boredom. And once you identify those potential friction points, you can build your content around defusing them.
For example:
If you’re pitching an unconventional idea, address skepticism head-on.
If your solution looks expensive, justify the cost early.
If they’ve heard a similar pitch before, explain what makes yours different.
Objections aren’t problems—they’re opportunities. They give you a clear sense of where to go deeper. But you can only prepare for them if you’ve done the homework.
5. Use What You Know to Shape the Narrative
Now we get to the part where audience analysis becomes useful.
Once you’ve gathered insights about your audience—who they are, what they know, what they care about, what they might resist—you don’t just keep that in your notes. You use it to shape every part of the presentation:
Opening: Tailor your hook to something they immediately care about.
Problem framing: Speak about the problem the way they experience it.
Solution: Highlight the aspects that solve their specific pain points.
Data: Choose numbers that matter to them.
Language: Mirror their tone—strategic, technical, emotional, or practical.
Design: Use visuals that make sense in their context.
If your audience analysis shows that the room is full of time-pressed execs, your story better get to the point quickly. If it’s a technical team, skip the marketing fluff and show them the engine.
We’ve had clients who presented to boards using the same deck they used for their team meetings. It didn’t go well. Boards want high-level insights, clear decisions, and accountability—not a breakdown of what each team accomplished last quarter.
The story you tell should be custom-built for the room. That’s what audience analysis empowers you to do.
6. Validate Your Assumptions (Even a Little Bit)
Here’s the kicker. Even the best audience analysis is still, at some level, educated guessing. So wherever possible, validate.
Talk to someone who knows the audience. Ask your client or internal contact:
“What’s the vibe of this group?”
“Is there anything they’re especially sensitive about?”
“What have they responded well to in past presentations?”
Even a short conversation can give you insights you can’t get from research alone. It helps you check your blind spots before they show up in the middle of your talk.
7. Don’t Just Analyze—Empathize
We’re not here to treat audience analysis like a checkbox. We’re here to use it to build better connections.
That means actually caring. Not pretending to. Not manipulating people into agreeing with you. But genuinely trying to understand what they need from this presentation—and then delivering it.
When we build presentations for our clients, we don’t just ask “What are you trying to say?” We also ask, “Why would someone in the room care?” And if there’s no good answer, we go back to the drawing board.
This approach works. Every time. Because no matter how polished your design or how strong your content, a presentation that misses the audience is a waste of everyone's time.
Why Hire Us to Build your Presentation?
If you're reading this, you're probably working on a presentation right now. You could do it all yourself. But the reality is - that’s not going to give you the high-impact presentation you need. It’s a lot of guesswork, a lot of trial and error. And at the end of the day, you’ll be left with a presentation that’s “good enough,” not one that gets results. On the other hand, we’ve spent years crafting thousands of presentations, mastering both storytelling and design. Let us handle this for you, so you can focus on what you do best.
How To Get Started?
If you want to hire us for your presentation design project, the process is extremely easy.
Just click on the "Start a Project" button on our website, calculate the price, make payment, and we'll take it from there.