In my last video on how to develop your communication skills I introduced the concept of audience and said I was going to do a follow up to help you with that, so here's the follow up.

And we're going to begin with a little game.

In a moment I'm going to give you a topic and I want you to think of the first three words that come to mind when you hear this topic.

Are you ready? So the topic is party. What are your three words? Have you got them? Write them down if you can. And more about that in a moment.

Now, when we write it can be really helpful for us to visualise our audience because it can deepen connection with them. So ask yourself some questions about the audience you're writing for.

• What's their background? What's their level of expertise like around the subject that you're writing about?

• Are they new to the topic or do they really know their stuff?

• And what do they need to know from your writing? Now often that can get confused with what you want to tell them, but it is different. What do they need to know?

Now, a moment ago I gave you the topic of a party to think about and you thought of your own 3 words that you connected with around that word.

But parties can mean very different things to different audiences.

If we take a bunch of five-year-olds a party is high energy! Balloons, sugar, games.

But if we take a very different group if we take a bunch of women on a Bachelorette or a hen party it's a very different party but probably also involves balloons sugar.

So the next time you're sitting down to write to your audience try one of these three techniques to help you.

1) What are the three words your audience would use that they associate with the topic you're writing about?

2) Do a little bit of a mini bio like we've just done earlier, so what's their background, what's their level of expertise, what do they need from you in your writing?

3) You can even get a photo, a picture of them and stick it by the side of your laptop as you're writing, to remind you that audience is really important when you are writing.

So, how can you use these techniques? And where can you try them?