At its simplest, targeted data collection can be asking your colleagues, friends or family for their opinions about your content.

More usefully, talking to or surveying audience groups can provide feedback specific to their context and needs. To find your target audiences, contact relevant community or professional organisations. You can also hire consultants specialising in market research to recruit members of the audiences you want to reach.

Targeted data collection methods include the following:

• Surveys. These may be conducted over the phone or online, and can be a cost-effective way of gathering large amounts of quantifiable data. Online surveys are often useful because they automatically collate the data. There are several online survey sites to choose from. However, you should keep your audiences in mind when deciding whether to use an online survey (eg an older or remote audience may be less willing or able to access an online survey).

• Focus groups. These are run face to face, usually with a facilitator and a set of questions or topic areas to facilitate discussion. The data gathered from focus groups vary with the discussion, and are not easily analysed using quantitative methods. But these data complement the more concentrated data from surveys, providing a forum for new ideas and an interactive discussion, and allowing deeper digging into interesting points raised by participants.

• Ongoing feedback. This can be collected online or in hard copy, and gives you the opportunity to ask specific questions from audiences who have found and used your content. Both yes–no questions, such as ‘Did you find this brochure useful?’, and open-ended questions, such as ‘What else would you like to see on this page?’, will contribute useful feedback.

Targeted data collection allows you to home in on exactly what users want. You can explore user characteristics and preferences, such as:

• topics – what do users want to know? What do they find most important?

• breadth and depth – are users looking for basics or details? What do they know already, and what do they want answered?

• completeness – do users want the content to be standalone? Do they expect to see everything in your publication, or are they happy to go to another source of information?

• language – what is the most appropriate style? What reading level will users have?