Communicating Your Message for the Novice

Every business or organization has something to say. We are all trying to communicate something. Communication is defined by Webster as the means of sending or receiving information. What is the information you want to send? And what is the information you want to receive? The old phrase a word in haste is such a waste is never truer when talking about business communication. Be wise with your communication and take deliberate time to think about what you are saying, how you are saying it and what you want it to do. This is by no means the gospel but this is a place to start and then develop your own method.

Why a Strategy is Important?

Having a plan for communication is important for:

Establishing Goals that you can achieve

Creating effective communication to achieve those goals

Measuring effectiveness so you can adjust the strategy

Helping to save time and energy for everyone involved

I'm going to outline the basics of how to get start with the started with a strategy. Defining your Message and Audience. Assessing what you have and what you want to communicate. Implementing and planning based on what you learned and then repeating the process to remain effective.

Where to Begin: The Message

The First thing you want to do is Define what you are communicating.

Having a clear message is important. Ask yourself this question: What is your message? You need to know what your immediate message is and what your long-term message is. An Example of a short term message is "We're having a sale this Saturday" and a long term message "We offer great value on our products"

How often you send a message is important too. And usually once is not enough. Your message needs time to be heard repeatedly before you can get a response. An example is blogging. Most people follow bloggers who post something at least weekly. When people know they can expect something consistently they are more likely to look for it. In today's age of instant updates keeping up with your audience is a priority.

To Who

The Next thing to think about is Audience. So whom are you trying to reach? You might have several audiences. Are they young or old? What things do they value? How do they communicate? These questions can be hard to answer just based on your knowledge so getting user feedback is important. Asking questions. Surveys help you get feedback and feedback is part of communication. Knowing what you're audience likes, doesn't like, what mediums they use, can help you be more effective and in tune with what they want.

The How of Communication

This is usually what we call the medium. Are you using a webpage, twitter, and print newsletter? There are a variety of ways you can communicate. Obviously you can't do them all. Your message may not work well on a certain medium. Cost is a huge factor too some mediums are more effective than others. Here are some things to look at as you pick which method of communication would fit your needs

Is your Audience using it?

Is the cost going to be worth it?

How often can you send it or will it be viewed?

Research and Feedback

We talked a little about these things already because they are important. Feedback shows that you are communicating. It also helps you be effective. Start with what you have. So, How and what are you communicating right now? Are people paying attention? Ask people what might be more effective. Then go to what you need or want. What do you need and want to communicate in the future? Find some measurable goals.

When you know what you have, you know what you want, so figure out how to make it happen.

Start getting the Message out!

Once you have figured out what you're going to say and you've done all the research. Get going. It is important to take the time to figure out your message and what you want to do but don't waste time once you're ready. Start implementing your plan, make sure people know what you are doing. Come out Strong! If people don't know where to get the Message you are trying to communicate then you aren't communicating. Allow some time for the plan to work itself out. If it isn't working well go back to the drawing board. That's the next step.

Rinse and Repeat

The backs of shampoo bottles say Rinse and Repeat. The same goes for your communication strategy get feedback and assess it again. Was the message being received? How is the audience reacting? Revising is recognizing that the strategy might not have worked or maybe you changed your message whatever the case don't be afraid to start again. When reworking your strategies work on small changes. Many times changing a small thing can have a big impact.

Here is a very simple and cheesy Example Scenario- This is very broad but helps you get a general idea.

Pet Rights Inc Weekly Newsletter

Defining the Message

They Advocate events and issues related to Pets Rights.

They mainly cater to Pet Owners and Animal Lovers (fairly internet savvy).

They Publish a Weekly Mailed Newsletter.

The Nuts and Bolts of Assessment

They have Weekly Mailed Newsletter

They would like a cheaper way to deliver the newsletter and try to increase circulation

They determined that mail is expensive and e-mail is a possible solution and based on a group survey of existing newsletter recipients 85% would like to receive newsletter via e-mail.

Getting to work

They announced in Weekly Mailer about new plan. They set a date to stop sending the mailer to those who requested email within next month. They started gathering e-mails and took people off snail mail list that requested it.

Rinse and Repeat

Pet Rights Inc. is always updating their e-mail list. They have increased circulation of about 25% because of email forwarding. They send out a quarterly mailer and email survey to see if changes need to be made.

These are just an outline of how to develop a simple communication strategy. I hope this helps you get started and you become a better communicator.