Updated: December 9th, 2021
Principles of communication is effectively is vital in the world of marketing. Whether it’s emails, blog posts, or client meetings, good communication skills are a necessity. Understanding how to express yourself clearly and effectively is critical for any business.
Here are 10 simple principles to remember for effective communication.
1. Create A Goal
The first step is determining how you want to impact your audience. Are you positioning yourself as a thought leader, or are you persuading them to take action? Figuring out your ideal outcome at the start and intentionally crafting your communication to reach for that goal will make it much more effective. Deciding which KPIs can help you keep track of your goals is also important, whether it’s clicks, social shares, sign-ups, or purchases.
2. Listen to Feedback
Good communication is never a one-way street. This is why no one enjoys being stuck with someone constantly talking about themselves without giving you a chance to respond or even say a few words. A one-sided conversation can make anyone lose interest in the topic at hand.
Likewise, if you never listen to what your audience is saying or give them a chance to engage, you’ll struggle to effectively connect with them. The better option is always to do your research, read what they’re writing, ask for their feedback, and incorporate what they’re looking for into what you’re trying to communicate.
3. Adjust To Your Medium
Understanding the context of your communication is vital to success. For example, you wouldn’t say certain things through written communication because the tone and inflection of the spoken word isn’t there. On the other hand, you would communicate much differently on the phone than face-to-face because the other person can’t see your face, hand gestures, or body language.
Once you decide on the most appealing format to reach your audience, make sure your content and messaging are both tailored for that medium. For example, if it’s for Twitter, you’ll want something that’s short, visually appealing, and will maybe even start a conversation. However, you’ll want to go into more detail on a mobile-optimized and easy-to-read page if you are writing a blog post.
4. Stay Organized
Staying organized isn’t easy for most people. One way to stay organized is to create a high-level outline before you attempt to communicate with your audience.
An outline includes:
- Your goal.
- Your main point(s) to get across.
- The different ways you’re going to illustrate them for your audience.
Breaking things down into small tasks will help you remain focused on this plan while being methodical in your research, and avoiding any scope creep.
5. Be Persuasive
One of the primary goals of effective communication is to remain persuasive. Of course, people are persuaded in different ways. Using relevant facts to back up your main argument is a great way to appeal to many people.
However, it’s even more important to appeal to your audience’s emotional side, as research shows that our emotional brain processes information much faster than the logical side of our brain. In other words, using images or telling stories that bring happiness, hope, or humor can greatly impact how you communicate with your audience.
6. Be Clear
Writing concise sentences is essential to keeping things clear. On the other hand, writing large blocks of text with lengthy sentences is one of the quickest ways to lose the attention of your audience.
Replacing longer phrases with shorter ones, making things simple, and keeping most of your sentences below 30 words are all key aspects of communication. Usually, this entire process goes through a few rounds of editing to eliminate unnecessary content and improve readability.
7. Visuals Are Important
Variety can often go a long way while communicating with an audience. People can comprehend new information in numerous ways, but the vast majority are primarily visual people. In fact, people can understand visual data in as little as 13 milliseconds.
Understanding how to use compelling visuals is a great way to draw in your audience, and you can use text to further demonstrate your point. Visuals are also a fantastic way to appeal to the emotional side of your audience.
8. Use Stories
Another way to connect with your audience and communicate your ideas is with powerful stories. People are natural storytellers and listeners. This inborn trait stretches across cultures and is especially evident with how kids are so quickly drawn to storybooks.
Stories are great ways to make ideas more tangible to people and can also humanize what you’re communicating. Stories are also more likely to be remembered than the other elements of what you communicate due to them appealing to your audience’s more emotional side. So, if you really want people to understand and remember your point, add in a story that illustrates it.
9. Less Is More
Your audience is likely busy. So don’t waste your (or their) time with irrelevant tidbits, repeated information, or details that don’t help you with your main communication goal. It will lead to disengagement, less information being retained, and take away from the effectiveness of your efforts. When in doubt, err on the side of clarity.
10. Be Curious
Finally, resolve to always be learning. While some things remain the same, the world of communication is constantly evolving. Continue to read, talk to mentors, and never assume you know everything when it comes to good communication. For your individual efforts, test different formats and styles to see what works best when connecting with your unique audience, and always be open to feedback.
Good Communication is Effective Communication
Communication is the cornerstone of our profession. These principles of communication will help you focus your thoughts, whether you are selling a product, trying to convince a group to act, or getting your team aligned to reach specific goals.
Looking to land your next freelance writing client? Constant Content makes it easy for you to sell articles and land writing clients.