It’s all about communication

If you have a website, joined a zoom call or attended a business networking event, it’s all about communication. If you write an email, create a newsletter or make a promotional video, it’s all about communication. If you have a professional brand identity created, post on social media or do a weekly podcast, you guessed it, it’s all about communication. Communication is key to everything you create or design.

When we communicate on a daily basis with friends and family, it’s simply an exchange of words that help us to understand one another. Where we are going, what we will be eating or what time we are going to be home. The thing about communication is that it’s not a one-way street. It’s an exchange from both sides.

When you create designs and media for your business or organisation, you are still looking to form a dialogue with the person consuming the information. The difference is that rather than the communication being conversational, it helps the user form an understanding. It’s an understanding of key information that helps them to move forward.

When you are lost you look for directions to help you get to where you wanted to go. When you’re in a restaurant you look for a menu to help you order something. And when you’re searching YouTube to learn how to solve a problem, you are looking for information as a solution. These are all forms of communication.

Are you communicating with your audience?

When you post on social media, are you communicating with the people you want to connect with? Do people know what to do when they’re on your website? Is what you are creating of use to others? If your answer is no, it poses the question to why you are doing it in the first place.

If you know the purpose of what you are creating and have an outcome you want to achieve, things become clearer and you are more likely to get results.

Purpose

What is the purpose of the design, post or marketing you are doing? Are you trying to help others achieve something? Do you want them to place an order? Do you have a new service you want to tell people about? What is the purpose?

The purpose of this article is to help you learn about communication and enable you to think differently about the effort you are going to with your marketing and design.

Starting with the end in mind

What are you wanting to achieve? What outcome do you want? What action do you want people to take? When you start with an end in mind, you have a target. When you don’t, people don’t know what to do next. It could be as simple as ‘book now’, ‘join our mailing list’ or ‘watch this video’. Without clear instruction, you will lose the interest of your audience and they will move on.

The action we want you to take is to join our mailing list or contact us about your next branding, design and marketing project. We believe we can help your business and improve your communication.

What to do

When you come to do your next blog, social media post or video, think about your communication. Don’t simply post content and expect the result if you haven’t thought about the action you want others to take. Set clear call to actions so your communication isn’t wasted and this will enable the user to get to where they want to go.

You have an opportunity every time you create something to make someone’s life easier by solving a meaningful problem. Think about what problems you are in a unique position to solve and build your content around that. Create something that communicates with your audience’s needs and let your design fulfil its true purpose.