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Yanny’d to communicate effectively

By Alan Perkins

Managing Director

SilverDisc

IN the news this month, did you hear yanny or laurel? In 2015, did you see the blue/black dress or the white/gold dress?

Maybe it was both, depending on the device you were using, when you were browsing or simply how you were feeling.

These are fascinating demonstrations of how communication is not what is said or shown but what the recipient understood. Communication is the process of creating a shared understanding. The meaning of any communication is the result it produces.

My favourite communication quote is Paul Watzlawick’s “We cannot not communicate.” Everything we do and say, and everything we don’t do and don’t say, is a form of communication. In business, this is to our current, past and future customers, staff, partners, suppliers and competitors. Often our business communication comes under the heading of ‘marketing’.

Perhaps the quote most relevant to marketing communications is George Bernard Shaw’s ‘The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion it has taken place.’

This is where digital marketing can help. Traditionally, offline, it’s hard to measure that a piece of marketing has been effectively communicated, that the message has landed and not had unintended consequences. This is not very easy online either, but it’s certainly a lot easier. Services such as Google Analytics, Google Optimize and the forthcoming Google Attribution make it possible to see the entire customer journey, measure the impact of each marketing touchpoint, get insights faster and take action. Taking feedback through surveys and social media can complete the picture and give an all-round view of a marketing campaign.

Are you confident that your marketing is landing… that your message is hitting home… that you’re communicating with your target audience at the very time they want what you have to offer? Are you satisfied with the results that your marketing is delivering? Often, the source of marketing effectiveness problems is communication – people just aren’t hearing the message you think you’re sending. You think you’re saying ‘laurel’, but they’re hearing ‘yanny’ and your results are being beaten black and blue rather than shining white and gold!

As a Google Premier Partner and Bing Select Partner, SilverDisc can help you to address those communication problems at the source and get the results you’re looking for from your digital marketing. Give us a call – let’s communicate!

For more information, contact SilverDisc on 01536 316100 or visit www.silverdisc.co.uk

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