3 Great Business Communication Techniques to Help You Connect with Your Audience

It doesn’t matter who you are as a person, what you do for a living, whether you’re a business owner, an employee or entrepreneur. When it comes to making real and lasting connections with people in business (or in life), we all live by the same rules.

There are certain things that people naturally find nice, agreeable, and enticing; and other things that people find awful, abhorrent and repulsive.

That’s not to say everyone feels the same about everything. But if you want your business communications to connect, you’ve got to have a sense of what your audience will be drawn to and polish up those points in the conversation or message, while you steer clear of things that would repel them.

Check out these 3 business communication techniques that can help you slice through the noise, make real connections, and get positive response with your business communications.

1. Personalize your message.

Be a real person.

Or if you’re communicating as a company, be a real company. It’s one of the best ways to engender warm and fuzzy feels and attract interest from potential customers–which is not always easy for companies to do.

What do we mean by real? Well, the short answer–real is “like me; like you.” In other words, we’re the same. Twinsies!

Unreal is, “I’m an alien; and you’re not.” Well, um, of course. You get the idea though, right? Make your communication relatable to connect with people.

If you’re putting an ad up on social media, personalize it with pictures of real, smiling people at your company. See? We’re real people over here, just like you!

If you’re talking to an employee, trying to get them to arrive at work on time, don’t come across like you’re the hall monitor who’s never done anything wrong in your life.

Tell them you understand getting to work on time can be hard with families and everything else. Be real and share your own experiences on getting to work on time. You’ll see their defenses drop and they’ll be inclined to cooperate in coming up with a solution.

People like real, not so much fake. There are an infinite number of ways to be real with people, so don’t hold back.

Be uniquely you.

You’re different from everyone else. Leverage that.

I know what you’re thinking, “Wait a minute, you just told me to be real–like me; like you!”

Well, ya. Be both. You can be uniquely you, and still have common points of reality. If you go around trying to be exactly like everyone else, it comes off as totally fake, I mean, let’s be real. (No pun.)

We all have unique qualities and people admire those.

An example would be your sense of humor shining through, “I’d love to go to lunch with you, Mary, but I ate both my lunch and dinner for breakfast this morning.” Always the funny guy.

Or having a personal monogram email template that’s unmistakably you.

When it’s a business communication representing the company, make sure it’s got company branding all over it, which includes theme, colors, voice, design, tag lines, and more. Don’t fall into a bucket with everyone else!

Recognize your audience is unique too.

Whether it's a communication that’s delivered person-to-person, or by mass email, there’s nothing easier to dismiss than one that comes across like it’s meant for the “masses.”

When you design a communication for everyone, many times it can end up resonating with no one. Just as when giving a speech, one should speak to the individuals in the room, not the room.

People don’t like to be lumped in with one another, it can make them feel ignored. Although they do have commonalities that you can touch on when communicating, they’re still very distinct and different from one another.

See the person or people in front of you, do your homework and find out as much as you can about them before you communicate the business message.

An example of a coach training a group of salespeople, using statements that address the activity as a whole but also the individuals in the room would go something like this…

“You all have the potential to become, or maybe already are, superstars in your own right. I’m here to help you reach even higher in your sales ability, and I know every single one of you can. Let’s talk about each of your individual goals…”

The statement above addresses the purpose of the training and the commonality that all can improve, while at the same time recognizing that some in the group may be more able sales people than others.

Make the communication meaningful.

This is an important part of personalizing business communications.

When messages don’t have much meaning for the intended audience, they’re usually not taken to heart.

Before you send out the message, ask yourself, what impact does this have on them? What purpose will it serve in the recipients job or life? Include comments in the message that highlight its meaningfulness.

An example of an email with some meaningfulness…

"Hey Fabulous Marketing Team, the attached memo is a round up of all the holiday season numbers that each department in the company produced.

"Please read it over and submit your compliance that you’ve done so by the end of the day.

"By the way, we’ve listed great highlights by each of your names regarding your various contributions because we really wanted to acknowledge you for making this last quarter our best yet!"

2. Include creativity and design.

Draw people in using graphics.

When presenting business communication, you first need to attract people’s attention before they can actually receive the message.

Just as Jim might lift his head to look at you when you say, “Hey, Jim!” an attractive graphic will fulfill the same purpose by capturing people’s attention and directing it to your communication. It’s like a herald.

When it comes to written business communication, there’s nothing more uninviting than paragraphs and paragraphs of boring looking text. Most people take one look at that type of communication and groan.

Graphics won’t fix all boring office communication, but it goes a long way in attracting attention to it and that’s a start.

Graphics can be a really important part of any form of communication whether it be text, video or audio–especially in marketing and promotion.

Companies should splurge on the graphics when appropriate and do it tastefully. People like to look at things that are pleasing to their eyes. It’s one of those magical natural laws that draws people in every time.

Make it fresh.

I was working with a business owner recently who was having a really hard time getting people interested in his services. When I saw the promotional materials that he was sending to prospective clients, it was no wonder. It looked like he created them in 1997. (He may have!)

It’s hard to get enthusiastic about a message when it’s coming across as stale, time-worn or tired.

Pay attention to the type of communications you’re putting out (memos, emails, marketing and promotion, social, verbal and in-person) and compare them to equivalent and popular forms that are in use now. Just Google it!

If your approach is dated, get it polished up and modernized. You don’t have to copy what’s out there, but there’s nothing easier than to look up different types of design on the internet for the type of business communication you’re putting out, then put your own spin on it.

Communication is infinitely more impactful when it looks like it’s being delivered in the now rather than in 1997.

Create keepsakes.

People stay close to things they like, and that goes for business communications too, in any form. They tag or save videos, put a notice on the fridge with a magnet, save special emails, frame things they tear out of magazines or print from websites.

Sometimes they’ll order something just to get a collectable that comes along with it.

Any time there's a good opportunity, make your business communications keepsake-worthy in design. Aim for such a great impact that the recipient wants to hang on to and remember your communication, no matter the form it arrives in.

That's a real, tangible connection.

3. Make the communication clear and compelling.

Clear cut = easy to understand.

Whenever your business communication is not absolutely clear, then you’ll end up with unintended outcomes or no response at all. It’ll be super hard to make any real connection that way. How can you if the recipients are confused?

When you make your message really clear, it’s so much easier for people to respond.

A good way to work out clear messaging, whether you’re delivering it verbally one-on-one, or via any other channel, is to first write down exactly what you want to accomplish with the communication.

Example, you want this person to accept your job offer and need to send them a follow-up email. Write that down. “I want you to work here with us!” or however you want to say it.

Keep that line in front of you as you fill in and write out the rest of the email. You can always go back and modify it as you polish it up.

Now every other line you fill in as part of the email should align with and be pointing toward that statement. It’ll help keep you on track and help you see parts of the email that might be detracting from the goal of getting that person hired.

When you’re all over the place with communication, it can distract and repel the receiver. It can overwhelm or sever any connection you might have made.

Be concise.

When it comes to making business communications clear and compelling, being concise can help accomplish both of those things.

Which statement is more clear and compelling?

a. I would like you to take out the garbage and then maybe when you have time, if you can, could you please also empty the dishwasher? My mother is coming over for dinner soon, and I’d like a little help in the kitchen because I’ve been so busy with work and all. I’ll be home soon as I can get through the traffic on the interstate, but if I’m not running late I’ll be able to help you tons before she gets to the house.

b. Please empty the dishwasher and take out the garbage. Mom’s coming for dinner and I’m rushing home to help. See you soon!

See? It’s easy to see why making communication concise makes it more clear…but why does it make communication so much more compelling?

Because it’s more direct. Direct communication is powerful and moves people. It doesn't get diluted. Test it out in your business communications and you’ll see what I mean.

Touch upon emotions.

Remember at the beginning of this post I wrote about the fact that there are things people naturally like and things they dislike.

When we include things in our messaging that people like or hate, we’re tapping in to their emotions. Nothing is more vividly experienced or compelling than communication that touches our emotions. It’s one of the most powerful connections you can make with people.

When preparing any business communication, be sure to know what your audience likes or doesn’t like and touch upon those in your message. But do it sincerely and do it in good faith. Don’t exploit the emotions of others–that doesn’t always have a great outcome.

Prompt them to respond.

The more someone agrees with and likes the message you’re putting out, the more inclined they’ll be to respond. That’s the first thing to know. If you want them to eventually respond in a positive manner, you’ll have to communicate things in a way that they largely agree with (see all the tips in the post above to help accomplish that.

But…

I have seen business professionals get out a message that was completely and totally awesome that the audience loved, then completely omit or disregard prompting people to respond. That’s a big mistake!

The whole point of getting business communication out in the first place is to get people to respond in a certain way.

A new company policy, the response wanted is for the employees to read, understand and submit compliance that they did so. An email to an associate, the response needed at the very minimum is an acknowledgement they received it and understand. Email marketing campaign, the responses wanted are customer orders.

If you don’t prompt, you will get so many fewer responses. Prompts come in all different forms. Which prompts are best depends on what form of business communication it is.

A call to action button on a landing page; a question placed at the end of an email or letter; a survey question for the audience at the end of a lecture; it goes on and on.

You don’t communicate in business just to hear yourself talk. (Well, some do.) Most want some sort of communication or action in return. It’s what makes communication worthwhile. It’s our reward for having communicated in the first place!

Summary:

The above tips are not the only business communication techniques that can help you connect with your audience, but they are some really effective ones.

Are you having trouble connecting with a person or audience whose attention you’re trying to capture? Let us know in the comments and we’ll give you some additional tips if we can. Looking forward to connecting with you!