Promotion Decisions

Keys to Effective Communication

For marketers understanding how communication works can improve the delivery of their message.  From the information just discussed, marketers should focus on the following to improve communication with their targeted audience:

• Carefully Encode – Marketers should make sure the message they send is crafted in a way that will be interpreted by message receivers as intended.  This means having a good understanding of how their audience interprets words, symbols, sounds and other stimuli used by marketers.
• Allow Feedback – Encouraging the message receiver to provide feedback can greatly improve communication and help determine if a marketer’s message was decoded and interpreted properly.  Feedback can be improved by providing easy-to-use options for responding, such as phone numbers, Internet chat, and email.
• Reduce Noise – In many promotional situations the marketer has little control over interference with their message.  However, there are a few instances where the marketer can proactively lower the noise level.  For instance, salespeople can be trained to reduce noise by employing techniques that limit customer distractions, such as scheduling meetings during non-busy times or by inviting potential customers to an environment that offers fewer distractions, such as a conference facility.  Additionally, advertising can be developed in ways that separates the marketer’s ad from others, including the use of whitespace in magazine ads.
• Choose Right Audience – Targeting the right message receiver will go a long way to improving a marketer’s ability to promote their products.  Messages are much more likely to be received and appropriately decoded by those who have an interest in the content of the message.