You can’t make people care about your communications
Every day, communications managers in professional services firms find themselves tasked with promoting initiatives, services, or messages recipients haven’t asked for. The task at hand is to make the audience care. However, something fundamental often gets overlooked in the eagerness to broadcast the message: you can’t make someone care about something they don't already care about.
You can’t make people care about your communications
Every day, communications managers in professional services firms find themselves tasked with promoting initiatives, services, or messages recipients haven’t asked for. The task at hand is to make the audience care. However, something fundamental often gets overlooked in the eagerness to broadcast the message: you can’t make someone care about something they don't already care about.
Bram Vanoirbeek, Head of Brand & Digital, CMS UK and international offices
bram.vanoirbeek@cms-cmno.com
This article explores why trying to force interest is ineffective, and how aligning your communications with your audience's existing concerns and values is the key to meaningful engagement. We'll discuss practical strategies for uncovering what truly matters to your target audiences and crafting messages that resonate on a deeper level.
The pitfall of forced interest
It's a common scenario: the firm has developed a new service offering, launched an internal initiative, or wanted to highlight a particular achievement. As the communications manager, you're expected to generate buzz and engagement. The natural impulse is often to amplify the message, increase its frequency, or find more channels to distribute it.
However, if the core message doesn't align with what your audience - be it clients, potential clients, or internal staff - already cares about, these efforts are likely to fall flat. At best, you might achieve superficial awareness. At worst, you risk creating message fatigue and actively disengaging your audience.
The psychology of care and attention
To understand why we can't force interest, it's helpful to consider some basic principles of cognitive psychology:
- Selective Attention: Our brains are constantly bombarded with information. To cope, we've developed the ability to filter out what we deem irrelevant and focus on what matters to us.
- Cognitive Dissonance: When presented with information that conflicts with our existing beliefs or priorities, we're more likely to dismiss the new information than to change our minds.
- Motivation and Relevance: We pay attention to and retain information we believe will help us achieve our goals or that relates to our existing interests.
These factors combine to create a significant barrier for any message that doesn't immediately resonate with an individual's pre-existing concerns, values, or goals.
The power of alignment
Instead of trying to generate interest from scratch, the key is to align your message with what your audience already cares about. This approach has several advantages:
- Reduced Resistance: When your message connects to existing priorities, it bypasses the brain's filtering mechanisms.
- Increased Engagement: People are naturally more engaged with topics that feel relevant to their lives and goals.
- Better Retention: Information that connects to existing knowledge structures is more likely to be remembered and acted upon.
- Authenticity: Aligned messages feel less like "selling" and more like valuable information sharing.
“As communications professionals, our role isn't just to disseminate information, but to create meaningful connections between our firm's messages and our audiences' needs and values. By shifting our focus from trying to generate interest to aligning with existing concerns, we can dramatically increase the effectiveness of our communications.”
Strategies for message alignment
So how can you put this principle into practice? Here are some strategies to consider:
1. Know Your Audience - Conduct regular surveys and focus groups to understand your audience’s priorities. - Analyse casual remarks, formal enquiries, and other feedback to identify recurring themes. - For internal communications, stay connected with different departments to understand their challenges and goals.
2. Segment Your Messaging - Recognise that different audience segments will have different priorities. - Tailor your core message to speak to the specific concerns of each group.
3. Frame Your Message in Terms of Benefits - Always ask, "How does this help our audience achieve their goals?" - Translate features into benefits that resonate with known pain points.
4. Use Narrative and Context - Don't just state facts; tell stories that place your message in a relevant context. - Use case studies and examples that your audience can relate to.
5. Listen and Adapt - Pay attention to which messages get traction and which don't. - Be willing to pivot your approach based on audience response.
6. Create Bridges - If you must communicate about a topic that isn't an immediate priority for your audience, find ways to connect it to issues they do care about. - Show how addressing this new area can help with existing challenges or goals.
7. Timing and Relevance - Consider the broader context and timing of your messages. - Align communications with periods when your audience is most likely to be thinking about related issues.
Case Study: Reframing a sustainability initiative
Let's consider a practical example. Imagine your firm has launched a new sustainability initiative. With a bit of luck, people already see the inherent value of sustainability, but you can drive the message home even more by aligning it with some other areas people care about:
For clients:
- Frame the initiative in terms of risk management and future-proofing their business.
- Highlight how sustainable practices can lead to cost savings and improved reputation.
- Connect sustainability to emerging regulatory trends that might affect their industry.
For internal staff:
- Connect sustainable practices to personal values and the ability to feel proud of one's workplace.
- Emphasise how the initiative contributes to the firm’s success (in other words: employees’ job security) by keeping the firm competitive.
- Highlight opportunities for skill development in an emerging field.
Conclusion: The art of relevant communication
As communications professionals, our role isn't just to disseminate information, but to create meaningful connections between our firm's messages and our audiences' needs and values. By shifting our focus from trying to generate interest to aligning with existing concerns, we can dramatically increase the effectiveness of our communications.
This approach requires more upfront work in understanding our audiences and crafting tailored messages. However, the payoff in terms of engagement, action, and long-term relationship building makes it well worth the effort.
Remember, in a world overflowing with information, relevance is the key to breaking through the noise. By mastering the art of alignment, you can ensure that your communications don't just reach your audience, but truly resonate with them.