“You can have the greatest idea in the world, but if you can’t communicate your ideas, it doesn’t matter.” – Steve Jobs
Superb communication is the key to building a successful business. It’s vital to that you know how to deliver a strong, clear message to your customers. If you’re a new business owner and concerned that you can’t communicate well, don’t worry. Like all skills, you can get better through practice and by being self-aware.
We are going to look at some of the ways professionals communicate ideas to their audience and learn why these strategies work.
Research Your Audience
If you want to learn how to communicate well, it’s vital that you understand your audience. Luckily, you don’t have to worry about unreliable surveys anymore when looking into your demographic.
Tools such as Facebook Audience Insight allows you to get a close look at the people who are most likely to buy your product or service. As it relates to Facebook Insight, you can find specific information such as age, gender, lifestyle, job role, and relationship status of the people who may be interested in what you’re offering.
Once you’ve gathered information about your audience, you can go back and focus on your marketing. Use what you have learned about potential customers to design your email marketing, press releases, commercials, and website ad material.
According to research from Shopify, people are not viewing businesses as mere product vendors anymore. They are essentially becoming “lifestyle partners” that the consumer goes back to time and time again. If you want to build these types of bonds with your audience, you need to be able to properly communicate by reaching and understanding your audience.
Product Launch Presentations
One of the best ways to communicate with your customers or potential customers is with a stage presentation. This is a great opportunity to let your communication skills shine.
A great example of a successful stage presentation comes from triple-A gaming studio Bethesda Softworks. They started by doing social media teaser images and videos leading up to the show. Their marketing started weeks prior to the show to build up hype for their new product — and it worked!
By the time their E3 presentation kicked off, everyone was on the edge of their seat. You want to build that same anticipation with your product or service. Bethesda went through their minor products, and at the very end, they did a huge reveal of their teased product, Fallout 76.
The crowd went wild.
You can have the same results! All you need to do is build interest in your product leading up to the presentation. Share information about the event, including teasers, on your social media platforms and business website.
When showtime comes around, make sure that you speak clearly, with excitement, and engage with your audience. If you struggle with your “umm’s” and “uhh’s,” you can use a tool like Ummo to help you practice until you can communicate clearly with little to no filler words.
Have a Social Media Strategy
If you want to enhance your social media skills, you need to develop and implement a rock-solid social media strategy.
In order to communicate like a pro on social media, there are two main things you need to do:
- Update your Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms regularly
- Engage with your audience when they comment or share your posts
We know you’re busy and probably don’t have time to update your social media five or six times a day — but don’t fret! You can take advantage of social media scheduling tools, such as Buffer, to schedule all of your posts for the day, week, or even month.
Buffer allows you to post to multiple social media accounts on multiple platforms from one easy to use menu. It’s as easy as picking what you want to share, whether it’s a post, article, or poll, then set the time you want them to go out, and let the tool go to work.
The next part of being a good communicator involves responding to your customers and/or fans. At the end of the day, or early in the mornings, look through your profiles to see if anyone commented on your posts. Obviously, if you have a lot of followers, it can be hard to answer everyone, but you should try to engage with your audience to the best of your abilities.
You could also set up some standard copy and paste responses to address the most common concerns. If you choose to use this method, make sure you start each response with the first name of the commenter, it makes the response feel more personal.
If they see that you’re willing to talk to them, they are more likely to share more of your posts and reach out to you more. All of this translates to better communication with your customers, and more sales!
Conclusion
Communication is a crucial business skill that you’ll need to learn as your business expands. It’s going to take time to get better, but anything is possible through hard work and patience.
As long as you take the time to get to know your audience, engage on social media, and practice talking to your customers on a regular basis, you will get better!
Read more: Um….How Can I Stop Using Filler Words in My Presentations?