Message, Audience, Medium

 

There are three components of a communication:

Message	Audience	Medium
is what you say – for example, “Our product does this…”	is who you say it to – eg Senior buyer at automotive manufacturer	is the means by which it is transmitted – eg Email

Which is the most important?

The message is important; depending on the context, it is the call to action, it is the reason for the conversation, it is engaging, captivating, decisive, persuasive and powerful. Get it right and the customer buys, the staff achieve, the shareholders approve and the outcome successful.

The audience is important; they determine an outcome – they buy, they vote, they chose, they influence, they use and they tell.

The medium is important; everyone has a preference for hearing a message – emails, TV, papers, online video, Social Networks… find the right one and you will connect with your audience, impress them, convince them and impart your key message.

But which is the most important?

Our approach and experience suggests that it is the audience that is the most important, and here is why:

If you know who your audience is, what they like, what they are impressed by, where they hang out, what they need, what their problems are, what drives them and what they need from you, it means that you can define your message to be what they need to hear via a mechanism with which they engage.

Imagine if you spend your budget on a series of stunning photographs that you wish to go viral, brilliantly composed, with outstanding textual content and you choose to launch it on Pinterest. The problem is that your audience is young males of 18-24 years. According to the image sharing platform, this is not a strong user-group associated with Pinterest – no matter how good the images, or how popular the medium of distribution (Pinterest, in this example), if your audience doesn’t get to see it, it is wasted.

Know your customer / know your audience; understand them and what they like and you will create the right message and distribute it the way that they will hear it.

Headway Marketing helps businesses get in front of the right people group. Enquire about this service.