Speak the Language

Audience who?

I can’t stress it enough. You must know your audience when communicating about anything. I saw a laughable example of this last night. Let me re-cap.

Setting: Popular local gym; Situation: Current member wanted to try out a new gym class
How do I know all this? I walked in behind her.

Woman: “Hey, is this sign-in sheet for your 5:30 class?”
Guy behind desk (points to sign-in sheets): “This one is for X, Y, Z class. And this one is for A, B, C class.”
Woman: “Uhh…”
Me (pointing to sign-in sheet): “This one is for the 5:30 class.”
Guy behind desk: “Yeah. That’s X, Y, Z class at 5:30. The other is A, B, C class at 6.”

The woman signed her name on the sheet I had pointed to, then walked off. I also signed my name on the same sheet. It’s the entire reason I was at the gym.

It’s evident that the young man doesn’t communicate effectively. Good thing he’s not in Marketing, eh? A good rule of thumb is to listen. Hear what people are saying or asking. Did the woman ask when X, Y, Z class was? No. Did she point to a sign-in sheet and ask, “What class is this?” No. She had a very specific question. And if the guy behind the desk had listened, he could have communicated more effectively to her – in the language she spoke.

Ah, language. So, even if you know your audience, you have to communicate in their language. You wouldn’t send a letter to an 80-year-old retiree and drop words like “bunk” and “cougar.” Well, you could, but he wouldn’t understand (unless he was current on his vernacular). Just like a 15-year-old won’t know what a “jalopy” is. So, know your audience and know the language they speak.

In the example I gave, it’s evident the woman knew what time the class started, and she knew she wanted to go to it. She simply needed to know which of the two sheets to sign. Easy enough, right? It shouldn’t have been a 45-second snafu. If that had been a woman facing a decision based on an advertising campaign or Marketing flyer, she would have already moved on to something else, something that probably didn’t confuse her and have her second guessing herself. Don’t make people second guess themselves. That’s not why you write copy. That’s the last thing you want to do, unless you are trying to make them second guess a current product/service in the attempt to sway them over to the one you’re promoting. But, let’s pretend you’re not right now. And don't send more than one message; they will fight to the death with each other, which only results in your audience walking away. So, for future reference, know the language your audience speaks. Speak it with them. And don’t be like the guy behind the desk, oblivious.