Spent some time today with Karen Morgan UW talking business, and we got around to discussing how important it is to choose the kind of communication for delivering your messages to the right audience.

She told me a story about her work in Africa where she initially struggled with educating families because of the differences in culture, literacy and assumed general knowledge. Her breakthrough moment was when she realised why she wasn’t being understood – a change in approach and a new way of communicating, and bingo – her job became a little easier.

The lesson here is – We can talk until we are blue in the face – but it makes no difference to our goals if our audience isn’t interested, or doesn’t understand! And its something we can apply when marketing our businesses to our customers.

Its important to take the time to get to know your customer, what they do and how they think. It will give you insight into how you can make that same breakthrough that Karen did with her clients. If your customers gets it, they’ll buy it. If your audience enjoys it, they will want more.