Have you been hanging in there with business communication basics?

• Missed a few?
• Forgot to check?
• Have no idea what I’m talking about?

Never fear. A simple summary is here, including an infographic. Better than a summer rerun.

Business Communication Basics – Blog Style

The posts in the business communication basics series help you answer the following questions.

1. Who are you?
2. Who is your audience?
3. Who is affected?
4. What is your purpose?
5. Did you deliver?

The prior posts covered the first four questions. Most had more than one post attached to them. Before we dive into the deep water of delivery, let’s take a high-dive view of what we covered so far.

1. Who are you?

How many times do you go to your email inbox and find an unsolicited sales pitch? Or multiple sales pitches? You may have thought, “Who the heck are you and why should I care?”

The first of the Who are You posts took The Shark Tank Approach to Your Business Product. It suggests ideas for defining your product and identifying what problems you solve – Shark Tank style.

The second post, Who are You and How is Your Business Different, offers tips on figuring out what’s unique about your business.

The last post in the Who are You segment answers the question Who Cares About Your Business Communication? Hopefully, the answer will be your customer.

2. Who is your audience?

You know how important it is to identify your target audience. After all, experts say so. 😉

How to Peel Away the Style Layers of Your Audience assists you in understanding what makes your audience tick. It shares communication styles and how you can edit your business communication to preferred styles.

3. Who is affected?

Don’t you hate when you are working on a project and a major change occurs that you knew nothing about? Beyond aggravating.

While the post title, How Sharing Business Communication Could Save Your Life, is exaggerated for effect, the message is important. If you forget to keep a key person in the loop, you are setting your communication up for failure.

4. What is your purpose?

If you are missing a well-defined purpose for your business communication, your message becomes muddled. And who wants a muddled message?

Four posts give you a lot of purpose. The first, How Business Communication Fails on Purpose, presents three questions to start identifying your communication purpose.

1. What do you want your audience to know?
2. To feel?
3. And to do?

The post has tips on how to accomplish each action.

The second What is Your Purpose post gives you the #1 Tip for Communicating What You Want Others to Know.

A Feel Good, Non-Smarmy Guide to Business Communication taps into three methods for making your audience feel good about your communication.

And the final post in the What is Your Purpose group lets you know how It is Okay to Tell Your Audience What to Do – and why you should.

5. Did you deliver?

Future Delivery

• Didn’t know you covered so much ground, did you?
• We explored the Who and What questions.
• Next up is the Did you series – Did you deliver?

But before we go – the promised business communication basics infographic.

Business Communication Basics Infographic

The infographic below is your personal map to better business communication. I know what you’re thinking. Could have saved a lot of reading if the series started with the infographic. Guess I’m sneaky that way.

 

Download a pdf version of this infographic.

Thanks for hanging in there. What comments would you like to share about creating better business communication?

BigStock Photo Credit

Canva Credit

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Note: This post originally published on June 16, 2016. This September 15, 2022 version updates it.

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