Recognition, Reinforcement and Resonance: How to Deliver Messages Effectively

Getting stakeholders to pay attention to what you have to say is hard. Account Executive Tom Horn explains how to deliver a campaign message effectively.

In communications campaigns, messaging is often reactive and focussed on the short term. This can be helpful: leveraging the trends and themes at their moment of maximum impact can make a company look relevant and attract media attention.

However, it can also project a sense of opportunism and a lack of a clear vision. If you’re seen to be flip flopping between a random selection of trends and saying whatever’s going to make you popular at the time, then nobody will take your message seriously when you have something important to say.

Messaging is all about finding the balance between what you want to say and what your stakeholders want to listen to.

So, can you insert yourself into the matter of the moment, while also delivering the key talking points that you’d like to tell everyone about? Yes you can, as long as your message is consistent and disciplined.

The best way to ensure that you’re keeping this focus is to follow the mantra of recognition, reinforcement and resonance: if your message is achieving all of these things, then you’re delivering it well.

If you want to learn more about positioning and messaging, listen to this episode of our podcast, Turning Up the Volume, where we discuss how they can be used to grow your business.

Recognition

The fundamental point of messaging is to give stakeholders an idea of who you are, what you do and what your values are. If you can get this across well, then with time you will increase your brand recognition, the first step towards sustainable business growth.

This means delivering a consistent message in both style and content, while covering  topics related to what you do. By doing this, you will position yourself as a leader in your area if you have interesting and insightful things to say. Over time, stakeholders therefore begin to consider you as a serious player in your industry.  

Reinforcement

If you’re not achieving recognition, it’s probably because your messaging isn’t consistent. Each message should reinforce the last, as stakeholders are unlikely to recognise, process, absorb and recall your message after seeing it once or twice. They need to see similar messages many times before they remember them.

The process will, and should, be long and relentless. While you may be sick of seeing the same or similar messages every day for months or years, the vast majority of your stakeholders will only ever engage with them a few times in total. Therefore, your points need to be consistent and pack a punch.

This doesn’t mean repeating exactly the same words and phrases in every campaign you do, but it does mean dovetailing your messages and ensuring that each one builds on the previous one. If each message you deliver reinforces your brand values and the services you offer, then they might start to break through and receive the attention and understanding that you desire from stakeholders.  

Resonance

The final piece of the puzzle is resonance. You may have a consistent, strategic message, but it needs to resonate with relevant stakeholders, else it will have a limited impact.

Deliver a message which is relatable to your stakeholders, and which highlights your value to them. If they can’t see how you can help them, they won’t engage with what you have to say.

Resonance is the ultimate goal when it comes to messaging. If you can achieve it, it means that the other two stages have already worked, as resonance can only come with recognition and recognition comes with reinforcement. It also offers the greatest potential for returns, as only when stakeholders fully understand your value will they consider partnering with or investing in you.  

Achieving this is a huge step from throwing together some slapdash and reactive campaign messages, but one which can be achieved with discipline and consistency.