Communicating Complex Ideas Simply

The speed of communication is faster than ever and always increasing. In order to reach people, you need to be able to communicate clearly and present complex ideas to a wide audience. Communication is key in any relationship, especially between businesses and customers. You need to communicate to potential customers about your products or services in an interesting way so the right customers can easily see the value they provide.

1. Know Your Audience

Get to know who you’re talking to, what’s important to them, their motivations, and how they prefer to communicate. You’ll often need to communicate to different audiences and may need different messages to get your point across. Your customers may be motivated to find the lowest price, but it’s more likely they’re looking for the greatest value. How can your product or service make their life better or save them time in exchange for money. If you’re talking to someone for the first time and don’t know their background, ask them how much they understand your topic.

2. Focus on Key Information

If you’re audience only remembered one thing from your meeting, advertising, or your message in general, what do you want that one thing to be? What is the most important element for you to communicate? Focus on that and make sure your audience can understand it AND give them a reason to care about that one thing. If your customers care about something, that’ll help them focus on that part of your message.

3. Context & Examples

You may have spent years in your business, learning the ins and outs of your product or service, so you’re going to be communicating with a majority who isn’t as informed on the subject. Provide context and examples to create an environment for your message to live. Paint the audience a picture to help them understand, or provide charts and images to clearly present your idea.

4. Ixnay the Technobabble

In other words, get rid of technical words and phrases that your audience won’t understand. Using complicated words to seem more professional or knowledgable only adds confusion. If you have to use specific, complex terms, make sure to define them.

It may seem like a challenge, but communicating complex information in a simple way is important for success. Know who you’re talking to, know the key point you want them to understand, give them a reason to care, paint a picture, and avoid getting technical.