Top organizations use reader-centric approach

High performers focus on readers 71% of the time — IABC UK study

Seventy-one percent of high-performing organizations focus their messaging on audience’s point of view. Just 45% of average organizations do.

Or so says Stephen Welch, president of IABC UK and an independent consultant.

Welch worked with Michael Ambjorn, director-at-large at NearDesk, to develop a benchmarking database that correlates communication practices with organizational performance. They looked at 81 organizations with some 390,000 employees across 10 countries.

High-performing organizations communicate better.

In the study, Welch and Ambjorn learned that high-performing organizations are:

• 60% more likely to think about communication from the audience perspective. Five in eight high-performing organizations say they like to talk about themselves; seven in eight average organizations do.
• Twice as likely to make emotional connections to their audiences.
• 40% more likely to limit the number of messages in their communications. Average organizations are more likely to pack a lot of messages into their pieces.
• Twice as likely to keep language simple and jargon-free. Only 21% of average organizations say they keep their language simple and jargon-free, compared to half of high-performing organizations.
• 80% more likely to have a process for creating great corporate stories.

Are you on an SOS team?

Half of organizations say that senior executives generally devise corporate messages. However, only 20% of benchmarked organizations think their leaders are good at communicating.

This approach turns some communications departments into SOS — “Send Out Stuff” — teams. But perhaps that’s best.

Only half of communicators surveyed said they align their work to corporate strategy and goals. And only a third ranked their level of business know-how and understanding high.

“Two-thirds of communicators,” Welch writes, “need to improve their business understanding if they want to advise business people.”