Your Attention, Please.

Discarded Messages

Communicators are in trouble. Messages and information from newspapers, magazines, e-mails, videos, audios and other sources besiege today’s audiences. In reaction, people delete, skip and pitch material as fast as they get it. If you’ve tried to give a presentation to a restless, distracted audience, you know that people are finding it hard to pay attention, no matter how much time you spend crafting your message. You face a problem, but you are not alone. The challenge of breaking through the communication clutter is common, and it’s getting worse. The first step is to analyze what factors influence the people who receive (or reject) your message. Members of modern audiences discard the majority of messages they receive for several reasons, including:

• The messages may be interesting, but that’s all – And that isn’t enough. A message has to be relevant and compelling to get people to read it, much less act upon it.
• The messages don’t address people’s needs – People pay attention to messages that offer them clearly stated benefits, like becoming safer, thinner or wealthier.
• Messages...