How do you use evidence to support your communication goals and messages?

Identifying your communication goal and audience lays the foundation for a compelling message. Yet, the effectiveness of your communication doesn't end there; consider your audience's knowledge base, cultural nuances, and language proficiency. Tailor your message to align with their perspectives, ensuring your evidence resonates and elicits the desired response. If addressing a marketing team, adopt industry-specific jargon and case studies they can relate to. If you're reaching out to C-suite executives, conciseness and strategic alignment are key, considering their focus on bottom-line results. Finally, infuse empathy in your communication, as it bridges the gap between mere data transfer and establishing meaningful connections.

Always start with a good morning to get everyone's attention and then deliver the message with passion. Supplement it with why it is important to them. Relay stories or experiences that may help you paint the picture better. Starting with an exciting movie clip from time to time that has relevance to your message.

Information Gap is often described as a huge deterrent to effective communication. This tends to arise when the speaker is not cognizant of the audience that he/she is addressing at a point. Knowing your audience type is crucial and it can be done via persona analyses by gathering certain information ahead of time about their behavioral patterns, education, income, socio-economic status, etc. Effective marketers often conduct persona analyses of their customers in an effort to ensure that the most appropriate and accurate marketing efforts are directed toward a particular group of customers. For example, young college kids may pursue a message differently than our grandparents would, and hence knowing the audience type becomes crucial.

Knowing your audience and your goal is vital. Using personal stories or such of well-known individuals is a powerful way to engage your audience. Using strong and provokating visuals and videos is another. Finally, never forget the importance of your listeners' emotional brains - emotional always beats cognitive. Emotional brain centers process information way faster than cognitive ones, therefore infuse your illustration, stories, facts, etc. with (your) genuine emotion. Additionally, plan of strategies to involve your audience's emotions in advance.

Navigating the maze of information is both art and science. As a pro-tip, it's beneficial to treat your sourcing as a cycle rather than a linear process. Begin your search with general databases, but also leverage field-specific platforms like Google Scholar or industry-specific forums. When you identify a valuable resource, mine its citations or references, often a gold mine of reliable information. Remember to apply a critical lens to the author's credibility and potential biases. Consider their background, their affiliations, and their publication history. Weigh their argument against the existing body of knowledge on your topic. Also, keep in mind that relevance is not just about the 'what' but also the 'when'.

People want to hear you, not someone else. You can use a small quote or data % and expand with your message. Or, you can speak your message and use the quotes or data to solidify it.

In my experience, not everyone has the same reaction to someone else's quote or data that you may have. Find someone or something that your audience looks up to. Pictures are worth a thousand words. Always use video when teaching new techniques. Using dramatic pictures of real world situations in a power point with a small message has always worked best for me.

The research industry is filled with myriad information on every subject. Research articles are updated almost regularly, and discoveries are added based on studies, meta-analyses, etc. Navigating through all of these requires skill and patience. The thing to remember is not every source is credible, and not every piece of evidence aligns with your message. Finding the right fit is extremely important. Based on the audience personas you identified, select the key evidences you think will have the maximum impact, while augmenting the message you desire to convey. Once you've selected a few, organize them chronologically to fit in best with your entire message. Avoid haphazard and half baked information, as it would only lead to confusion.

I agree. When you document where it came from, it adds power to the message you must convey. I used a quote from the founder of IBM to illustrate the importance of having a vision. The words themselves were appropriate but carried much more weight when you knew who they were from.

When gathering evidence, it is crucial to maintain a mindset of adaptability and revision. ?? This principle holds true in the ever-changing landscape of internet trends as well. Sticking to a single path is not a recipe for success; instead, it is essential to be flexible and adjust your approach as needed. Just as internet trends evolve and shift, so should your strategies and methods. ??