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Chapter 3- Planning Business Messages

To make a message effective, we have to follow a three-step writing process before

sending it to a particular audience. The steps of this process are-
a. Planning Business Messages
b. Writing Business Messages and
c. Completing Business Messages

 ANALYZING OUR PURPOSE AND AUDIENCE

 Defining our purpose

All business messages have a general purpose and also have a specific purpose.

The General purpose – is to inform, persuade, or to collaborate with the audience.

The Specific purpose - is clear and straight forward. First, we ask ourselves what we hope
to accomplish with our message and what our audience should do or think after receiving
the message. Then, according to that we write our specific purpose.

 Developing an Audience Profile

We should learn about the members of our audience before we can adjust the message to
serve them. To develop an audience profile, we need-
1. To identify the primary audience: We should try to reach the decision makers
or other influential members in our audience because key people have the most
organizational power and influence over other employees.
2. To determine audience size: If there are many members in the audience, the
message style, organization, and format should be formal. A message directed to
3 or 4 people in a department may adapt more informal style.
3. To determine audience composition: In the audience, there could be members
of different culture, education, or status. To touch everyone’s area of interest, we
should consider how audience members think and learn.
4. To judge the audience’s level of understanding: If audience members share our
general background, they will understand our materials without difficulty. If not,
we must educate them with necessary details. However, we should include only
enough information to accomplish our objective.
5. To project the audience’s expectations and preferences: We should consider
whether the audience expect complete details or a summary, an email or a formal
letter and communicate accordingly.
6. To estimate the audience’s probable reaction: If we expect skepticism or
negative response, we can use more evidence. If we expect a favorable response,
we can state conclusions up front and offer minimal supporting evidence.

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 Satisfying the Audience’s Information Needs

The key to effective communication is determining the audience’s information

needs and then responding to them. A good message answers all audience’s
questions.

1. To find out exactly what the audience wants to know: Before communicating,
we should make sure we understand the audience’s information needs clearly. If a
request seems vague, it is necessary to ask questions to clarify. We could also
include any additional details that might be helpful, even though the audience did
not specifically ask for it.
2. To provide all required information: Once the audience’s needs are defined, all
those needs should be satisfied completely. We can test the thoroughness of our
message by using journalistic approach- to check whether the message answers
who, what, when, where, why, and how.
3. To be sure the information is accurate: We should not make any promise that
we can not keep. To maintain accuracy of the information, we should
 double-check everything we write or say,
 review any mathematical or financial calculations,
 check all date and schedules, and
 examine the validity of our own assumptions and conclusions.
4. To be sure the information is ethical: If there’s any honest mistake, the most
ethical thing to do is to contact the person immediately and correct the error.
Omitting necessary information can be unethical. Enough details should be
included to avoid misleading the audience.
5. To be sure the information is pertinent: Some points in the message will be of
greater interest and importance than others. For example, the head of engineering
would be most interested to know customers’ reaction to the new product’s design
features rather than recent shipment schedule. Therefore, we should pay attention
to those points that interest our audience most.

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