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ERNIE, please use the form on the
linked page. The meaning of your communication is the results you get.
Surprisingly, people go to work each day and function adequately
without understanding this basic communications principle. When trying to
deliver a message, what matters is what is received and acted on, not what
was intended. The best way to evaluate your communications effectiveness
is by looking at the results. There is no magic, just clear definitions of
desired outcomes, audience assessment, message construction and
appropriate delivery.
The reason we dwell so intensely on the importance of small audiences
is that it is easier to communicate effectively when the audience is
clearly defined than when it is a vague concept. A clear message delivered
to the wrong audience gets the wrong results. In the web environment,
wrong results can range from no responses to a huge pile of the wrong
ones. Ineffective communications to the wrong audience results in
increased costs and schedule delays.
Being clear about what you want (the place for planning in job ad
development) precedes and follows audience definition. “We need three Unix
engineers”, a seemingly simple requirement, opens the questions of
audience location and sophistication. Once the audience is understood (are
there any available and where), the message can be refined to include
adequate descriptions of sub-skill level requirements, possible salary
ranges and the necessity of relocation expenses.
We don’t want to underestimate the hard work involved in being clear
about either task. Clarity about the requirements (discerning between real
needs and ‘nice to haves’) is no small chore. Quite often, the core
recruiting dilemma is an inability to clarify the basic need. It may be
the case that audience definition is really a central component of being
clear about the requirements for the job. Using an iterative process that
simultaneously clarifies both issues is a standard part of the marketing
toolkit.
Let us suggest a simple experiment:
The next time you have to fill a position that will pay relocation
costs, begin by collecting the zip codes of the other people in the same
department or function. Visit the Claritas website and look up each zip
code using the PRISM Zip Code
Lookup Tool and look up each of the zip codes.
Find the zip codes of the cities suggested by the PRISM exercise and
advertise for the position using the targeted advertising on Salary.com
(their position descriptions may help you refine the requirements.)
This simple experiment should show you the basics of an iterative
approach to defining the target audience and position simultaneously. The
results will surprise you.
The understanding you will gain from this simple experiment are the
foundations of longer term audience development.
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