Why is it important to evaluate messages effectively

Ad Tracking & Brand Messaging
Brand Positioning Research
Message Evaluation Optimization

Message evaluation is the process of obtaining information that would allow a company to develop the most effective communications message to consumers, thus optimizing the messaging for the brand.

Evaluating your messaging along the way can help you to stay on course and reach your destination. The consequences of ineffective messaging can be significant. Message evaluation improves the effectiveness of your communications, helps you better engage with your audience, and can help you allocate your resources better.

It is very difficult to evaluate every aspect of your work. If you have a comprehensive communication strategy, you may select the components that are most critical to its success. Or, you may choose to evaluate a tactic that your organization is using for the first time. You could also pick the area where you are making the biggest communication investments.

Our team of seasoned marketing researchers, and our proprietary tool Clip™ Ad Test , can help to identify exactly what you plan to evaluate and keep it focused so that it is manageable alongside your other responsibilities and you can apply lessons learned to other areas. Contact us to get started!

Next Steps

A couple of months ago, it occurred to me that it was taking an inordinate amount of time to write, edit, design, and deliver the Beaumont newsletters (sign up here). We were creating graphics, trawling the internet to find the perfect picture, agonising over word choice. Not a productive use of time.

Collectively, we went through the newsletters we personally get. Which ones do we read? Which ones do we delete? How do we make that decision? When assessing the subscriptions, not once did we think “yeah, the content’s boring but it has such lovely pictures.”

We therefore decided it was time to test our theory: we were going to send out an email with no pictures – just text and links – and see what happened. The result? More people read the email, more people read our article on tone of voice, and more people got in touch.

WHY DOES EVALUATION MATTER?

If you’ve ever been in a strategy call or meeting with one of the team (you can book your free 30-minute strategy call here) you know that, along with the importance of clear objectives, we continually stress the requirement for ongoing evaluation during a campaign. Once you know where you’re going (your objectives) you need to make sure you’re on the right path to get there (ongoing evaluation).

And yes, the detractors will have their say. Evaluation is costly and time-consuming. But, think of it this way. If you get your communications wrong, or your campaign doesn’t achieve anything, it’ll be more costly, more time-consuming, and more frustrating (and, potentially, more likely to result in your unemployment.)

Evaluation is important.

This month, we’ve put together a short infographic giving a brief overview on how you can start evaluating your communications campaigns. It covers:

why evaluation is important;
what the purpose of evaluation is;
what you can measure (and ideas how); and
why it should be part of your business culture.

You can download the infographic here.

Not sure where to start with your communications strategy? Maybe you’re having trouble with your messaging? Internal communications giving you a headache? Why not give the team at Beaumont a call? We’ve worked for companies big and small – Fortune 50 to start ups – and we’d love to work with you!

Beaumont is a communications agency based in Lausanne, Switzerland. We work with clients all around the world to change the way they talk about themselves – helping them create engaging stories that motivate action.

Lesson 5:

EVALUATING IMAGES & MESSAGES

The importance of evaluating the effectiveness of our messages is by developing and using strategic questions to identify strengths and weaknesses.

” STRATEGIES FOR EVALUATING A MESSAGE “

1. SIMPLICITY

-In order to ensure that our messages have simplicity.

2. SPECIFICITY
Refers to our choices of language.

3. STRUCTURE
-Ideas should be organized and easy to follow.

4. STICKINESS

-your message is concrete and precise of what you are trying to point out.

“EVALUATING IMAGES”

-It is important to critically evaluate images you use for research, study and presentation images should be evaluated like any other source, such as journal articles or books, to determine their quality, reliability and appropriateness.

Visual analysis is an important step in evaluating an image and understanding its meaning and also. there are three steps of evaluating an image and these are:

1. Identifying Source
2. Interpret contextual information
3. Understand implications

I have learned in this lesson that we should know how to evaluate the message to determine our strength and weaknesses so we can develop more our skills in writing a message in an effective way. Because in composing a message it is not matter how long it is but it is how you persuade the reader of your message. On how your message will Cath their attention and always remember that if you are writing a message make sure that you are not using a fuzzy language like jargon and colloquial words that would make the reader confused. Just make it simple but precise and timely.

Learning Outcome

Evaluate the effectiveness of a message

If only this were easy! A communicator can produce messages all day long, but they are not effective unless the audience receives them, consumes them, understands them, and (if applicable) provides the requested response.

Trying to pin down evaluative data like that is similar to your cat trying to catch the spot of light generated by a laser pointer. But you can actually gain some understanding through data collection with the right tools.

Did the audience receive the message sent? Companies like ContactMonkey or Politemail provide email tracking services to help a communicator determine how many of your readers opened your message. If you use a collaborative intranet platform to share your messages, a web tracking program like Google Analytics can give you myriad insights as to who is “landing” on your message.
Did the audience consume any of the message? If your message is encouraging a reader to click through to a video or webpage, this can help you understand better if the reader engaged with the content. How many readers clicked through to watch the video?
Did the audience understand the message? This is where it gets dicey. Certainly if you’ve requested a behavior of your audience and they’ve responded accordingly, then you know your message was understood. For instance, if you requested that customers update their passwords, you can tell how many audience members understood the message by measuring how many customers changed their passwords. However, if your message was about company strategy, about strengthening employee engagement, or about increasing customer confidence in the company, it’s not as easy to gauge the effectiveness of these more nebulous messages. Long-term, you’re likely to see the results of these messages (whether positive or negative), but you likely want to know relatively quickly if your message was successful. You can use tools like surveys to determine if you’re on the right track.