We all want to create memorable, meaningful messages.
Whether you are delivering media interviews, responding to a crisis, writing, or trying to cut through the noise on digital channels, getting those messages right is crucial to standing out from the crowd.
But how do you do it?
Well, this is something we explored during our recent webinar. Graham Jones, one of our expert tutors – who is also an internet psychologist - was joined by Dr Lynda Shaw, a cognitive neuroscientist and business psychologist.
And it was a fascinating conversation.
If you missed it, you can watch it here. And to save you from taking notes – and to remind you of all the great stuff they discussed – we thought we would cover some of the crucial lessons in a blog.
Let’s begin by looking at the critical components of a good message.
Emotion
Emotion is such a crucial factor in effective messaging.
People crave it. It is a vital part of making connections and is at the heart of most decisions we make.
Graham explained most of our decisions are made emotionally with the unconscious mind and then rationalised later with the conscious mind.
Graham said: “I see this a lot with the way people use the internet and look at messages online. We know consciousness probably doesn’t kick in until about 700 milliseconds. Yet when they are deciding whether they are engaging with that message online, it is happening at something like 500 milliseconds.
“So, we can see the parts of the brain involved in the decision making of that message are happening before anyone is consciously aware of what they are reading online.”
Pivotal components of messages can often be linked to our basic survival instincts – or ‘lower-order operations, in our brain. And emotion is one of these.
Lynda said: “Emotional responses are fast because we need them to get out of trouble. So, we need to plug into emotion all of the time in all of our messages.”
Curiosity
Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it is another vital component of messaging. And it is again based on our survival instincts.
Curiosity grabs attention, creates a desire to find out more, and moves people into action. If people aren’t curious about what you say, then they don’t care about it. Silence is not golden.
But what about the science behind this?
“When we satisfy our curiosity, we get a massive surge of dopamine,” Lynda said.
“Dopamine is part of our reward circulatory, and it is all about motivation and anticipation. If we get the fix, we will feel happy and will want to be engaged more on the topic.
“Dopamine also enhances learning and strengthens memories. So, we are more likely, if we have stimulated curiosity, to have grabbed their attention and make them remember our message.”
Graham added: “Curiosity goes back to survival instincts. We have to be curious about what is around us to survive because part of the brain’s responsibility is to keep you alive and the human population alive. If we are not curious about what is harmful or beneficial to us, there is a danger we are going to peg it.”
Novelty
People are always on the lookout for something new, original or unique.
It makes us happy and can create a rush of all-important dopamine.
So, messages including a novelty factor are more likely to grab attention and stand out amid all the surrounding noise.
“Research has shown novelty trumps everything when it comes to attention-grabbing,” Lynda said.
“There is an awful lot of noise out there and a lot of competition. People are saturated by information. So, you need to be novel.
“There was a lovely example I saw when I was in the United States. There were these huge billboards and these huge cows, and one of them was pretending to paint on the billboard “eat more chickin”. It had the novelty factor, and it worked because I have always remembered it.”
The cows at Chick-fil-a say eat more chickin. I'm sure Canadian turkeys say the same. pic.twitter.com/gO8VFKF1eT
— The French Gardener (@Guy_in_PEI) October 10, 2014
Word choices
How often have you seen a negatively framed message?
There are plenty of them. And the theory is negative language plays on people’s fears, concerns, and uncertainty and can be more effective at grabbing attention.
But while it may initially gain attention, our brains quickly work out it is something we can ignore.
Lynda uses the work of Joseph LeDoux, an American neuroscientist, to explain this.
She said: “He gives this example of walking around a city park in the afternoon and finding something curled up on the ground. You jump back because the information has gone to your occipital lobe at the back of your brain.
“But there is a slightly slower signal to the brain that analyses it and realises it is a stick and it can be ignored.
“If we are presented with a threat and then perceive it is not a threat, we ignore it.”
Lynda revealed she worked with a UK insurance company on whether negative or positive emotions in its marketing made a difference.
And they discovered positive language, like ‘saving for your family’ and ‘helping your grandchildren buy their first car’, activated the brain much more than words like ‘struggle’ or survival’.
They also discovered it persuaded people into action.
She said: “If you are messaging people, you have to persuade them. You don’t want them to just be interested.
“So, positive emotional words work better to get people to do something.”
Graham added: “This is something that annoys me about the internet. You get people saying that if you use negative words and phrases, you will draw more people to your message. It might be true, but it is the action they take that is important. They might think, ‘oh my god, this is a problem’, but they quickly realise it isn’t, and they disappear. Positive messages get more engagement and more action.
“People say you should play on people’s fears, but the science tells us this is not true. It is the positive emotions you trigger that is crucial.
“And I think this refers to relevance. Messages that are relevant to you, are unusual and are positive are the ones that stand out.”
So, we’ve learnt what we should and should not include in our messages. But once we have gained attention, how do we make them memorable?
Trust
Trust is vital. It is something we all look for.
What does this mean for messaging? If people don’t trust the brand, the messaging will fail, no matter how carefully it has been crafted.
If you are trusted, people will sit up and pay attention to what you have to say.
But how do you achieve it? Lynda says the vagus nerve – the longest in the body – plays a role here. “The vagus nerve is very much associated with trust and altruism. And if you are looking at trust, it will be bringing in the chemical oxytocin, which is known as the bonding chemical.
“In the business world, it is important to stimulate oxytocin. And we do this by stimulating trust. And the more trustworthy we are, the more trusted we become.
“But oxytocin has a downside. If you have built trust but then let them down, they will demonise you because of the oxytocin.
“If you do let them down, you need to apologise and do everything you can to claw back trust.”
Graham supported this point by looking at the British Midland Boeing 737 crash in Kegworth in 1989. It killed 47 people and left another 74 injured. The company chairman Michael Bishop spoke with compassion, apologised and said he understood how the relatives of passengers must be feeling because he knew every member of the crew and the pilot was an old friend.
The result was trust was maintained in the brand despite the tragedy. And in the week after the crash, a record number of people booked with the airline. In the longer term, the airline became BMI and was eventually bought by Lufthansa, which sold it on for £172m.
The illusion of truth
Regular readers of our media training blogs will have heard us discuss before the critical part repetition plays in ensuring messages resonate.
Don’t just use your message once.
Lynda describes this as the illusion of truth.
“The more you hear something, the more it becomes true in your head,” she said.
“So, if you are grabbing people’s attention with curiosity, novelty and emotion, and you are appealing to them, it is then about repetition.
“As you repeat the message, it will become cemented in people’s brains as the correct information.”
But don’t fall into the trap of using the same language – it will bore your audience.
Simple
We have preached about the importance of simple messages in our courses in media blogs. What I didn’t know when I wrote those articles was there is science behind this.
Lynda explained the brain has to take in vast amounts of information and, consequently, it is looking for shortcuts.
She said: “The brain will take shortcuts and make assumptions. It has to because it is trying to work out if something is relevant in a massively noisy place. Our attention is also faulty, so we may be attending to the wrong bit, which isn’t helpful.
“What this means is your message has to be crystal clear and simplified. When it is not clear, the brain will ignore it.
“Understanding your audience is crucial here. If you are talking to an academic audience, you can use the correct wording that relates to them. But for the general population, this language will sound arrogant, cocky and irrelevant. So, we need to simplify without dumbing down.”
Graham added: “In terms of the science behind messaging, the choice of words is important. It is not just about writing a message in the office, and it working for you. The precision of those words is crucial.”
What else do we need to know?
Well, Lynda also discussed a model you can use to create compelling messages.
It is called the three Cs and stands for context, concept and content.
She said: “Messages should start with the context of what is going on. For example, the context of this webinar is the science of making memorable messaging.
“Then you have got to talk about the concept, which is we are giving you some scientific information to support the things you probably know but haven’t thought about in the same way before.
“And the last thing is the content, where we go deeper into it. So, those three Cs are vital.”
Don’t forget, you can watch the full webinar again here.
And call us for a chat if you need a little more help with your message development and testing.
Media First are media and communications training specialists with over 35 years of experience. We have a team of trainers, each with decades of experience working as journalists, presenters, communications coaches and media trainers.
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