Effective communication skills and public relations fit together like Internet marketers and blogs. And any marketer can learn to improve communications by adopting public relations communication practices.

One of those practices is conducting a communication confirmation table. It’s really a communication plan in table form to help you visualize strengths and weakness in your communication plans.

Effective Communication Skills
And Public Relations
Sample Communication Confirmation Table

The table above illustrates a simple communication confirmation table. I introduce the table, the benefits of using it and discuss the first two columns in today’s post. I’ll explain the last four columns in Monday’s post.

Effective Communication Skills
And Public Relations
Benefits of Using A
Communication Confirmation Table

Public relations practitioners use communication confirmation tables because they provide the following seven benefits:

1. Checks that your planning decisions are consistent with information about your target public,
2. Checks the soundness of your analysis and planning,
3. Confirms alignment of messages, strategies, and tactics with purpose and markets,
4. Assures that relevant self-interest of the target market are included in messages,
5. Assures that public’s influentials are being used appropriately,
6. Assures that strategies and tactics are appropriate for the target market,
7. Reveals discrepancies in logic missed in written plan.

Effective Communication Skills
And Public Relations
How To Use A
Communication Confirmation Table

The table above illustrates six major parts of a communication confirmation table as columns. You can read about each column below:

Effective Communication Skills
And Public Relations
Column 1 – Key Public

The first column identifies the key or target public. The key or target public for this communication campaign is high school students.

A target public is similar to a target market. The difference is that target markets are through of as potential customers while target markets can represent any group of people who have an effect upon or are affected an organization.

I took more of a target public approach in a recent post that you can access below. It gives you a good idea of what public relations practitioners refer to as key or target markets.

Six Target Market Types

Effective Communication Skills
And Public Relations
Column 2 – Self Interests

Public relations practitioners use the term “self interests” in the same way that marketers use “benefits.” Both terms seek to determine what targeted people want and how to appeal to them.

In the case of high school students, major self interests are peer acceptance, having fun, making and keeping friends. By deciding what your target market wants and listing it in the table, you’ll be more likely to include those wants in your communications.

To read part 2 of this article, click the link below:

Effective Communication Skills And Public Relations, Part 2

If you need to improve your external or internal communications, don’t miss 101 Ways To Power-Up Your Writing. It contains writing tips and advice from a Fortune 500 writer. It will help you prevent embarrassing mistakes in English, and teach you to write with power and impact.

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Posted 1-9-09:
Effective Communication Skills
And Public Relations, Part 1

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You can improve your marketing by knowing and utilizing the criteria necessary for a market segment.

To be successful your marketing must target the people most likely to buy your products or services. These people are your best potential customers or what marketers call your target market.

You need to know who your target market members are and what demographic, psychographic and behavioral characteristics that they share. This knowledge enhances your ability to use marketing strategies, tactics, and messages that appeal to your best potential customers.

Wikipedia lists five criteria necessary for a market segment:

1. First Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: People In The Market Segment Share Similar Characteristics
2. Second Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: People In The Segment Differ From Those Not In The Market Segment
3. Third Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: People In The Market Segment Can Be Identified And Counted
4. Fourth Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: People In The Market Segment Can Be Reached And Persuaded To Take Action
5. Fifth Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment: The Segment Is Large Enough To Be Profitable

Knowing all the criteria necessary for a market segment will improve your marketing. You can learn about the first two in this article and go to my blog to learn about the remaining three criteria necessary for a market segment.

First Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment
Homogeneity Within The Market Segment

For a segment to exist, the people in it must share characteristics that make them similar in some significant way.

For instance, social classes comprise market segments. The working class share common characteristics. Middle class members share characteristics. However, the two classes’ characteristics are different. If you try to market to both the same, your marketing will fail with one or both.

The more characteristics that a market segment’s members share, the more you can treat the people in that segment as a single target market.

Because when people are similar, they are more likely to want and need the same products and services. When they share many characteristics, it’s easier for you to design a marketing campaign that builds on their common needs.

Second Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment
Differences Between People In The Market Segment
And Other People

Being able to distinguish how the people in a market segment differ from everybody else is an important market segment criteria.

If the people in the market segment are not substantially different from everybody else, you have:

• No characteristics to distinguish the market segment from everybody else,
• No reason to develop a marketing campaign for the target market, and
• No basis to design a unique marketing mix.

If there are no important differences between people in different segments, there is no foundation for target marketing. So having segments differ from one another is another criteria necessary for a market segment.

Thus, each market segment requires different marketing strategies and tactics than others in the mass market.

Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment
Conclusion And More

If you identify a market segment in which the people have lots in common, but are quite different from people in other market segments, you have the beginning of a successful marketing campaign.

If you identify a segment that is homogeneous within the segment and heterogeneous from other segments, you still must know that the segment provides enough people to warrant a marketing campaign. You also must assure that if successful, the campaign will produce the results that you want.

Read other Criteria for a Market Segment and an explanation for how I define market segments.

Here’s some  more posts that will interest you:

How To Determine The Cardiac Rehabilitation Target Market

Target Market For the Personal Shopper 2

African American Characteristics

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Submitted to Article Directories 5-26-08:
Five Criteria Necessary For A Market Segment

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