Data Delivers Credibility

I'm always impressed by how much respect I get when speaking or writing with specific, solid numbers. For example, when I talk about the number of visitors who came through the gates of my association's event on a specific night, I don't talk about "a lot" or "a few" or "more than the night before." Instead, I can say something like, "2,348 visitors came through last night, compared to 1,852 the evening before."

That specificity makes a difference when it comes to credibility, and if I propose a certain course of action based on those numbers, I'm likely to get the support I need from other members of the board. Data, you see, represents very specific information, and often, the more specific you can be, the more credibility you have. Similarly, direct marketing gurus encourage their clients to use specific numbers in headlines, rather than generalizations.

That's why effective direct mail, and now online advertising, uses claims like "Learn how one sales rep earned $2,216.78 last week..." rather than "Learn how one sales rep earned more than $2,000 last week...

"By being specific, the headline writer converts a boast ("more than $2,000") into a conceivably credible claim. What's implied is that it must be true or the writer wouldn't use that specific figure.

You'll find other professionals get credibility in the same way. For example, lawyers get it by citing precedents. Rather than talk to a judge in generalities, good lawyers cite previous case law and decisions by other judges. You also know the clergy gain credibility by citing passages of scripture, along with the chapter and verse numbers.

And, how about the medical profession? For example, physicians and others don't speak of "heart attacks;" instead they speak of different kinds of heart disease and conditions.

By being specific they gain credibility, credibility that sets them apart from lay people.The concept works for just about anyone, in any profession or occupation. Suppose, for example, you're a sales manager attending a budget meeting, and the general manager wants you to increase your sales by 15% next year, far more than you're likely to achieve.

To argue persuasively that the target should be lowered, you might explain that the economy of your city is only expected to grow 2% next year, that your main competitor recently cut prices by an average of 4.5%, and that your company's production will be just 5% greater next year. Now, you've got ammunition when you argue for a lower sales target. Instead of being non-specific and general which just sounds like negativism.

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you need persuasive messages

Could there be an angle here for your business? What I mean is, once you interact with, then learn what that key target audience of yours believes about you and your organization, a corrective public relations goal - a specific behavior change -- can be established. Which then requires that you identify a strategy. There are just three choices here, create opinion where none exists, change existing opinion, or reinforce it.

It's a logical sequence. With your goal and strategy now set, you need persuasive messages with a good chance of moving perceptions (and thus behaviors) in your organization's direction. But you must make sure the messages talk not only to the current topic at issue, but to any misconceptions or inaccuracies encountered during your information gathering, and to any problems that might be brewing.

What will you do with your new message? You will carry it to the attention of your priority audience.

You'll use communications tactics that are credible in the eyes of the receiver, and effective in reaching him or her. You'll also want tactics that stand a good chance of moving opinion in that target audience, on the topic at issue, in your direction. Fortunately, there are many communications tactics to choose from: newsworthy announcements, letters-to-the-editor, news releases, radio and newspaper interviews, brochures, speeches and on and on. Now, you're back to the monitoring mode as you interact once again with members of the key target audience.
With your communications tactics hammering away, you keep one eye peeled for signs of target audience opinion shifts in your direction. The other eye, (and ears) stay alert for any references by print and broadcast media, or other local thought leaders to your carefully prepared message.

The bottom line is, are perceptions and behaviors within the target audience being modified? If not, adjustments to your communications tactics - often a big increase in, and wider selection -- must be made. Your message may also need to be sharpened and its factual basis strengthened.
Gradually, you'll begin to notice changes in opinion starting to appear along with a growing receptiveness to those messages of yours. This is real progress. Should you still need encouragement to hang in there with your brand new public relations program, consider this. A single issue - for example, a potentially dangerous, unattended perception among a key audience -- can spread like wildfire nudging any business closer to fail.