Business, Communication & The Importance Of Visuals

If you read any guide to good business practices, then communication will almost certainly be mentioned as an area that all business owners have to focus on. This insistence makes sense, as communication is at the heart of so many areas of business.

Why communication is considered to be so crucial

• In order to persuade customers to buy from your company, you have to be able to communicate essential information – such as why your company is a better choice than your competitors, and the benefits you can provide – effectively. If customers do not understand your company, or why they should buy from you specifically, then they will be far less likely to make a purchase.
• Communication between employees is also crucial to how a business operates. Employees have to be able to discuss the day-to-day running of the company, problems they may encounter, and – perhaps most importantly – make observations about the health of the business and communicate their findings to one another. There is little point in analytical data being gathered if it is not communicated in a way that can be acted upon.
• Finally, there also needs to be a strong relationship in communications between those who run the business and those who work for the business. Management, including you as the business owner, have to be able to communicate ideas, goals, plans, strategies, and general guidance advice to your workers to ensure that the business is able to operate in a cohesive way.

The consequences of poor communication

If the above goals are not met, then any business – no matter how outstanding its services or revolutionary its products – will struggle with the following consequences:

• If a business fails to communicate its benefits to customers, then sales will always struggle; business competitors who are able to communicate well are more likely to dominate the market.
• A lack of communication between employees will almost always result in a loss of productivity and efficiency within the business, particularly in regards to the use of analytical data. What’s more, employees may become frustrated by the lack of communication and the resulting uncertainty they experience in their working life, which could – in the worst case scenarios – lead to high staff turnover levels.
• If the management team are not able to effectively communicate with other staff, then the most likely outcome is that the goals that management are striving to achieve will be less likely to be met. For the business, this can be catastrophic, and potentially even lead to stagnation where there may have once been scope for further growth, development, and expansion had communication been more robust.

So, thus far we can conclude that communication is vital to a business, and that overlooking communication will generally be catastrophic to the long-term health of a business. As a result, you may find yourself thinking about how you can refine communication in your business; perhaps you’ll think about signing up for workplace communication apps such as Slack, starting a company newsletter, or simply encouraging your staff to send more emails to one another.

There is, however, a problem with all of the options above: they rely on text. Why is that a problem? Simple…

Humans process visual data far better than text

• A majority – over 65% – of people are visual learners
• 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual
• The human brain can process images up to 60,000 times faster than it can process text.

It is vitally important that all business owners take note of the statistics above and, wherever possible, alter the way that their business operates. Here’s a few ways you can harness the powers of visuals in your company:

• Instead of writing emails or sending newsletters to your staff, opt to share information via the likes of Beautiful AI, the presentation software that lives up to its name and is therefore far more efficient at providing information that your employees can retain.
• You can also encourage staff to share information with one another using visual presentations, especially when communicating analytics. Blank, hard copy reports of text and numbers are incredibly difficult to digest, but a smooth, well-designed, appealing presentation is far more likely to get the point across and allow that data to then be used effectively.
• Consider infographic marketing; infographics provide a way to catch the eye of your prospective customers and appeal to the intrinsic preference for visual information.

In conclusion
Any business owner knows that communication is an area that requires significant consideration, but how communication is best achieved is often less well known. As we have seen above, visual communication is likely to be the most effective method of communication across all aspects of your company, and switching to visual-focused methods could greatly help your business towards greater success in future.