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Want to make sure your message doesn't get through? That your campaign disappears without a trace? That your communication program suffers a quick, painful death?

Then be sure to try one of these attention-stoppers. If, however, you'd like to successfully get your audience's attention, you might want to do the opposite of each of the following "7 Deadly Sins of Poor Communication."

1. Make it all about 'me'

A well-known healthcare company publishes a monthly employee newsletter filled with content that the CEO wants to communicate, written in language that appeals to MBAs. There's nothing wrong with the newsletter, really, as long as it's only distributed to the 15 people in the executive suite for whom it's written.

But the company prints 50,000 copies of the publication and sends it to all employees, who wonder what the content has to do with them.

The newsletter is what I'd call "vanity press," designed to stroke the ego of senior management, not meet the needs of its intended audience.

Even sophisticated companies sometimes fall into this "all about me" trap. For example, a billboard in an airport reads, "We're Acme, a global innovative company that helps the needs of businesses and communities right here in the United States." I can hear the audience asking, "What does this mean to me?" as they walk right by.

What to do instead: Know your audience, and make your communication all about them.

2. Try to cover too much

Ever listen to one of those interview shows on the radio where the host interviews guests and takes calls from listeners?

Next time you do, notice how people who are experienced at being interviewed—politicians, celebrities, book authors, activists—tend to be very good at getting their point across, whether that point is "vote for me" or "buy my book."

By contrast, it's likely that at least some of the callers are ramblers. They start on one topic, meander over to another, and finish somewhere else entirely. One sentence ellipses into another in a kind of free-flowing fugue. And, in the end, you wonder what they meant.

As marketing expert Harry Beckwith says, positioning "must be singular: One simple message. Your positioning must set you apart from your competitors. You must sacrifice. You cannot be all things to all people: You must focus on one thing."

What to do instead: Decide on one concept for your communication, and focus on getting that message across.

3. Use complicated, abstract concepts

Too much education can be a dangerous thing, especially when it comes to communicating clearly. We feel that we have to use all those words we memorized in school. We try to seem more impressive by constructing complex sentences. We think the more obtuse we sound, the more people will respect us.

The result is a paragraph like this, which has been adapted from a real opinion piece in a real publication:

It's intriguing that some businesses continue to support costly scattershot communication channels instead of opting for smarter, customer-driven messaging. By adopting strategic practices, encouraging ownership, and introducing self-governance, communication practitioners can improve penetration through empowerment.

The person who wrote the opinion piece was trying to make a persuasive argument. But instead of using tangible examples to make his or her case, the writer loaded up the article with lots of abstract, ethereal concepts. As a result, it's hard to connect, easy to tune out.

What to do instead: Make your communication tangible and specific.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Alison Davis is coauthor (with New York Times columnist Paul B. Brown) of the new book Your Attention, Please: How to Appeal to Today's Distracted, Disengaged and Busy Audiences (Adams Business, 2006) and is CEO of employee communications firm Davis & Company. For more information about the book, go to Amazon or www.yourattentionpleasebook.com.