I sit and stare at the screen, a blank page and a blinking cursor, trying to figure out the best way to word-smith my message to a target account. I stare and think about what I can say that will cut through the noise, disrupt the pattern and get him to respond.
My go-to strategy for creating messaging is asking myself, “Would I take a second look at this and respond?” That’s been a good litmus test for me. I mean, if I wouldn’t take a second look, then obviously my prospect wouldn’t either. I try to think about what my competitors would write, look at their messaging and make sure mine is bolder, punchier, bigger and, of course, better.
After 10 minutes of staring and five minutes of writing, I push the send button. Then crickets.
This is the story too many of us go through. We use the best practices for messaging, pull the hottest frameworks for emails and punch up our copy only to get a cursed “unsubscribe” or nothing at all. We optimize for subject lines, messaging frameworks, CTA placement and volume.
But we neglect to consider how our target audience cognitively processes the information. Communication isn’t just transmission. It’s also interpretation.
Most outreach fails not because the message is wrong, but because it’s written for how the sender processes information rather than how the buyer decodes it.
In our roles, we’re communication experts. We need to create copy that meets both aspects of communication: transmission and interpretation. We’re going to dive into interpretation.
Why decoding matters in the communication cycle
Most of us are aware of the communication cycle. We use it every time we communicate with another person. But I doubt we can all identify the different components of communication.
Below are the seven stages of the communication cycle:
- Sender: The person communicating.
- Message: What’s being communicated.
- Encoding: The method of communication (messaging or speaking).
- Channel: The platform of communication.
- Receiver: The person receiving the communication.
- Decoding: Processing the communication.
- Feedback: Responses, questions and other reactions.
We do a good job of focusing on the first five, but stop there. What we miss is the decoding layer, how our prospects process our information. We insert our own bias into how we’d process the information. Remember the “would I take a second look at this and respond” litmus test? We aren’t our prospects.
This doesn’t mean the content of our messaging should change. It’s more nuanced than that. We’re going to focus on decoding how our prospects process what we’re communicating.
This is the area where change can significantly impact the results of our campaigns. If we focus on learning how our specific prospects process the information we’re communicating and write to that level, our messaging will resonate better with our audience.
The patterns that reveal how your audience processes communication
The question is: what do we need to identify to understand how our audience processes information? There are four components we’ll look at to identify this:
- Grade level of writing.
- Readability and cognitive load.
- Tone of the message.
- Platform to deliver.
Lower reading levels drive higher response rates
When was the last time you sat down to write an email and kept in mind the grade level your prospect would want? I’d assume never. I mean, that seems weird, doesn’t it?
Emails written at a third-grade to fifth-grade level get 67% more responses. That alone should give you pause when writing your next message.
A lot of times, we want to write messaging that’s catchy, informative, puts us at an elevated level and ensures we provide as much value as possible. That’s a trap. Is that important? Yes. Does that typically lead us down a path where we outwrite our prospects’ attention? Also yes.
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This writing typically lands us at an 11th- to 12th-grade writing level. Sounds impressive, but it’s actually detrimental. Why does this matter?
Higher grade-level writing forces:
- Higher cognitive load.
- More time to process the information.
- Increased commitment from the prospect.
- Complexity that increases perceived friction.
Lower grade-level writing is:
- Easily scanned.
- Easy to comprehend.
- Supportive of quick decisions.
- Low cognitive load.
Your audience is getting blasted with messaging on all fronts. They don’t have the time or the mental bandwidth to process what you’re trying to tell them.
You want to make your messaging easy for them to understand and process, because they’re scanning messages and spending the least time per message until something piques their interest.
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High cognitive load causes prospects to ignore messages
Readability isn’t just grade level. It also includes several structural elements that influence how easily someone can process a message:
- Paragraph density.
- Sentence length.
- Jargon.
- Formatting.
- Visual breaks.
- CTA clarity.
Your audience subconsciously asks a few questions whenever they see your message:
- How much effort will this take?
- Is this worth decoding?
When cognitive load is high, people ignore the message. When cognitive load is low, they’re more likely to consider it.
Our brains are wired to take shortcuts when presented with tasks. That’s called heuristics. One shortcut the brain uses is evaluating the format of your messages.
If the message is one gigantic block of text, we automatically assume it’s overly complex and will take too much effort to decode.
Make sure your format allows the eye to scan quickly and easily. Don’t write in large chunks. Use simple sentence and paragraph structures and provide visual breaks between paragraphs.
Tone influences whether prospects engage
When we think about tone, we often think about spoken communication. But tone also comes through in written communication. When your audience reads your messaging, they’ll detect whether the tone is conversational, educational, confrontational or direct.
Tone affects perceived risk and a person’s willingness to engage in the conversation. Not everyone prefers the same kind of tone when reading a message.
Have you ever been telling someone a story and giving all the details only for them to cut you off and say, “Cut the fluff and tell me what happened”? Or someone tells you about their vacation in a few quick sentences and leaves you wanting more?
That’s the difference between someone who prefers direct communication and someone who prefers conversational communication.
With written communication, we don’t get the immediate feedback we do when speaking with someone. The feedback is usually silence.
The trap we fall into is writing the way we prefer to be communicated with.
Channel choice changes how messages are interpreted
Not all buyers process information the same way across channels, and not all buyers are active on every channel. This is where the communication channel comes into play in the communication loop.
We do a great job of measuring attribution, with a slight amount of sarcasm there. The reality is we’re very focused on which channels we’re using to engage our audience.
However, if you aren’t segmenting channels by buyer type, you’re burying important insights about channel preference.
- Some buyers respond to LinkedIn engagement first.
- Some ignore LinkedIn but respond to email.
- Some only engage after visibility is established.
- Some prefer asynchronous communication.
- Some prefer short, direct messages.
- Some require contextual familiarity.
If you segment this activity by audience profiles, you’ll develop a clearer picture of how each group prefers to be communicated with.
Patterns to look for include:
- Response rate by platform.
- Engagement before reply.
- Time-to-response differences.
- Behavior by revenue band or seniority.
Designing messaging around processing patterns
Instead of improving the message itself, the goal is to align the message with how the audience processes information.
You’ve paid attention to how your audience processes information. You’ve identified critical patterns and now understand the appropriate grade level of writing, the readability of your messaging, the tone and the platform.
Instead of asking, “How do we say this better?” ask, “How will this be interpreted?”
Follow these messaging principles:
- Write below your ego
- Sixth- to eighth-grade readability.
- Short sentences.
- No filler.
- Match readability
- Clear idea.
- Scannable structure.
- No paragraph walls.
- Match tone
- Conversational → informal and descriptive.
- Direct → short and to the point, no fluff.
- Consultative → informational and professional.
- Respect platform psychology
- LinkedIn: Conversational, context-driven, familiarity-based.
- Email: Precision-driven, value-first, clear outcome
- Call: Confidence and clarity, low friction.
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Communication is pattern recognition
Engaging with our audience isn’t just about asking ourselves whether we would read this message or respond to this email. It’s deeper than that. Understanding how our audience processes our outreach and adapting our tactics to meet that is when we move from just marketing and sales professionals to communication experts.
Recognize the patterns, adjust your messaging and execute.