Which elements of communication are useful in business?

Communication in business consists of the sender, the receiver, the message, the channel, noise, and the feedback – these are elements of the communication process familiar from textbooks. In practice, there are still three things that matter: choosing the channel for the target audience, consistency in the tone of voice, and non-verbal elements that often weigh more than the words themselves.

Elements of the communication process – the basics

The classic model of communication, known from marketing textbooks, describes six elements of the communication process: the sender, the receiver, the message (the information), the channel, the noise (disturbances), and the feedback. In business, the sender is the company, the receiver is the client, employee, or journalist, and the message is the specific message that the company wants to convey. The channel is the path through which the message reaches the receiver: the website, social media, a phone call, press release.

This model is also expanded with an element of encoding and decoding messages – that is, the way the sender expresses a thought in words and the way the receiver interprets it. In practice, this means that the same message can be understood differently depending on the language, examples, and thought shortcuts the sender used – and the knowledge the receiver has on the given topic.

Noise is everything that interferes with the reception of the message: too difficult language, the wrong time for sending, competitive information that at the same time attracts the attention of the recipient. A feedback message is a reaction – a comment, a question, a purchase, and sometimes a lack of response, which is also information. Listing these six elements when planning any campaign allows you to quickly spot gaps, for example, a lack of a clearly defined target audience.

Noise is sometimes divided into technical (the message does not reach due to technical reasons, e.g. anti-spam filter) and semantic (the message reaches, but the recipient understands it differently than the sender intended). In business, semantic noise is more difficult to detect because the company does not receive any error message – the client simply reacts differently than the company expected.

Elements of the communication process in practice – an example

The training company sends an email with an invitation to a webinar. The sender is the marketing department, the recipient is the people who signed up for the newsletter, the message is information about the topic and the date, and the channel is the inbox. If the title of the email is unclear or the message ends up in the spam folder, it creates noise that blocks the reception. The feedback is a registration for the event – or its absence, which is also information: perhaps the topic did not interest the recipients, and perhaps the message did not even reach them.

Breaking down the same pattern for press releases, social media posts, or sales conversations allows you to quickly diagnose at which stage the communication is „breaking down” – whether the problem is the message itself, a bad channel, or the noise the company did not anticipate.

The same analysis also works in the other direction – when communication works better than usual. It is worth checking which element has changed: it could have been a different channel, a different publication time, or simply less competition noise in a given week. Without such analysis, it is difficult to repeat the success of the next campaign.

Formal and informal communication in the company

In business, it is worth distinguishing between two types of communication. Formal communication these are planned actions: campaigns, press releases, content on the website, posts on social media – everything that is created in accordance with communication strategy. Informal communication These are unplanned signals: the way the employee answers the phone, the tone of the response to a complaint, the appearance of the office where clients are received. Recipients often trust informal communication more than formal communication because it seems less structured.

All right brand communication It takes both types into account. A beautiful advertising campaign is not enough if the customer service department responds to complaints after a week. The recipient assesses the brand based on the sum of all signals, not just the planned ones.

In practice, this means that those responsible for formal communication – marketing, PR – should have constant contact with the departments that create informal communication: customer service, sales, and even reception. It is they who know the most quickly what questions and doubts customers have, before the information reaches any report.

Elements of online and offline marketing communication

The elements of marketing communication include traditional media (press, radio, printed materials), digital media (website, social media, email), events and events, and direct contact – business talks and industry trade shows. Each of these elements has its own strengths:

Marketing communication and promotion

Colloquially, these two concepts can sometimes be confused, although they really refer to two different things. Promotion it one-sided transmission flowing from the enterprise towards the market - customers. Marketing communication flows both ways. First, thanks to market research, the opinions of recipients are collected - it provides them research trial. Then the company communicates outside. Finally, he can collect data from the market again, test the effectiveness of the campaign, etc. The promotion itself is therefore part of the marketing communication. Promotion is formal communication. Its aim is to increase the reach of a given information, and marketing communication may remind, inform or convince about a given solution, service or product. 

The choice of elements of marketing communication depends primarily on target audience. A company selling accounting services for companies is unlikely to build sales through viral videos on TikTok, but publishing expert content and being present on LinkedIn would work well for them. Conversely, a clothing brand for teenagers would gain little from an article in the industry press.

The same product may therefore require a completely different set of communication elements depending on who the company sells it to. The manufacturer of office furniture communicates differently with an interior designer, and differently with the person buying a single desk for their home office – even though the product is the same.

Elements of verbal and written communication

Elements of verbal communication are not only the choice of words, but also the length of sentences, tone, and degree of formality. In written communication – on a website, in an email, in a press release – the text structure follows: is the most important information at the beginning, or do we need to get to it through several introductory paragraphs? In business practice, shorter sentences and concrete examples work better than long, ornate descriptions, because the recipient has less time and patience than the author of the text.

The same principle applies to professional terms. If a company has to use an industry term, it is worth explaining it in brackets right away – a recipient who does not understand a single sentence often stops reading the entire text instead of looking for the meaning.

The elements of verbal communication also differ depending on the channel. What works in a phone conversation – longer sentences, repetitions to ensure the recipient understands – won’t work in a product description on a website, where brevity is crucial. Tailoring the style of the speech to the specific channel is a separate skill that’s worth teaching to anyone who communicates with customers in the company.

How to choose the communication elements for the company – checklist

Before choosing channels and tools, it is worth answering four questions. If any of the answers is unclear, that is a sign that the communication plan needs to be refined before the first campaign begins.

1. Who exactly should receive the message – one specific target group, not „everyone interested”.
2. What kind of channels of marketing communication This group actually uses it on a daily basis.
3. What we want to tell her about – one key message, and not a list of all the company's advantages at once.
4. What disturbances (noise) can hinder reception – competition, poor timing of publication, overly complex language.

Elements of interpersonal communication in business conversations

In addition to mass communication (to many recipients at the same time), the company also conducts interpersonal communication – one-on-one conversations, for example, between a salesperson and a customer, or between an employee of the support department and the person reporting a complaint. Elements of interpersonal communication include active listening (confirming that the recipient understands what the other party is saying), asking clarifying questions instead of guessing the intent of the conversation, and adapting the pace and vocabulary to the person with whom one is talking.

In business, this form of communication is particularly important when dealing with complaints and difficult conversations – it is here that the decision is made whether the customer will stay with the brand or move on to a competitor, regardless of how well the company’s formal communication in other channels looks.

It is also worth remembering about internal communication – conversations between employees and their superiors. The elements of interpersonal communication work here just as well as in contact with a client: clarity of communication, active listening, and quick response to questions build trust within the team, which is then reflected externally in the quality of customer service.

Companies that train their sales or customer service teams solely on product knowledge often overlook the most important element: the ability to lead a conversation itself. A short training in active listening and asking questions can change the quality of service more than another presentation about the product's features.

Non-verbal elements of communication in business

In addition to words and channels, non-verbal elements also count. In a sales conversation, at a conference, or in a video recording, the recipient assesses not only the content, but also the way it is conveyed: the tone of voice, the pace of speech, body language, and appearance. In written communication – on a website or in social media – the role of non-verbal elements is taken over by: the choice of photos, color scheme, the length of sentences, and even the time it takes to respond to a customer’s message.

• Tone of voice – a calm and matter-of-fact one creates a different impression than an enthusiastic and quick one.
• Response time – a quick response to a customer question communicates more than the content of the answer itself.
• Visual coherence – the same colors and font design in each channel make it easier to recognize the brand.
• Place and context – the same message is received differently at a trade conference and differently in a private message.

The last element of marketing communication, which is feedback, cannot be forgotten. It is worth making such summaries after each campaign. This way, you can create a seamless cycle in which the collection of data from the market does marketing audit at the end of the previous campaign, they are the starting point for the next one. Individual elements can be selected based on the budget, product type or the activities of the competition. It is also important at what stage of the product life cycle. Legal regulations must also be taken into account - e.g. tobacco cannot be advertised in the press, and advertising of products for children must be properly ethical. It also matters whether you are running a type strategy push if pull. All these factors must be taken into account when selecting each of the elements of marketing communication: channels, message or recipients. 

The most common mistakes in choosing communication elements

• Choosing a channel for intuition. The company creates a profile on social media because „competition exists too,” without checking whether the target audience even exists there.
• Too much information at once. One post or one page tries to tell everything about the company, so nothing remains in memory.
• The gap between formal and informal communication. The advertisement promises one thing, but the customer service delivers something else.
• Ignoring the feedback message. Customer comments and questions are information that is worth using in the next campaign, not just ticking a box with a simple answer.

How to check the selection of communication elements – a quick audit

Before a company changes anything in its communication, it’s worth taking a simple look at what already exists. The following steps take less than an hour and show where the disconnect between what the company wants to say and what the receiver actually hears most often occurs.

1. Gather content from the website, social media, and the latest press releases in one place.
2. Check if the key message (one sentence about the company) is the same in all these places.
3. Ask someone outside the company what they understand from each of these materials – the discrepancy in the responses shows the noise that the company does not see from the inside.
4. Check the response time to the last five messages from customers – this is a non-verbal element that can easily be overlooked during a content audit.

It is worth repeating such an audit every few months, especially after changes in the team or after the introduction of a new communication channel. The elements of communication that work cohesively today may become disjointed after a few months if no one checks them regularly.

Selection of elements of communication with Commplace

At Commplace, we start with the same question as above: who is the target group and which elements of communication actually reach them? Only on this basis do we choose the channels – press releases, social media, expert content on the website, or internal communication. If you want to plan a consistent mix of marketing communications for your company, see, How we build a communication strategy.

We collect the effects of individual channels – reach, website visits, and customer inquiries – in one place in the dashboard. Commwork®AI, This allows you to see which elements of the communication actually have an effect and which ones are worth changing.

Before we start selecting channels and formats, we conduct a brief audit of the client’s current communication – exactly as described above – to know where we’re realistically starting from, rather than assuming an ideal state.

It is also worth reading: Strategic communication – how to plan it and marketing communication channels.

Sources: work of the Commplace blog editorial team.