Principle: Relevant

Motivate the audience

Tactics to apply to make your communications relevant

Motivate the audience

Effective message design moves target audiences along a communications continuum from awareness to action. WHO communicators should identify where audiences are on the continuum and design messages to engage them at that stage. For more information on the communication continuum see the principle Actionable.

Build awareness

Communicators should design messages to be simple, easy to recall, repetitive and attention-getting. Messages should focus on the health issue and the recommended actions relevant to the target audience.

Explain or increase personal relevance

Effective messages connect the target audience as close as possible to the health issue. Communicators can create messages that:

reflect on the previous experiences of the target audience;
show the effect of the issue on people who are like the recipients; and
highlight the effects on family and friends who have or may experience the health problem.

Promote knowledge of solutions

WHO messages should include a recommended policy action or health behaviour related to the issue under discussion, and attribute it to a source trusted by the target audience.

Methods for promoting target audience knowledge of WHO recommendations include:

place messages in locations and at times that reach the decision-makers and allows them to process the information; and
include visuals in messages to support the different ways people learn.

Instill confidence

Research can identify barriers or factors that reduce the audience’s confidence in their ability to act on the recommended behaviour. WHO communicators should create messages to increase target audience confidence. For instance, messages meant for decision-makers, should reinforce their belief that they can take action to prevent or control health risks and protect health. These messages will also encourage other target audiences to have high confidence in the recommendations and take the recommended actions.

Influence social norms

Norms, or traditionally accepted and expected behaviours, may be a barrier to recommended actions and can influence the effectiveness of WHO messages. To support actions that require development of a new social norm, communicators can enlist community leaders or well-known celebrities to practice and model desired behaviour. UN’s and WHO’s goodwill ambassador policy provides key guidelines on how to determine which eminent personalities can be designated for these positions.

Promote benefits

Communicators must promote the benefits of the recommended behaviours or policy actions in health messages.

Messages can reinforce benefits by connecting them to the lives of decision-makers and their communities. These benefits may or may not be related to health and, for example, could include: