Next Entries →

Exaggeration Is Not Your Friend

Published February 28th, 2009 in communications strategy, green marketing, marketing | No Comments »

When you’ve got a new product or service you believe will change the world—or at least your industry—naturally, you’re excited. And it’s tempting to slip into exaggeration about what you can or will do—but don’t.

Presenting goals as facts, stating best-case scenarios without qualification, hyperbole (“best,” “cleanest,” “most advanced”), and other forms of exaggeration are credibility killers.

Why? They trigger BS detectors, subjecting you to extra scrutiny. When people realize the statement is not quite true, they’ll doubt everything else you say. And they set you up for failure if you can’t deliver the best case.

Stay credible and create confidence in your enterprise by making the strongest claims that you can support. Don’t say you’ll have product on the market next year unless you absolutely know you will—give a conservative target date, and explain (briefly) what needs to happen for you to meet it. And don’t say your technology delivers the “world’s lowest emissions” or some such unless you’re prepared to back it up with an honest comparison of your performance with everyone else’s.

In short: if you can prove it, say it; if not, don’t.

Goldilocks and the Three Rules

Published September 7th, 2008 in communications strategy, marketing | No Comments »

It may not be true that everything you need to know you learned in kindergarten, but the old fairy tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears does contain three key (and often violated) rules for well-targeted communications.

Test, Test, Test Like Goldilocks, we’re all striving for “just right” communications: not too complex and not too simple, not too much and not too little. But while most of us only assume (or hope) we’ve gotten it just right, the fussy home invader knew what was just right because she tested.

Real-world testing is ideal. Is your twice-yearly magazine optimal, or would a smaller quarterly publication serve you better? Test by sending one option to half your list and the other to the rest for a year, then tallying responses or donations for each group. (There are subtleties involved in this kind of testing; this is just a broad outline.)

Wonder if you’re communicating too frequently, or too little? Ask. One client worried that they sent too many e-mail bulletins and mailings. Good thing they surveyed their audience, because they found that if anything, they could be communicating more.

Audience testing isn’t practical for everything, of course. When it isn’t—or if you just don’t have the resources for it—you can set up a battery of internal test questions to find well-grounded answers to common dilemmas.

For instance: Is long or short copy better? (The format will guide you: people will read less on a Web page than on a print page.) What do we need to get across? (To convey a clear, high-level message, don’t clutter it with detail. If you need to make a nuanced case, don’t short your credibility by leaving out supporting facts.) What does our audience want to know? (Don’t tell them more than that. And don’t tell them less—vague, hyped copy designed to “pique interest” rarely does.)

‘Just Right’ Depends on Who’s Judging Answers to your internal test questions will always depend on who your audience is. If you’re selling an expensive, advanced-technology product to businesses, for example, you’ll usually have at least two audiences: nontechnical decision makers with budget authority, and technical staff with advisory authority. Don’t think you can communicate with both in the same way: Goldilocks rejected Papa Bear’s hot porridge; he would have snarled at her tepid choice.

Don’t Fall Asleep Often the biggest mistake communications teams make is failing to regularly evaluate their messages and materials. Alas, we can’t afford to relax—what’s just right now may miss the mark as situations change. When you start to think “I could do this in my sleep,” you are asleep. You could be in for a rude awakening if someone decides to measure your communications effectiveness. Or even worse, you’ll slumber on while your audience takes their business elsewhere.

Next up: What The Three Little Pigs has to teach us about clean tech and green building. (Just kidding.)

Rise to the Challenge of Change

Published May 30th, 2008 in communications strategy | No Comments »

Young and rapidly growing organizations are exciting. The pace is fast, and everything—markets, the product or service, the organization itself—is in a constant state of flux. But that can make communicating tough: Messaging shifts. Executives can’t agree on a visual identity. The Web site gets put on the back burner. Materials seem outdated two weeks after they’re printed.

In situations like these, the key to reaching your strategic communications goals is staying on the offensive—when organizations operate in reactive mode, communications suffer. A few suggestions for sustaining effective communications through rapid change:

Get the basics in order. Make sure you have a strong foundation for communications: you have a clear picture of your position in the market, where you want to go, the people you need to reach to get there, and what they care about. Don’t spend money on new materials before you have that foundation. And don’t rush the building work: if you need a new brand identity but do a quick and dirty job just because you want your old logo off the Web site now, you’ll launch a cycle of costly and not-quite-on-target revisions.

Focus on loyalists. If you communicate with no one else, make sure you stay in touch with the people who are key to your success. And recognize that they may need more communication, not less, especially if you’re in a state of change. Communication with key audiences doesn’t have to be fancy (in some circumstances, it shouldn’t be), but it should answer questions that are likely to come up.

Keep it lean. Now is not the time to take on optional projects, do a big organization brochure, restructure the Web site, and so on. And don’t spend money on expensive materials if they’re going to change in short order. Instead, consider how you could simplify without losing credibility—create sales sheets as PDF files only, for instance, instead of investing in a fancy print packet.

Keep it simple. It’s always better to do a few things well than many things badly. And if you have to choose between top-notch content and slick design, choose content.

Build in flexibility. The ability to quickly accommodate internal changes and respond to shifts in the market without overhauling everything—especially important in new and fast- moving sectors such as clean tech—will help you stay current. Make sure your Web site is structured for easy revision and expansion, for example, and consider digital printing to make short runs affordable and preserve the option of revising frequently.

Control “freelancing.” In rapidly changing organizations, sales people and others often step up and create their own materials, thinking they are helping. They’re not—“freelance” communications confuse messaging at best, and cost you credibility at worst. If this happens, put a stop to it—and take the hint that people need communications support. First published November 2006 in Words That Work.

Next Entries »