» communications

Accountable communications

tashword — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 23:32:48 +0000

It simply means giving a message that is justified and that you are willing to stand by.

For many jaded consumers, the marketing message in many ads and business materials is not trusted because there have been too many hyped up, false promises in the past. And people understand that marketing companies use many techniques to support their message .

To make sure your message is seen as trustworthy and is accountable

avoid exaggerations (the occasional obvious one may work)
justify any claims
only give it in appropriate ways (i.e. don’t spam or annoy people)
check the details
use an appropriate look – colours, layouts, font sizes and so on all influence how your message is perceived. For example, the long letter with yellow highlights style of webpage doesn’t build trust in Australians as much as it appears to in the USA

What messages have you seen that didn’t come across as accountable or reliable?

Clear and repeated communications

tashword — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 01:01:44 +0000

Again, I am continuing on with a discussion of the Edelman Trust Barometer from February this year. (You can read the business trust and blog trust posts for background.)

Their media release states “Swift and accountable communications: Respondents said they need to hear information 3-5 times before they believe it. Companies should inform conversations among the new influencers on blogs, in forums, and bulletin boards. Australians under 34 are twice as likely to share both positive and negative information about a company online as their older counterparts – this trend will only grow. ”

The repetition of a clear message is important in getting people to trust you (your business) and accept that message. For example, any good presenter/teacher will summarise key points at the end of a topic as that helps others absorb that information.

When planning some marketing, remembering that people like to hear a message 3 – 5 times (and many have long said 7 times) before buying it means:

you may not get great results from your first attempt at marketing
consider how you can present your message in multiple ways rather than spending your budget on one ad
use images and layout to enhance your message – a stronger message may need less repetition than a hidden or weak message
every interaction you have with people in your demographic (and beyond) can reinforce or damage that message so make sure all ads, blogs, your website, your business card and so on are consistent, professional and appropriate for the purpose

Prompt communication is important in this information age – discussing an event well afterwards must be managed carefully so it doesn’t appear you are out of date. For instance, I could write that people affected by the February 7 bushfires are rebuilding and still need support all year but just writing ‘donate to the bushfires’ now looks very old.

Blogs, emails and social media are obviously key ways to making communications immediate and relevant – which is why I find it hard to believe they aren’t trusted forms of communication.

The value of clear communications!

tashword — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 23:36:30 +0000

I have recently being working through a training book (as a student, not a writer) and found various bits hard to understand. Luckily, I have a group of people around me who have been able to help interpret some of the questions – and I have interpreted other bits for them! I would hate to be struggling through it alone!

One question I thought I understood and prepared an answer for – it took me half an hour or so to get it finished and involved someone else getting some restricted information for me.

At the training course itself, my tutor read through my bookwork and pointed out that the question above was not correctly answered – it was asking for something else entirely. With that knowledge, I could just see what the question meant but it was a struggle! So I rewrote my answer – taking another two hours to do so.

A simpler example from the same training weekend was “Collect the names, titles and contact details for everyone in the training team.” I therefore wrote a list of names, titles and email addresses for the other members of my team on the course (we worked in teams throughout the course.) I then realised what they really wanted was a list of the names, titles and contact details for the trainers themselves – THE training team, rather than my training team!

Clearer questions would have saved me the stress of worrying I knew what to answer, the confusion of having no clue what to answer at times and the time of having to rewrite some answers. So a very concrete example of how useful clear communications are!

Clear Communications

tashword — Tue, 06 May 2008 00:45:44 +0000

Anybody reading my blog or newsletter knows that I am passionate about helping people write clearly for their business purposes. Which I assume is why the Business Mums Network has invited me to speak at their next morning tea workshop.

The details are as follows:

Confident Communications

Who are you talking to? The key to clear communications is keeping a focus on who you are communicating with.

This workshop will start by identifying the groups of people we may need to communicate with as a business and appreciate how each group is different and how information can be presented in different ways for best results with each group.

Monday, 26 May 2008 9:30 AM to 11:30 AM

Monash Incubator Centre, 5a Hartnett Close, Mulgrave

To register phone 03 9018 8947 or email events@businessmums.com

Click here to find out more.

Branding

tashword — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 04:41:30 +0000

Branding is a big subject, covering how you use your logo through to how you give a presentation. But did you know that the words you use in documents, on websites and in presentations also form part of your brand?

For instance, if your brand is to be young and funky, you don’t want webcopy that reads “In our experience, prospective partnerships are best developed through a commonality of interests…”

Some factors to consider to ensure your written communications enhance your brand are:

using language to suit the audience you want to attract
use Australian spelling and conventions if your brand is ‘Australian owned’
point of view – do you say ‘you’ or ‘clients’?
how do you write the business name? Can you abbreviate it under certain circumstances?
the tone – casual, formal, academic, legal
the focus – business people, families, students, employers, professionals, etc

This can all come into preparing a style guide, too.

From conference to blog!

tashword — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 04:18:26 +0000

Writing a blog seems like an obvious thing for a writer to do and it has been on my to do list for some time, but I never had the time to look into it.

Two weeks ago I went to the inaugral Business Mums Network Conference. It was a fantastic two days and I came out of it with a lot of ideas and plans for my business. Amongst other ideas, was a further incentive to get a blog started, so here it is!

What else did I get from the conference? Well, I am going to change the way my business works so I get more time for writing (which I love) and less time on background communications tasks for my corporate clients. It is important to spend time doing what we love and are good at, rather than filling our hours with ‘stuff’ that may be urgent and even important, but not fulfilling or the most important.

But for now, back to the writing!