Common sense dictates that we know how to interact with our clients, partners and staff. Without clear communication, any effort to complete a task is destined to fail. Never is that more important when you’re building a business, sharing your brand mission and messaging and reaching out to buyers.
While your visual image is important – mostly because people won’t even click your site if it looks like it was created in Microsoft Word by your nephew – there’s a critical nature to your messaging too. Both work in concert to deliver information to audiences. And it’s those audiences may very well be your customers.
Let’s list out three things you should remember when creating your messaging – regardless of the audience and vehicle.
1 – Know how your customers view your company and use that information to craft a clear mission and message. Marc Guberti hammers this point home in a nice blog post about clear vs. foggy messaging. So, talk to your customers and then refine your message.
2 – Step into your customers’ shoes. If you can empathize with the challenges your customers face, you will be able to fully understand what they need from you. If you can’t do that, you’re just one of about a million other companies that falls into the trap of only talking about themselves. If you were the story, and not the services you offer, then people would be lined up to interview you. Think like your audience and you’ll be able to communicate more clearly.
3 – Spend some money on message creation. Don’t leave it up to the sales staff or designers to come up with your tag lines, slogans or mission statement. Don’t have your admin write up your whitepapers or Web copy. One reality in life is you get what you pay for. If you pay a non-writer to write your materials, you’ll get sub-par communications vehicles. Either hire specialists for your team or go to skilled consultants to help you create, refine and clarify your communications. We are a society that uses written language to communicate. Until everyone is telepathic, hire a pro to help you.
Was I clear enough in my instructions? Communication is key to your success! Do these things and you’ll have more understanding from your audiences, a clearer image among prospects and customers, and more sales overall.