Communication in the digital world requires new rules and a new mentality. This new world mentality is necessary to message effectively and drive results or actions for your business. Consider the following eight rules if you are a decision maker for your company’s digital messaging.
1. Always tell a story. Story is the sweet spot. It’s what resonates with people. You can share information with people, but stories make connections. Data doesn’t inspire people, but a story does. When you tell a story, you have to be authentic. Authenticity is about being real and telling the truth. It’s about being you and comfortable sharing that. To make a connection and truly inspire, you need to tell a good story.
2. Always be relevant. I want to receive messages when the content is relevant to me. If I am in the market for a computer, I want to receive information about computers. Once I have purchased, I don’t want to hear from you anymore. Make sure your messages are relevant to your audience.
3. Always ask permission. If you don’t get permission chances are you are sending out spam. If you have a digital database, make sure you have specifically asked each person in it for permission to send them messages. Sending a message to a database and expecting them to opt out if they don’t want the message is not getting permission - it is spamming. You need to make sure that anyone you send a message to electronically have given you or a third party permission to do so.
4. Tell the world - in all directions. A viral message - one that can be shared easily - is the best message. To be viral, what you send has to be worth sharing. If it is viral, you can reach people you otherwise wouldn’t reach. Remember the political piece “This Land” from a company called JibJab? It debuted in 2004 and featured a parody of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” where animations of John Kerry and George Bush sang the song. It has now been viewed by nearly 80 million people. And the distribution cost: zero. With the right content, the message gets shared in all directions.
5. Always make it simple. Communication must be simple and easy. The person who receives your message doesn’t want more work - they seek simplicity. Simplicity also includes speaking the same language. Be sure any content you send to people is easy to open and doesn’t make you download anything.
6. Give up control. Your potential customers will believe another customer over you any day. Don’t always think you have to control the message. Let the user or customer shape the message. That creates interaction. The future of sales and marketing will be allowing your brand (and its reputation) to be vulnerable. You don’t have to control everything, give up a little and you will find that it pays off.
7. Make it convenient. Action or the next step has got to be easy for the user. Have you ever been to a Web site where the only way to get in touch with the company was to call them? How inconvenient is that? You are online and ready to take action, but there is no convenient way to make contact, share or buy. You always have to make it convenient for the user. If you are using digital or electronic means to contact customers, let them respond or interact with you the same way. It only makes sense.
8. Create an audience. Communications in a digital world requires you to think “audience.” The people you communicate with are your audience. Always remember you have no right to bore your audience. If your companywere a sports team and you continually disappointed, soon your audience would disappear. The same thing applies to your communications. Make it two-way. One-way communications are boring. Make it two-way and you develop relationships. How strongly would you feel connected to a person or company that never asked for your opinion or let you talk? You wouldn’t feel connected at all. Let people connect with your company, it’s for the best. Armed with these eight rules, your company can create electronic communications that are effective and cause results. After all, that’s the point, right - results? Help create those results with your new world mentality approach to your communications.