Top Five Communication Insights for 2008

There have been many "Top 10" lists proclaiming that they know best ways to for corporations to communicate with their target markets, but very few focus how to communicate. To help solve this problem, I have pulled a little content from each list compiling my own "Top Five Communication Trends of 2008" list. Instead of listing the most popular or innovative ways to communicate with your employees, this list focuses on helping companies understand the different mediums of communication and how to utilize them effectively.

The first four trends on this list are from HumaNext's "Top Ten Communication Trends for 2008." Some great insights from this list include:

1.) "Social Media and 2.)Web 2.00: The revolution is here. The emerging technologies of web.2 are causing a transformation in the communication profession. These technologies include the use of Blogs to communicate with employees and customers; the use of platforms like social networks and wiki to achieve sharing and collaboration, and other new tools and technologies like podcasts, video-casts, and others. But beyond the technology, Social Media demands a basic shift in the way communicators see their role and approach their stake holders."


3.) "Electronic Publications: Communicators are increasingly looking at electronic publishing to supplement or replace their print publications. Because of its significant advantages in the areas of speed and cost of delivery, electronic newsletters are used more often to communicate with customers and employees."


4.) "Content is King & Conversation is Queen: With all the changes in technologies, content remains the primary focus of communicators, and it's their main tool for informing and influencing audiences. If content is king, then conversation is queen. The organization as a conversation is an emerging area of interest to many communication executives and training professionals alike."

5.) Blogging: Blogs land at number five on my Top Communication Insights for 2008 list for many different reasons, but corporations must understand corporate blog basics before the dive in to this new world of communication, or risk failure. In May of 2008, interactive Consultant Jennifer Slegg outlined why corporate blogging is so important to a company's marketing strategy. Here are a few juicy tidbits.

"It is becoming more and more important for corporations - as well as businesses of all sizes - to have a blog in today’s world where so many people own computers. But if your business has put off starting a blog for far too long, here is why you should really be blogging, and how it can be advantageous to your overall business marketing strategy.

Human face
You don’t really want people to think of your company as “big box” or “typical corporate America”. And blogging can actually put a human face to your company, since the company now has a voice it can relate to when it reads your blog. When you consider how much money companies put into creating a human face for their business, doing it with a company blog is a relatively inexpensive way to humanize your corporation.

Controlling the message
Public Relations tends to want to run far, far away from blogs. But now, more are embracing blogs as a way to control the company’s message and how they release it. You can now have a fireside chat with your company’s CEO in the format of a blog interview, where responses can be monitored. If there is a scandal or other negative publicity surrounding your company, you already have a platform ready to release information that doesn’t involve sending press releases to the media or subjecting your CEO or other employees to a press conference.

Excitement and anticipation
Companies can easily use a blog to give hints and tidbits about new product releases or services well before the actual launch so you can get people excited about what you are going to announce before you did it. Since press releases are rarely sent to announce something your company hasn’t done yet, a blog is an easy way to get the word out and build anticipation."

As companies venture out into the ever growing "new" world of Social Media, and communications, they must understand that they have only two choices: (1) adopt and grow, or (2) ignore the new wave of communication mediums and get swept away with the tide. For more information on the topics listed in this blog, check out previous posts, and our other blogs at Internet Marketing Voodoo.

A Little "Welcome" Goes A Long Way

A ‘Welcome’ email is a prime marketing opportunity many are missing. Your audience found you and is interested in hearing from you. The small effort of sending an appropriate welcome email can have a huge impact.

Jordan Ayan of MediaPost recently wrote an article detailing the results of two studies which showed that few companies take advantage of the welcome message opportunity. The article, “Missing The Chance To Say ‘You’re Welcome’”, stated that a ReturnPath study found that 60% of brands surveyed failed to send welcome messages. A MediaPost study surveyed email marketers, “40% of whom readily admitted to not sending a welcome message when a new subscriber signed up for their email program.” These are astonishing numbers considering the simplicity of the act.

“Missing The Chance” goes on to say that of those who do send welcome messages, many are not well written and are often too brief. Some aspects that make for a good welcome message, according to the article, include:

• It should thank the recipient for providing the required information. It should also reinforce the value of your emails, reminding them what to expect in terms of frequency and any other information that reinforces relevancy to the recipient.

• It should include the information recipients need to add you to their white or "favorites" list, including the "from" address for your message.

• It should reinforce the value you place on the relationship and reinforce your privacy commitment, including a link to your privacy statement. If you don't plan to share their email address - restate that fact clearly.

• A little something special. The subscriber has expressed a high-level of interest, so this is the time to offer something extra as a thank-you: a coupon, a percentage off, free shipping, a bonus download of a white paper or a free webinar. Just let subscribers know that you appreciate the fact that they supplied their email address, and the trust they are placing in you by signing up for your message. You can test offers to see which ones are most effective.

• If you use a double opt-in process, you have an opportunity to double-dip. The initial confirmation message can include a promotional message. This should be muted from whatever you would send in your welcome message once they confirm.

• The issue of timeliness: A welcome message should appear in the subscriber's inbox within minutes of when they sign up. Wait too long, and recipients may forget who you are or why they subscribed.

A separate, independent study done by Linda Bustos evaluated the welcome emails she received after signing up for a number of various accounts. Of 89 accounts registered, she received 33 welcome emails within 24 hours. Listed below are some of the recurring aspects of these emails.

• 88% used branding in the headline
• 66% used the words “Thank You” in the headline or body
• 61% used the word “Welcome” in the headline or body
• 52% included multiple links back to the site
• 52% included login details
• 42% used HTML layout
• 33% provided link to privacy statement
• 9% provided unsubscribe options

These guidelines and statistics are the tip of the iceberg, but the major point is that a simple welcome message can go a long way and is a crucial opportunity to reach out to your audience.

The Importance of C-Level Feedback

I was reading up on corporate surveying last week, when I found this article by Karen Gedney, of The ClickZ Network, titled "Executive Survey Invitations: How to Get C-Levels to respond." I though this was a great topic because there is an abundance of information on the web on how to create the "perfect" survey, but what good is the "perfect" survey, if no one takes the time to respond to it? In today's day and age, executive feedback is extremely hard to get, no matter the medium used to gather it, but Karen has some great ideas that will get the ball rolling.

In her article on Clickz she writes...

"All day long, C-level executives make high-level decisions that can have a bottom-line impact of anywhere from a few hundred thousand dollars to millions of dollars. So how can you ask a busy company leader to set aside 15 extremely valuable minutes of their business day to complete your e-survey -- especially during these tumultuous economic times?

To get the scoop on best practices for conducting executive-level online surveys, I checked in with Ellen Sills-Levy and Claire Tinker at ESL Insights, a marketing intelligence firm.

While ESL often recommends that clients conduct in-depth telephone interviews and mail surveys to reach elusive C-suite executives, Tinker outlines their best practices for conducting online surveys.

Your C-Level Survey Invitation

Tinker advises sending out an original e-survey request, followed by a reminder two to five days later, unless field time is an issue.

Subject lines should be very general so that respondents who agree to participate aren't biased. For business studies, simple is usually better. For example, "You are invited to participate in a business study."

The most important point to stress in the survey invitation is the participation ROI (define), what executives will get in return for their investment.

Common techniques are:

A choice of incentives. Try either a personal incentive appropriate for C-level executives or a donation to a charitable organization.

An executive summary of the research findings. This is a popular approach because you're giving C-levels access to valuable intellectual property and industry intelligence, especially since it's gleaned from their C-suite peers.

Other copy points:
- Assure them the information will be kept confidential.
- Highlight the survey deadline.
- Include the survey's length to manage time expectations, but don't spotlighted it since that may prevent busy executives from undertaking the survey.
- Include a sentence that the entire survey must be completed to receive the incentive (to prevent survey abandonment).

The e-mail messages should be short and to the point and should conclude with a note on how important the C-level executive's participation is to the success of the survey and the benefit of the results gleaned.

When the survey findings are complete, send a PDF of the executive summary to all respondents via e-mail with a thank-you note. If it's important that respondents read the executive summary, call out a few interesting insights from the content. You may also want to use the e-mail to invite respondents to a Webinar discussing the findings. This is a good way to keep executives engaged and interested -- and open to future survey requests!"

Hopefully these tips will help the next time you need to obtain executive feedback!

Top 10 Communication Trends for 2008

In today's corporate space there are many different methods being used to reach out to employees. More and more companies are turning to innovative new ideas to increase corporate engagement and loyalty, but with all of the options out there (email, newsletters, direct mail, podcasts, social networks, etc) how does one know which route they should take?

In an online article title "The Top 10 2008 Communication Trends," on HumaNext, a corporate communications website, several new fun and engaging ideas are listed, but Social Media and Web 2.0 is at the top of the list.

The article explains, "The emerging technologies of Web.20 are causing a transformation in the communication profession. These technologies include the use of Blogs to communicate with employees and customers; the use of platforms like social networks and wiki to achieve sharing and collaboration, and other new tools and technologies like podcasts, video-casts, and others. But beyond the technology, Social Media demands a basic shift in the way communicators see their role and approach their stake holders."

As an increasing number of organizations are incorporating Social Media into their internal communities with the hopes of increasing employee engagement, loyalty and morale, Web 2.0 seems to be developing into a successful communications method.

Cultural Cues to Effective E-mail Marketing

How does culture play a role in Internet Marketing? Since the Internet has a global scope and people from any country can access immeasurable amounts of information from other countries, does culturally formatted marketing apply online?

Six International E-Mail Marketing Challenges, an article by Derek Harding on Clickz.com says you can bet your money on it! In fact, when it comes to email marketing, marketers must have an elevated awareness of cultural factors in order to truly target the user that goes way beyond language translation.

According to the article, here are key points to keep in mind when engaging in effective international email marketing:

Message form. The amount of content that works well in messages varies from country to country. In the United States, when we send newsletters, it's common to only include article overviews with links to the full articles online. However, in some countries the expectation is the full content will appear in the message.

Personalization and salutations. In some countries, use of personalization and salutations (e.g., Dear Derek) can improve results. In others, it's seen as hackneyed or even a privacy invasion.

Send time. When to send is also a regional and cultural question. Clearly, the local time zone must be taken into account. So should variations in when people work. Which days constitute the weekend vary across the globe. Holidays vary from country to country, as does when people commonly take vacations.

Local norms. There are many local norms that can be entirely unexpected if you don't have local knowledge. For example, in the U.S. it's quite common to post prices exclusive of tax. In some other countries, this is simply not done and may even be disallowed by local law. In France, it's common to ask recipients to print out a form and fax it back, whereas in many other countries this would be considered absurd.

Local laws. While anti-spam requirements are the most obvious laws that apply to international e-mail, some countries may have additional laws and requirements for doing business electronically, especially related to privacy and use of personal information.

Language. The language selected does matter for international communications. However, the choice of language isn't necessarily clear-cut. Many countries use more than one language, and which languages you support can be very important. For some cultural groups, using their language may be essential; for others, it may have little effect. Some audiences may even prefer to receive communications in English rather than their native tongue. This is often the case for more technical audiences.

In today’s globalized business world, it is so important to truly have a keen awareness of our audiences when it comes to online marketing. With such diversity, standardized marketing may not always make the cut. These tactics can reduce costs, improve consistency; and since it’s easier to target online than any other form of media, the matter of true importance is to remember that people are looking for relevancy.

Three Secrets for Executive E-Newsletter Engagement

Corporate E-Newsletters are becoming an increasingly popular method to reach out to corporate employees and keep them up-to-date and engaged in company updates, events and business decisions. Karen Gedney recently published the article, Three Secrets for Executive E-Newsletter Engagement on Clickz.com, and it focuses on author Michael J. Katz’s three simple secrets to effective e-newsletter communication. The link to the article can be found below for additional information.

Secret 1: Focus on the Content
In an e-mail-fatigued world in which business people scan their in-boxes, ready to press the "delete" key, your e-newsletter must be engaging, relevant, and a must-read.
One of the best ways to accomplish this is to write about the questions your customers and prospects ask you about most. Keep a notepad by your phone and when people call you, jot down a list of their most common inquiries. Your answers are your e-newsletter content.
These frequently asked questions should be answered in the same friendly, practical manner you would use over the phone. While we all want to be considered thought leaders, that doesn't mean articles have to be lengthy, academic treatises. If you talk from your own experience about what works in your business, people will immediately get that you're an expert. Once your expertise is established, you're on your way to forging a productive, professional relationship.

That leads us to the second secret...

Secret 2: Focus on the Relationships
As Katz says, "The primary reason that e-newsletters are so powerful is because they provide a systematic means for growing and maintaining relationships. It's not because they're cheap or trackable or clickable or forwardable, although they certainly are all those things."

Your e-newsletter gives you a vehicle for connecting with your customers or potential customers month after month.

He goes on to say, "If you write your company newsletter with a focus on enhancing the relationship between you and your readers, you will stand head and shoulders over your competition, most of whom are missing this point entirely and who (whether they say it out loud or not) view their e-newsletter as an inexpensive way to send direct mail to their house list."

Secret 3: Be Genuine
Your e-newsletter should sound like it's written by you.

If you are a Fortune 500, your e-newsletter should either sound like it's written by your CEO or reflect your corporate culture and brand. It should speak to your customers and prospects just as if you were sitting across from them at a conference room table or, better yet, a restaurant table.

Katz says, "Your newsletter should give potential customers a sense of what you're like, who you are, what you believe in, what you know about your industry, and what doing business with you is all about. For existing customers, it's an ongoing reminder of all things."

From my own experience publishing an e-newsletter and writing this column for ClickZ, I see the principle of "like attracts like" works in e-newsletter writing.

People who like what I say tend to contact me after each column is published. When we get on the phone or chat by e-mail, it's like we're old friends -- and, of course, many of these warm, collegial contacts quickly turn into enduring client relationships.

What's beautiful about this approach is that it also weeds out the clients who would have been a bad fit. I guess they read the e-newsletters that coincide more with their own point of view!
Katz reminds us, "Relationships happen between people (not between organizations) and the more you can write in a genuine, spoken manner, the more it will feel to readers like somebody (i.e., you) is really on the other end. Turn out something that breaks down walls between your company and your customers, and you will be just fine.""

The article concludes with three key questions that you should ask yourself to see if your newsletter is ready to be made over.

"1.) Am I answering the questions my clients and prospects typically ask?

2.) Am I building relationships between me and the people I want to do business with (rather than pushing out information to their organizations)?

3.) Am I writing the way I talk so people can get a sense of what it will be like to actually work with me?

If you answer "no" to any of these questions, perhaps it's time for a spring e-newsletter makeover."

If you continue to be interested in optimizing your newsletter capabilities, keep checking back for the latest information.


http://www.clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3628971

When Crisis Looms, Make a Video!

In recent years, companies worldwide have implemented many branding techniques and strategies to create awareness and gain recognition. From television advertisements to newspaper ads and free samples, companies have continuously tried to communicate their superiority over other brands to consumers.

But what happens when a branding strategy goes wrong? Past mishaps in branding have led to information leaks and plummeting stocks. If a branding strategy goes from a process to a fiasco, what is a good way for companies to redeem the message they’re communicating to consumers?

Video Marketing and Brand Management Online, by Andreas Roell of Clickz.com, the largest resource of interactive marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion, research, and reference, shares an idea that will help spread the message to the masses—online video. According to the article, online videos are the best way for marketers to reach consumers, especially when word needs to be spread quickly!

According to the article, these are the top reasons why online videos can ease branding mishaps:

Video content drives news. Journalists and news outlets continue to cover and incorporate popular viral videos into their broadcasts. If marketers post a video in response to a crisis or release a brand-flattering video, they can potentially generate news online that could translate into primetime broadcast coverage.

Search engines can pick up the video. If there's video content posted on the aggregators about your brand, it will be included in search results. Marketers have a better chance of reaching target audiences if they can get their video messages included in search results as it will be evermore important for advertisers to diversify their marketing efforts to attract user's attentions.

It's what people are watching. When it comes down to it, people watch videos online. A December 2007 study by Burst Media found that 76 percent of men and 67 percent of women watch online videos. By spreading pertinent brand messages through online video, marketers have a chance of benefiting from the content being syndicated on other formats. If a marketer can get a message out through video, there's potential it will be distributed on iPods, homepages, mobile devices, and social networking sites. That's good coverage. Video posted on a brand's Web sites will arguably garner more attention than text.

Video goes viral. Every marketer wants their message to be what people are talking about, and utilizing video is a great way to reach this goal. Video is easily dispersed amongst peers and can be accessed and posted on a plethora of platforms. Online video also makes a nice side dish to any news story or blog posting. So if someone is commenting on your event (good or bad), it's easy to include your video along with that commentary. The idea here is to make it easy for others to get pass along your message for you.

After reading the advice from the article above, it is clear to see why companies should utilize this marketing avenue even if there isn’t a branding crisis looming overhead. The old adage “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” has lost it’s luster in today’s business world. Consumers now have higher expectations than ever before, and with so much competition most companies don’t have the luxury of not paying attention to social trends such as viral marketing. Out with the old and in with the new—fix it before it’s broken!

Going Green in the Corporate World

Since environmental issues and awareness started leaping to the forefront in recent news, many companies have felt the social pressure to “go green” in some way, shape or form, or at least speak up and do their part by communicating a pro-green attitude to their customers. Joel Makower, in his article, Green Corporate Communications: The Unstoppable Urge to Talk the Talk, asks this, “In a world gone green, how does a company make itself heard, credibly and authentically?”

Good question. I started thinking about the different ways that companies can “go green” without seeming that they were simply pressured into the trend of changing their logo colors to green and yellow, or giving money to an environmental group somewhere; and how can companies do their share in truly advocating an environmentally friendly message to their consumers? The article outlined this dilemma as one that is not easily resolvable. If the public is eager to look up to someone, then who will be the leader in truly, authentically, transparently going green without getting completely lost in “self-congratulatory backslapping”?

A report titled, Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Communications had some suggestions:

1. Corporate Responsibility (CR) must be a priority emanating from the top.
If the CEO and top management take active interest in CR, provide resources and insist on accountability, a company’s CR efforts and communications will be significantly more effective and credible. For a company’s CR mandate to have teeth and be integrated with company values, senior management must demonstrably support and encourage CR efforts. Only then does social and environmental accountability become internalized to the point where CR communications and reporting is taken seriously as an essential component of the company’s benchmarking and goal-setting—and not viewed as an empty communications exercise.

2 . Stakeholders often find communicating with companies to be difficult
Companies now grasp the business case for effective stakeholder engagement and are working hard to improve communication lines—whether it’s through direct stakeholder contact, new web-based CR reporting, or other channels that allow for greater responsiveness to stakeholder issues and recommendations. Yet stakeholders
of every stripe—NGOs, SRI fund managers, journalists, internal audiences—have criticized CR communications and engagement.

3 . Stakeholders expect companies to lead—not just manage risk—on key issues
Society’s lack of confidence in governments and public institutions to adequately address key global issues such as climate change, human rights, and poverty alleviation has resulted in increased expectations for the business sector to take the initiative. No longer are stakeholders content with reactive corporate responses to the world’s problems. Rather, they view corporate actions such as offsetting CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions or providing access to medicine in the developing world as litmus tests for trust in the private sector. With considerable media coverage of environmental and social issues, companies have an opportunity to align their brands with positive values and earn credit for their improved records.

4 . Employees and socially responsible investors have emerged as key CR
communications audiences
Business leaders are recognizing the valuable relationship between employees and CR performance. With that in mind, leading companies are increasingly engaging in dialogue with their employees and subsequently making positive changes on issues like diversity, labor relations, and human rights. This surge of discourse with employees is matched by a similarly vigorous courting of SRIs. The corporate world has woken up to the growing
ability of socially responsible initiatives to mitigate risk and create new opportunities—which directly affect their stock prices. SRI ratings matter to the extent that they influence the big institutional shareholders as well as potential business partners.

5 . Companies often neglect an important CR communications audience: prospective employees
While corporations are actively and successfully engaging employees on CR issues, they are not adequately courting prospective employees to the same degree. Companies do not consistently integrate CR messaging in their recruiting because they underestimate the importance a prospective employee places on a company’s CR programs. Prospective employees seek to make informed career choices and having access to a potential
employer’s CR performance data is essential to the decision-making process.

6 . Transparency is a key indicator of a socially responsible company
Although philanthropy spawned many CR programs, today philanthropic activities and donations are the baseline that stakeholders expect all companies to meet. What stakeholders care most about is how honest and open are companies being and how are they treating their employees.

In conclusion, it is important to remember that even though consumers eagerly look for thought and social leadership from companies, they demand authenticity. These suggestions are great to draw upon as guidelines to reaching out to consumers in an honest, trustworthy way, while still communicating corporate responsibilities.