Communicate!

Helping you win loyal friends through your communications

How to Deliver the Sun

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Sun cookie

Your writing can deliver the sun!

All right, I’m taking a poll here.  You receive a newsletter in the mail from someone with whom you do business.  Which of these opening paragraphs makes you want to read the rest of the newsletter?

Choice #1:

We are constantly striving to improve our service to our customers and our referral partners. This is a tough industry and it is hard to define good customer service when providing an extremely regulated, highly technical and complicated service.

Choice #2:

Recently, some of us were lucky enough to be sent on an award trip to the Four Seasons in Palm Beach by our parent company.  One of my coworkers was teasing one of the pool folks that it was their job to deliver the sun–moments before a sudden shower drove her back to her room. Fifteen minutes later there was a knock at her door and she was presented with oranges sliced into sun shapes and lemon cookies with a note that said, “I told you, you could count on me to deliver the sun” signed, Chris, assistant pool and beach manager.

I’ll bet I know which one you chose.

Choice #2 wins hands down, right?  But why?

  • It grabs your attention.  “Palm Beach! Why doesn’t my company send me on trips like that?”
  • It tells a story.  There’s a calm starting situation, a challenge (“deliver the sun”), a setback (the rain shower), and a triumph.
  • It takes the point about good customer service that Choice #1 buries in bureaucratic prose and brings it front and center.

So why do so many of us go with Choice #1?  Look at your own newsletter, or appeal letter, or even the last email you wrote.  Be honest.  Are you bringing them oranges and lemon cookies sliced into sun shapes, or are you making them trudge through a long stretch of shifting sand before getting to the point?

Someone once said that the key to writing a good book is to write what comes to mind and then throw away the first two pages.  When you are writing for your organization,  consider throwing away the first two paragraphs.

Do whatever it takes to bring them the sun.

Should You Write Like You Speak?

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Writers often hear the advice, “Write like you speak.”  But is that good advice for bloggers?

YES: if it means you avoid jargon, write with your audience in mind, and reveal a bit of personality in your writing.

NO: if it means you blog without thought or effort.

If you’ve just flipped the lid on the top of your head and poured out whatever was top of mind at the moment, don’t expect me to read it.  If you haven’t worked at finding matter that will interest me and a way of expressing it that will draw me in, don’t waste my time…or yours.

Write (and revise, and write again) so that what you finally publish sounds like you’re speaking to me, directly, and telling me what I most need to hear.

6 Players You Should Have on Your Communications Team

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Volunteers for the teamNo matter how good you are, you cannot do it alone.

Nowhere in life is this more true than in communications.

It used to be that if you could put a sentence together, you could do a good job marketing your cause or your company. In the age of the internet and the mobile phone, you need more skills than any one person is likely to have.

Who are the players on a strong communications team?

  1. People with stories. They could be your direct service staff or volunteers, your Board members, your customers or clients. Develop them as sources, so they look out for stories you can tell.
  2. Writers. Someone who can take other people’s words and make them sing in print is essential to your team.
  3. Photographers. A picture may not be worth a thousand words. It may, however, make all the words you write more meaningful and memorable.
  4. Artists. Sometimes a good graphic is more powerful than a photo (and often, easier to produce when you need it).
  5. Tech people. Because your newsletter, blog, email, Facebook post, or video is no good if nobody sees it! Someone has to keep the system up and running and figure out the glitches as they occur.
  6. Editor. You need a consistent tone to your communications, and they must appear regularly so your audience expects them. Put one person in charge.

Notice that I said “players,” not “people.” In a small organization, one person may write, edit, and solicit stories and photos. Another may take photos, lay out the final draft, and keep your email from being marked as spam.

Are you still trying to do it all alone, or have you recruited strong players for your team?

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