Is it a Slogan or a Key Message?

In the continuing discussion of key messages in your business writing, here’s a quick example of how a slogan can reflect underlying key messages.

It can be a chicken-egg exercise deciding whether to start with a slogan or key messages. I usually find it easier to start with the latter and distill them into a slogan.

The difference between key messages and slogans confuses some people. If you need help, please contact me.

Key Messages that Resonate

Here’s an example of how two bankruptcy law practices’ key messages reflect different business models. Key messages will resonate with certain audiences and be dissonant with others. Use the messages that resonate with YOUR audiences and don’t muddy the waters trying to be all things to everyone.

Decide which audience you want for your business and craft key messages that resonate with them. In another post I’ll differentiate between slogans and key messages.

What is resonance?

To resonate means “to be understood or receive a sympathetic response.” Here’s a video demonstration of resonance using salt on a plate that’s wired to an amplifier. As the sound waves change, the grains arrange themselves into different patterns that resonate with the sound waves. The grains find the sound wave irresistible, which is what your key messages should be for clients and prospects.

What constitutes buying differs from company to company, but whether it means picking up the phone, hitting the “subscribe” button or authorizing a purchase order, you need to produce media with the key messages that resonate with your audience’s  ”buy now” instinct.

Examples of key messages

People always resonate with message they perceive to be in their best interests. This is why marketers use language that resonates with insecurities like fear, shame, and guilt or aspirations like fame, fortune and ease.

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Quick! What two key messages do people associate with your firm/business/practice? If you don’t know, let’s figure out what those messages should be and start publishing them.

Argh! Piracy in the Newsletter

Today I received a newsletter from a small human resources consulting company featuring an excellent article on disengaged workers. Too bad the newsletter sender didn’t make clear what the writer’s relationship to the firm is. The newsletter only included her name — not even a proper byline.

Problems with this approach

A consulting company exists to solve client problems  through its expertise and thought leadership. Newsletters should highlight both. This one did neither.

If the writer worked for the firm sending the newsletter it should have said so. If an employee of the firm wrote the article I might have been inclined to recommend her to the next person who complains about their workforce. That would have been a newsletter marketing success story.

After I went to the trouble of searching the sender’s website for the writer’s name and didn’t find it, I wondered if the sender simply lifted the article out of a professional publication — without attribution. That’s not only careless, but also possibly an infringement of copyright law. Piracy. This leads me to the conclusion that this company is unprofessional. Enough said.

The right approach

If you’re going to send a newsletter, you’ve got to write SOMETHING original, even if it’s just an introductory note explaining why the articles were chosen. This demonstrates your professionalism and avoids any question of copyright violation.

Nothing original to say?  Fine! Refer to an article written by an outsider in a way that highlights YOUR  expertise. In this case, the newsletter sender could have said something like “Clients with disengaged workers are usually making one of these common mistakes…”  or  ”We recently helped a transportation company avert a work stoppage by…”

Call to action

Close your newsletter with a distinct call to action. In this case, the company could have said, “Download this case study on how we helped a manufacturing firm improve absenteeism rates and productivity,” or “Join us for our quarterly roundtable discussion on getting more out of your existing workforce.” Heck, even something simple like this will do: “Call us if you see signs that your employees are disengaged…”

Your mom was right — sometimes it’s better to say nothing at all. If you can’t produce a newsletter that reflects well upon you, don’t produce a newsletter at all.

Pretty Jazzed About My New Moo Cards

My good friend Andy Ciordia is the closest thing I have to a coworker.  My clients think more highly of me when I bring him to a project — he’s a social media and design whiz and all-round nice guy.

Andy designed these two versions of a business card for me using tag clouds!  Ordered them from MOO and can’t wait to see them. The other side has my contact info (of course) and a mugshot. I went ahead and included my Twitter handle @TamelaRich while I was at it.

Tell me, are you using your Twitter handle on yours?

Anyone else noticing how few business cards you need these days compared to five years ago? And resumes? Heck, you wanna see mine, go to LinkedIn.

Collaging for Answers

Every business should periodically examine its market position. This summer I spent time with artist and consultant Catherine Anderson, who guided me through a process of collecting hundreds of images and snippets of text to make a series of collages about my life, work and clients. Toggling between collaging and the more traditional marketing exercises in Book Yourself Solid I clearly determined the kinds of people and projects that energize and satisfy me most.

This whole-brained process sharpened the focus of my business: I ghostwrite for financial professionals — advisors, accountants and attorneys — who are too busy with their own clients’ work to research the best communication channels and write their own newsletters, blogs, presentations, articles and books. They can’t trust their professional reputation to a rookie, which is why they work with me, a former financial services executive who writes like an English major. As a result of partnering with me, my clients solidify relationships, gain referrals, increase their self-confidence and have better scripting to use when talking about their work — in person, print and presentations.

If you need a sounding board as you sharpen your professional focus, give me a call.

Next Q: Online/Offline

I’m having a good time responding to questions from my 6/18/09 presentation to CPSE.  Thanks, ladies.

Q: With so much moving online, what do you bother to print?

If a tree falls and no one hears it...

A:  I’m not qualified to answer questions about e-commerce and web-based customer self-service.  I’ll answer this from the perspective of the solo-preneur who asked the question.

What goes online and in print varies from a person to person and must align with industry norms. For example, when I ran an environmental contracting business my market was general contractors with public-bid jobs.  Contractors are low-tech, and expect bids to be FAXED, not emailed.  Most of them have Yahoo or Hotmail accounts and a LIGHT web presence if any.  I could have senselessly spent a fortune on multimedia that would have been like the proverbial tree falling in the woods with no one to hear it. Instead, I hired a telemarketer who made personal contact with the estimators and then followed up with a customized packet that spoke to our expertise on the kinds of jobs the contractor bid.

On the other hand, when I ran a software and services consulting firm we had to demonstrate our tech chops — everything was online.

Answer these questions:

1. Where do the people you  most want for customers turn when they’re looking for your products and services? Referrals from people they know or from independent raters like Angie’s List?  Straight to the Google search page?
2. When you’re at a business mixer, how often do people ask you to send them a packet of information?
3. When you present your qualifications/proposal to a new prospect, what materials do they spend time REALLY looking at?  What do they repeatedly ask for that you don’t often bring?
4. Why do your competitors do what they do?  They may have best practices or they may be laggards, but it’s always prudent to check them out.
5. Do you represent a product or offer a service that requires buyers to hunker down and study to make a decision?  Offer that online for sure — also in print if you’ve got lots of money to spend.  When I meet a new client I find it helpful to simply sit with them at a computer screen and go through pages on my site and elsewhere.  This assures that they’ve seen my site and gives them a constant place to go if a printed piece goes astray.

Business cards & postcards

Business cards are, in my view, still a must. There’s an ongoing and lively discussion on whether you should include your social media “handles” on the card (for example, you can follow me on Twitter @TamelaRich).  I can see all points of view.

I also carry 4.25″  x  5.5″ double sided postcards that act as a mini home page.  Most people, when given the choice, will take a p-card instead of a b-card.  Given the nature of my work, that’s all the print collateral I need, b-cards and p-cards. Your mileage may vary.

How ’bout it, experts?  What else should entrepreneurs/small business owners consider?

Branding and Emotions

As reviewed online by Ivan Misner,”…when you know how to use design as a complete strategy, starting with the ideal

customer experience and then building an internal supply chain to deliver in a way that exceeds expectations, you’ll create products, services and experiences that truly matter to your customers’ lives–and your business will thrive.  However, the reality is that few companies know how to create great design, and even fewer know how to implement a design strategy that will secure enduring success.”

Prompts

• Help your clients explore how their product, service or brand forges an emotional connection with their customers.
• Give a case study of a client that executed a brand turnaround strategy with your help.
• Propose to cover topics from this book in your next client check-in.